Some (Not All) Golden Knights Season Ticket Holders Face Ticket Price Increases
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
The average Vegas Golden Knights season ticket cost for a game is going up from $88 to $100.12 (13.6 percent), but season ticket holders who committed to five-year and 10-year deals will enjoy frozen ticket prices for season three in 2019-20.
Season ticket holders who bought three-year deals, who did not face game price increases this 2018-19 season, will see an increase of about $20 per game in the T-Mobile Arena lower bowl and $10 per game in the upper bowl in 2019-20.
In total, there are more than 14,000 VGK full season ticket holders and another 6,000 on a waiting list to buy season deals. Several hundred partial-season (11-game) ticket holders have also upgraded to full-season deals.
Team president Kerry Bubolz and Todd Pollock, VP for ticketing and suites (and the Knights’ first-ever employee), met reporters Tuesday morning to explain the season ticket price increases before a VGK practice at City National Arena, the VGK training center and headquarters in Summerlin.
The two team executives showed season ticket prices of unnamed NHL teams on a chart to make their case that the Golden Knights’ season ticket increases and the game prices under the season ticket deals are what they termed, “middle of the pack.”
There are four commitment length deals for fans, who can pay for agreements of one, three, five and 10 years.
Bubolz said three factors guided the VGK on determining the season ticket costs — other NHL teams’ ticket prices, the price of VGK tickets on the secondary market; and feedback from Golden Knights fans and season ticket holders. The Knights say season ticket holder game prices are about 30-100 percent under the average costs of tickets on the secondary market.
But one VGK season ticket holder was unhappy with the price increase for three-year deal holders.
The Golden Knights have about 1,000-1,500 single-game tickets on sale because of the strong season ticket holder sales and group sales.
The Golden Knights waiting list for season tickets called, “Can’t Wait,” is so long at 6,000 people that the team doesn’t even give fans on the waiting list a date when they can expect to buy season ticket deals.
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Other talking points are:
^ season ticket holders for one and three years have a six-month interest-free payment schedule, while season ticket holders with five-year and 10-year deals have seven-month interest free plans.
^ under the team’s resale VGK Ticket Exchange program, season ticket holders can sell game tickets that they can’t attend with no seller fees.
^ One-year season ticket holders can extend their membership four years through 2022-23, while inaugural three-year season ticket holders can extend now for four years from 2020-21 to 2023-24. These ticket deal extensions offer price protection in the form of set price escalators on an annual basis.
The Golden Knights play the Nashville Predators Wednesday at 7 p.m. and LVSportsBiz will be at the “Top of the Escalator” before the game to chat with fans.
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