By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
A hockey season for the ages brings business leverage.
Vegas Golden Knights fans on a season ticket wait list will be charged $100 a year in the form of a membership fee as they wait their chance to buy season tickets to see the 2018 Stanley Cup runner-ups.
The Golden Knights have a name for this list — “The Can’t Wait List” — and fans on that list will be charged the $100 membership fee starting July 1.
The most successful first-year sports team in history is sold out in full-year season ticket deals, which is why the Golden Knights have the Can’t Wait List for fans who want to buy season ticket packages.
Fans who placed Can’t Wait deposits can request a refund of their seat deposits by no later than June 29 at 1 p.m. by calling the VGK Ticketing & Suites Team at 702-645-4259. After this deadline, all Can’t Wait List accounts will be charged the annual $100 membership fee.
Technically, the fee is a membership charge and there are some exclusive perks for the membership: Access to purchase ticket packages (subject to availability) not available to non-members; merchandise discounts at the team store at City National Arena, the team’s training center in Summerlin; discount opportunities and membership options with the Foley Food & Wine Society; and priority access to special member-only events including an invitation to a team road trip (date to be determined) at an additional cost.
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Keep in mind that if you want to be on the Can’t Wait List, you also have to pay deposits based on where you want to sit.
Deposits are $100/seat for upper level, $250/seat for lower level and $500/seat for Premium Seating.
Deposits are generally refundable, but become non-refundable if a Can’t Wait List member elects not to purchase tickets when they become available. Seat deposits will be applied towards a full season ticket deal if the fan has the opportunity to select season seats.
The Golden Knights averaged 18,042 fans per game during their inaugural season, filling T-Mobile Arena to 103.9 percent of capacity. The team finished in the NHL’s top five in gate revenues even though the average attendance was in the middle of the league. That’s because the Golden Knights’ average ticket was higher than the league average.
Many fans also bought season tickets as investments and sell the tickets to a secondary market broker like StubHub, which is why so many regular-season games had many hockey fans rooting for the visiting teams.
In an interview with LVSportsBiz.com this month, owner Bill Foley said he would like to have less opposing team fans in the arena for season two so it will be interesting to see what the Knights executives do in that regard for 2018-19.
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