Why Are VGK Ticket Prices So Costly? It’s What The Market Will Pay; Knights’ Video Heralds Single Game Ticket Sales
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
It’s supply-and-demand capitalism in its purest form — yes, Vegas Golden Knights tickets are costly but the market is paying for them.
The average cost of a VGK ticket is a blade-width over $100, and the least expensive ticket on the Knights’ own in-house secondary ticket re-seller site for the Oct. 2 home-opener against rival San Jose Sharks is $215 for upper end and upper corner seats.
LVSportsBiz.com asked fans to weigh in on the Golden Knights ticket costs and here’s the array of responses on the LVSB Facebook page Monday afternoon:
Here’s Justin Gannon’s tweet that got right to his point:
Many fans said that it’s more affordable to attend VGK games in California and Arizona than to go to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Some other Twitter comments:
VGK super fan Christopher “Warmies Guy” Green offered his take: “It’s not an issue for me right now. I’m sorry the prices are more than what most people expect. I think in a roundabout way this will stimulate innovation in our community more so than ever before by encouraging informal get-togethers, watch parties organized by a variety of different sources, and people growing together where they did not before. Net positive for everyone. I’m sorry not everyone can tolerate the prices. Not everyone can fly another airline that isn’t low-cost, no-frills like Southwest or Spirit or whatever let alone fly first class on a major premium carrier. Not everyone can afford to stay at nice hotels or live in gated communities with pools and high taxes. I’m sorry things aren’t better for everyone. In a perfect world we could all do with a lot less cost and a lot more income. Let’s all find a way to make it work better for everyone of us and come together as a community regardless of your means and regardless of your restrictions. This is very do-able. I’m sure I’m going to get hate from people for my comments and I’m not concerned.”
The Golden Knights rolled out a video to sound the call for the start of single game ticket sales Monday, enlisting a variety of their in-house characters like Lee Orchard who plays the team knight and local celebrity fans such as Carrot Top. It’s an amusing video with a theme based on the former TV show The Office that might take the sting out of the high ticket prices.
ARVE Error: Invalid URLhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLA0hLctw-4 in urlLVSportsBiz.com reached out to VGK Chief Marketing Officer Brian Killingsworth for an inside analysis of how this particular Knights video was conceived:
“The Office spoof was the brainchild of our VP of Content and Communication, Eric Tosi and our VP of Events and Entertainment. They have developed incredible relationships with local celebrities that are huge Golden Knights fans like Jon Taffer, and Carrot Top. The “Ticket Guy” is an actual Account Executive and real ticket guy for the Golden Knights. He has been an ongoing character like VGK Phil in many of our videos.
“The prep work was a collaborative effort over a couple weeks and the whole shoot was done over a few hours Friday the 9th. We always strive to be as innovative as possible and to do things different and releasing this video on the heels of our single game ticket onsale was a way to help promote the actual ticket onsale in a fun and creative way. We are a content centered creative group and really strive to produce compelling and engaging content across all our platforms.”
Killingsworth added, “As an aside, I think the ‘Dundee’ award should go to the cameo by Gordon Weigers, Coordinator of Digital Content, who is shown sobbing on the phone under his desk at the 1:46 mark.
The Golden Knights’ ticket is hot. In Year 2 in 2018-19, the Golden Knights drew more than 750,000 fans for its 41 home game, averaging 18,319 fans a game at T-Mobile Arena. The VGK say capacity is 17,367, so the Knights were filling the Big Ice House on the Strip to 105.5 percent of capacity, second highest in the NHL behind Chicago and its 107.1 percent of capacity.
LVSportsBiz.com emailed VGK President Kerry Bubolz and communications head Tosi to see if the Knights had a comment about ticket prices Monday, but didn’t hear back.
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