The main goal of any sports team is to win the ultimate prize in there league. Whether it be the Stanley cup in hockey, the world series in baseball, or the Superbowl in football. Sports teams are built to win. But does having the best team year in and year out affect the sales of tickets negatively?
One team we can look at are the Detroit Red Wings of the national hockey league. The Red Wings are arguably the best hockey team in the N.H.L. They have made the playoffs every year since the year 2000 and have won the Stanley cup twice in that time. With so much success you would think that the Red Wings would sellout with every home game, but that is not the case. In fact, the Red Wings have had many troubles over the past years selling there tickets. Last season the Red Wings sold on average 14000 tickets a game, which still left about 6000 empty seats at every home game. Many economist have blamed the sagging economy and with the slow sales, stating that families cannot afford to spend there extra income on sports in Detroit. This is however not the case with the Detroit Pistons of the N.B.A, who with a mediocre record compared to the Red Wings, manage to sell out there arena which has approximately 2000 more seats than the Red Wings arena. The Red Wings organization has began to offer some incentive for people to come to games like having a lay-away plan for there season ticket holders.They have also started offering cheap $9.00 tickets to bring more incentive to attend a Red Wings game, yet they still have trouble filling the seats in Joe Louis arena.
So have the fans of Detroit stopped coming to games because they know how there team will preform. Maybe the best business plan for the Red Wings is to not win for a couple years, let the team be unpredictable, and maybe you will draw fans back to the arena to watch the best team in the N.H.L play like they know how, or like they don't.
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