An important moment ?

[mark]

Last night 7,975 fans turned up to watch the Steelers play Dundee in a midweek game, yes I know it's not a normal midweek but still that is an impressive number. We are getting close to what for me will be an important moment, when we can announce that a game other than a Boxing day game is SOLD OUT. Only then will we have climbed all the way back from the depths we reached around the Norton Lea era when such a game might have had around 3.5k at best. For those who were not around during the first heyday of the Steelers it was possible to find normal league games with the sold out signs up a week in advance, where the demand was such that some games had additional seating installed, but for me here's the important point, once you realise that you need to get your tickets early if you want your normal seat or block that is when it starts to snowball, that walk-ups mean the least favourable seats, that season tickets are the only way to guarantee even getting in to some games. The effect of this is twofold, inside the arena the atmosphere starts to reach incredible levels driving demand even more and on the financial side the effects of having guaranteed income streams increases the stability of the business side as well as giving us a better bargaining hand for available dates with the arena operators.

Again for the newer non season ticket fans, imagine having to get your tickets for a Dundee game at least a week ahead, Manchester / Cardiff 2 weeks ahead, Nottingham 3-4 weeks ahead. When a Steelers ticket becomes the hottest ticket in town ( and it did before because the football teams never sell out ) the snowball starts to roll and gather pace.

We were in this position once before, for a number of reasons we took this for granted and stopped doing the things that were working. I'd like to think that this will not be allowed to happen again. Winning things and being competitive at the top end of the league is fantastic but the two most important words for the Steelers organisation are SOLD OUT.

Mark

[ASADuke11]

Mark, reflective and positive post....hope that day is upon us soon. I must say, and correct me if I am wrong but to think that an away game in Nottingham was played to a capacity, sell out crowd...............at a cinema speaks volumes of the time you are referring to.............has that been done since or in any other ice hockey town??? Merry Christmas to everyone Sheffield Steelers.

[smbmetal]

I have to say it’s brilliant to see crowds healthy and full credit must be given to the off ice and marketing teams for promoting and getting bums on seats especially with and after a pandemic. I think @Jayboy said that his kids love all the razmataz too, not everyone is miserable like me . I would also suggest that free tickets are also limited these days, with just the odd junior school etc turning up for free. I do think the free ticket strategy has worked though and is another reason we are seeing good crowds.

Do I think we’ll see the days of regular sold out games? No I don’t. It’s too expensive I think. Only the Boxing Day and perhaps New Year’s Eve games might be a regular sell out. To get a regular or decent seat people might need to buy tickets a few weeks in advance but the arena is too big I think to regularly sell out.

Even if I could afford it, I would not purchase a season ticket as I’ve said many times, I don’t find the hockey of good enough quality to be watching games against Fife and Glasgow on a cold Wednesday night.

Still, it’s brilliant to see the healthy crowds! Merry Christmas everyone!

[mark]

Mark, reflective and positive post....hope that day is upon us soon. I must say, and correct me if I am wrong but to think that an away game in Nottingham was played to a capacity, sell out crowd...............at a cinema speaks volumes of the time you are referring to.............has that been done since or in any other ice hockey town??? Merry Christmas to everyone Sheffield Steelers.

When we moved into the ISL era and Manchester Storm were playing out of the M.E.N arena and had 17k plus playing the Steelers on the same night as Man Utd were at home... yeah those were the peak days but we are not going to see those days again I think. Attendances changed with the rise of Sheffield and then again when Nottingham moved to the NIC and Manchester to the MEN. For myself it's now about attendance as a percentage of capacity , if you have 2700 max capacity but get regular 2500 numbers you are doing fine, during our dark days we were around 30% some games. To turn that around has taken years of hard work not helped by the COVID epidemic and worldwide financial problems so credit has to be given there. This is why I mentioned the need to keep doing the things that work, never again can we allow ourselves to take the fans for granted, it's been a hard lesson to learn and the main reason I get vocal if I think I see it happening. To answer your point I don't know if it's been done anywhere else, it may have but I don't have that knowledge.

Merry Xmas sir.

[Doom]

All good points Mark.

I think it was the last season before the ISL started that we actually averaged over 8,000 in the league. I remember numerous sell-outs with the additional seating and on a number of occasions I missed out because I wasn't quick enough to purchase my tickets.

After that season we suffered a steady decline in our attendances season on season. I made numerous posts on this forum about discounting tickets, because I was a firm believer that one of the selling points of the sport was the atmosphere.

I firmly believe had Norton Lea stayed in control we wouldn't have a Sheffield Steelers today. His business model seemed to be to fleece the supporters as much as possible and when they started to vote with their feet, charge even more to the remaining fans to cover the deficit.

Under Lea we would have ended up full time at Ice Sheffield, it's why I'm eternally grateful to Bob Phillips because he saved us from Lea.

It may have ended badly for Phillips, but he broke the cycle of falling attendances and the Smith family have taken that on.

I'd reached a point in my Steelers watching where I never thought I'd see a 7,000+ crowd again, so it's fantastic to see nearly 8,000 against one of the less attractive teams.

It's so much more enjoyable watching a game in a full arena as opposed to the 3,000 under Lea's watch.

Regards

Doom