Coyotes sell out home opener, disappoint fans

They called it the whiteout. The Phoenix Coyotes slashed prices for their home opener, and gave away white T-shirts in an effort to not only attract fans to the team, but to give their hockey team an emotional boost. Really though this was an attempt by management to prove that the Coyotes are a viable franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. It does not appear that those efforts were successful, as the Coyotes lost the game, and the fans were merely taking advantage of huge discount.

Tickets in the lower bowl of jobbing.com arena, the home of the Coyotes, were discounted more than 150 dollars. These prime seats were sold for as little as 25 dollars. Given those prices, even the most casual of NHL fans would have difficulty passing up a chance to sit in prime seating no matter who was playing. If the hockey fans in Phoenix will only go to see this team play when the tickets are over 60% reduced that seems to suggest that this team is not financially viable where it is currently located.

Let us also not forget that this team lost the game, not only did they lose but they were shut out. That gives the team little chance to retain any of these casual hockey fans taking advantage of the discount. When a business enterprise offers this kind of a deal the hope is they will lure enough people back at full price to make the discount worthwhile. For the Coyotes that does not seem to be the case.