Hours before the puck dropped for Game 1 of the Canucks’ 2013 playoff effort, there were still more than 200 seats available at face value.
And that was after the Canucks offered a number of seats for half price to employees and certain corporate partners.
Some independent vendors, meanwhile, have seen demand dive.
Kingsley Bailey, manager of Vancouver Ticket, estimates his sales are down 40 per cent from the opening round last year.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s easier for me to pull teeth than sell Canucks tickets right now.”
Bailey has bought some tickets from season-ticket holders, but turned more down once he explained to them that the club’s targeted 50-per-cent discount offer means those taking advantage of it are paying less for lower-bowl tickets than loyal season-ticket holders have.
The ones he did buy, he’s having trouble moving.
“I suggest to season-ticket holders they go to the Canucks and ask for a rebate,” Bailey said. “What’s the benefit of buying season tickets?
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“I’ve turned down a lot and I wish I’d turned down them all, because I’d be better off.”
Vancouver Ticket has been operating since 1995 and Bailey admits his view is shaded by being in the business.
“Back then, you’d put two tickets on the windshield of a car and when you came back there’d be four,” Bailey said.
Many season-ticket holders share the sentiment.
The on-ice product was often stupendously dull this lockout-shortened season, both at home games and in the league overall.
“We get criticized for being the quietest fans in the league?” said one season-ticket holder, asking his name not be used. “Give me a break. What’s there been to cheer about?
“It’s been boring hockey. I had trouble giving tickets away this year.”
For their part, the Canucks released a statement saying the half-price offer to corporate partners and staff was an extension of a regular-season program that made the same offer to minor hockey associations.
The offer is for the first two home games of the opening series against the San Jose Sharks, Wednesday and Friday.
According to the seating map on the Canucks’ website 139 lower-bowl tickets were still available at noon on Wednesday.
They ranged in price from $358 to $411 along the side boards on the opposite side of the players’ benches to $225-$286 on the side behind the players’ benches (where sightlines are partly blocked) to $225-$255 for seats higher up on the two ends.
Only section 106, at centre ice across from the benches, was sold out.
In the upper deck there were 80 tickets still available.
And on both decks, many of the available seats were not singles, but two to six in a row.
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