There’s likely not a Toronto Maple Leafs fan alive that pines for the Richard Peddie era.
The former president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is identified with everything wrong when it comes to their beloved hockey club, not to mention Toronto’s basketball club, soccer club, AHL hockey club, or arena.
For the 15 years Peddie ran MLSE, the teams mostly weren’t very good, and the kind citizens of Leafs Nation haven’t been particularly forgiving.
Peddie, who bravely began using Twitter recently, tweeted out a cheeky:
https://twitter.com/RichardAPeddie/status/325932882524774401
Sample (publishable) reply, from @Dudgee:
. @richardapeddie hands up former MLSE execs who predicted the Leafs would make the playoffs the last 8 seasons too….
— Dudgee (@Dudgee) April 21, 2013
Leafs fans don’t forget.
But while the Leafs playoff-free streak has finally come to an end, some traditions live on and on: such as MLSE turning their fans’ passion against them, or at least, against their wallets.
When the Leafs finally host their first home playoff game since 2004, the building will be packed, and the energy — here’s hoping – electric. And the seats? They will be very, very expensive.
How did MLSE reward their fans’ loyalty and patience after all these years? By dinging them for a 75 per cent increase in ticket prices.
Based on Team Marketing Reports’ data tracking on average NHL ticket prices, that represents a jump from $115.96 in the regular season (compared to the league average of $54.25) to $202.93 in the playoffs. Premium seats will be starting at $323.65.
Or at least for the first round of the playoffs. It’s been a while since Toronto was in the post-season, but in the old days they used to increase ticket prices the deeper they went.
Remember all that noise about respecting fans and welcoming them back? Remember the grand gesture MLSE made on opening night when they made the home opener free for season ticket holders and gave away 1000 more passes with some clever promotions, like leaving tickets frozen inside ice sculptures around the city?
All that warm, fuzzy, hugging-it-out the club did with fans to cozy up to them after the lockout seems a long time ago now.
It was nice while it lasted. How heavy-handed was the 75 per cent mark-up?
Even Peddie – who turned MLSE into a never-ending growth story without the benefit of winning teams — was like …. “Damn!”
“I must admit I was surprised they took 75 per cent this time,” said the former executive who has an autobiography about his time at the heart of the Canadian sports industry due out in October.
“(MLSE) has been watching anything that touches the fan — they’ve been very conservative and they’ve done a lot of fan-friendly things — and good for them.
“But then they go and do something so visible. They didn’t take a beer price increase, and if they took a three-per-cent increase in beer, no one would know about it, but a 75 per cent ticket increase? Everyone is talking about it.”
It didn’t help that when the playoff tickets finally did go on sale — or the roughly 750 that are available to the general public — the demand crashed the servers at Ticketmaster, pushing the magic moment Joe Fan could get to share in the Leafs’ playoff experience from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursday, with apologies all around.
The obvious response is that when it comes to selling playoff tickets, the Leafs are out of practice.
Certainly the easy response is that selling hockey tickets or anything else is a function of supply and demand.
And the demand is seemingly insatiable. When Peddie was running the Leafs — kindly old King Richard — the increases were typically 50 per cent in the first round and 75 per cent in the second round.
It was a simpler time. No really — it was a simpler time.
The Leafs haven’t made the playoffs since two CBA agreements ago, back when a big-market club was a big-market club.
The playoffs made a huge impact on the team’s bottom line because after expenses — and expenses don’t include player salaries in the playoffs — nearly all of post-season revenue was kept by the clubs.
When the Leafs were good — they made the playoffs six straight seasons under Pat Quinn between 1998-99 and 2003-04 and played 14 rounds — it was a windfall for MLSE.
“In the heyday, we averaged 5.5 playoff games a year, at home,” Peddie said. “A big part of our bottom line was playoff driven, and that’s very risky. So we had to wean ourselves off of that.”
They did a hell of a job, you have to give them that.
But the interesting aspect of the Leafs’ decision to go for the big hike in the first round is that they don’t get all the money anyway.
According to the latest CBA, 35 per cent of home-gate receipts are shared with the league as part of hockey-related revenue (HRR). Given that the players have lost a good chunk of their pay to escrow (money held back by the league to make sure the players don’t get more than their 50 per cent share of revenue) the whole league could do well with a deep playoff run by the Leafs or Montreal Canadians or Vancouver Canucks. But while the Canucks and the Canadiens have hiked ticket prices by 50 per cent, a long Leaf run is the best-case scenario.
For the league, the players and the Leafs, that is.
The fans?
Well, the argument is that Leafs fans are so starved for playoff hockey they’ll pay anything. And sure enough, the secondary market — Stub Hub and the parka-clad, Ferrari-driving scalpers on Bay Street — have built-in price increases well in excess of anything MLSE would dare, at least for now. Some smarty-pants has a pair in the upper balcony priced at $1,967.00 — get it? Some Platinum seats can be had for $5,000.
But just because Leafs fans will pay anything doesn’t mean they should have to. It’s been a feel-good season in Toronto, but the first one in nearly a decade.
Would there have been any harm in keeping ticket prices flat or capping them at 25 per cent? Was opening night free if you have to pay it all on the back end?
If Richard Peddie thinks you’ve gone too far, MLSE, you probably have.