By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights might be slumping on the ice, but they’re still generating impressive revenues based on the cost of a family of four to attend a VGK game at T-Mobile Arena.
It costs nearly $650 for a family of four to go to a Golden Knights home game — third highest in the National Hockey League, trailing only the Toronto Maple Leafs ($697.75) and the Seattle Kraken ($672.89), according to Team Marketing Report, the Chicago-based sports-marketing research organization that tracks the costs of attending major league sports games. Team Marketing Report released the NHL family-of-four data for the 2021-22 season Wednesday.
Team Marketing Report crunches the numbers for the family-of-four costs by studying the price of an average ticket, beer, soda, hot dogs, cap and parking in the report called the “Fan Cost Index.”
The Golden Knights’ average ticket costs are also among the highest in the league, coming in at $124.09 per ticket. That’s the fourth highest average ticket in the NHL, trailing only the Maple Leafs at $145.60, the Kraken at $130.85 and the New York Rangers at $124.56, according to Team Marketing Report’s FCI. The league’s average ticket is $82.58. The lowest average game ticket is $41.79 of the Florida Panthers.
Team Marketing Report also supplied to LVSportsBiz.com an expansion team chart showing how their first-year fan costs compared to the rest of the NHL’s teams.
The Golden Knights are in a tailspin on the ice. Beset by injuries to key players like captain Mark Stone, starting goalie Robin Lehner, winger Reilly Smith and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Alec Martinez, the VGK just lost all five games on a recent road trip. The team has made the Stanley Cup playoffs in its previous four seasons, but in Year 5 the VGK are at risk of being one of the 16 teams to not make it to the postseason.
The Golden Knights’ family-of-four cost of $649.72 is an increase of 8.2 percent over the previous season, according to TMI’s Fan Cost Index.
The league’s average family-of-four game cost is $462.56 — nearly $200 less less than the Golden Knights’ $649.72. The cheapest family-of-four cost in the NHL is an Arizona Coyotes game at $314.70 — less than half of the VGK family-of-four expense, according to the FCI.
The Golden Knights’ announced attendance numbers remain strong, coming in at 18,077 a game — good for sixth on the NHL and first in the league in percentage capacity at 104.1 percent. If you multiply the VGK average game attendance of 18,077 by its average ticket cost of $124.09, the team is generating more than $2.2 million a game in ticket revenues.
VGK owner Bill Foley has opened a new 6,000-seat arena in Henderson for his new Vegas Knight Hawks indoor football team and his Henderson Silver Knights minor league hockey team will also play in the same Dollar Loan Center arena in the Green Valley area of Henderson near The District.
The Golden Knights’ next home game is Thursday when the Florida Panthers, one of the top teams in the NHL standings, visit T-Mobile Arena.
PSA