The Anaheim Ducks are hardly raising ticket prices but spending a billion dollars on their arena. The Canucks are also spending big, but handing fans the bill.
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Rejoice Vancouver Canucks fans, they’re finally installing new seats at Rogers Arena.
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The 30-year-old maroon chairs, most of which have long lost their cushioned comforts, are being replaced with black seats — with cupholders — over the coming weeks. The process was originally slated to begin last summer, but the original vendor selected by the NHL club went bankrupt, leaving the Canucks scrambling to find a new contractor.
Fans who attend Canucks games next fall will certainly have a vastly improved seating experience — but they’re also going to be paying for it.
Plenty of digital ink has already been spilled by the Canucks’ big ticket hikes for next season, the second year in a row the team has chosen to go for a hefty increase. Many fans in high-end seats have told me they’re looking at back-to-back increases that add up to a 30-40 per cent jump in price for their seats next season, compared to what they were paying in 2023-24.
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The ticket-price hikes are to pay for the seats, new amenities in the building and the surging salary cap.
To his credit, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford recently acknowledged fan frustration about the team raising ticket prices after missing the playoffs.
“The one thing I will say is part of that is not just about the hockey team, with the cap going up, that is part of it, but another part of it is the building that we have: Is investing money back into an older building that we’re fortunate is almost filled for every game,” he said.
It is also hard to pay out salaries in U.S. dollars when tickets and other revenues are generated in Canadian dollars. This is, admittedly, a hard league to compete in for Canadian teams. More and more, it requires deep pockets.
Rutherford also made a crucial admission: “I don’t like to pay more for anything either, none of us do. But not being in the playoffs after having a price increase is hard for people to understand. I’m not responsible for the price of tickets, so I’ll make that clear; it’s not my lane.”
That’s on ownership and business operations. This is a choice they made. The arena upgrades will cost $150 million, but the bulk of the cost is apparently to borne by the fans themselves.
And it’s a choice that stands out in stark contract to last week’s announcement by the Anaheim Ducks, which is launching a billion-dollar renovation of the Honda Center, their home rink that is two years older than Rogers Arena.
This renovation, which is partly driven by Southern California hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028, is being carried by the Ducks’ owners. There’s no suggestion that fans are on the hook to make it all happen.
The Ducks are raising their prices, but nothing like what the Canucks are aiming for. One Ducks fan on Reddit said their tickets are up 16 per cent, but given how low prices for Ducks games are to begin with, this works out to just US$7 per game. Another suggested their centre-ice, lower-bowl pair of tickets will rise just two per cent, with the two-ticket set costing them US$14,872.
(As a comparison point, that’s roughly the same price point, though in Canadian dollars, that a single centre-ice season ticket will cost a Canucks fan next season.)
In their 32-year history, the Ducks have rarely been a hot ticket. They are just one thing to do in a region with a lot of things to do.
Obviously, the Canucks have been an exceptionally hot ticket at times over the past two decades. They are still the big sporting dog in town. But they also don’t pile up the sellouts anymore.
Anyway, here we have two teams, playing in a league where revenue is booming, who both are coming off weak seasons and have big expenses — but they are taking very different approaches.
It felt like something to note.
pjohnston@postmedia.com
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