The Philadelphia Flyers Hockey Business

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer Sports section features a letter from a long-time Flyers season ticket holder who is being told by the Flyers Brass to pay the price–the 140 percent increase in season ticket costs–or leave.

One fan’s plight:

The Flyers’ raising ticket prices for next season goes beyond bad timing, especially for those of us who have the so-called “Ice Row” - front-row seats - and who are soon to be shown the door unless we can handle a 140 percent price increase.

Recently, the Flyers held a town meeting for fans. Seven of us in attendance were people from the “Ice Row” who are being displaced. We seven were separated from the rest of the group and given an audience with Shawn Tilger (Comcast-Spectacor senior vice president, business operations) and Peter Luukko (Comcast-Spectacor president) to hear the explanation about the obscene price increase.

Basically, the Flyers’ response to our concerns was, “Shut up. Take it or leave it. You can be replaced.”

Luukko’s first response to our objections was that the huge price increase was needed to keep the team competitive. We season-ticket holders have heard this each and every time the team has raised ticket prices over the years. I have their annual renewal letters to prove it.

Then Tilger switched to the line, “Everyone else is doing it.” When I was 5 years old, my mother taught me not to use that as an excuse for doing something wrong.

The last lame response by the management team was that they intended to relocate us to “good seats that we will like.” One fellow who has two seats in my row already inquired about where he could relocate. The Flyers offered him row 14. In section 211. That’s their idea of “good seats.”

I’ve been in my seat for 36 years. I’m there each and every game unless prevented by a business trip. I don’t sell the seat to a scalper or a broker for a profit. To listen to the Flyers, I’m the kind of fan they claim to want. And I’m not very different from most of the people on that first row.

But given the choice between keeping us or offering the seat to a corporation that will write off the cost on its taxes as an entertainment expense and then give the tickets to someone who doesn’t know the difference between a puck and a rhinoceros, Tilger and Luukko will take the latter every time.

I was talking about this to one of the officers of the Flyers Fan Club at a recent game. He shook his head and said simply, “This isn’t Ed Snider’s team anymore.” How true. I can’t picture Mr. Snider kicking fans to the curb like this.

Barry Peacock

Mount Laurel

Sadly I never had the experience of watching a Flyers game at the Spectrum. But even as a fan in attendance at the Core States/First Union/Wachovia Center, I have noticed a deterioration in the atmosphere with each passing year. Plenty of empty seats. And empty-headed seats, those who are in attendance with great center ice seats as a result of a “corporate-gimme,” but spend most of the game playing around with a Blackberry or falling asleep because “they don’t get it.”

Seldom do I sit in the lower bowl, as it’s become too pricey for me to afford. But I don’t mind the upper bowl, not so much for the cheaper costs, but for the atmosphere. There is a difference between the 100s and 200s, and it goes beyond the price of seats. I find that the higher up I sit, the more I’m with others who genuinely care about the team, the game, the sport.

Hockey–and sports in general–has become a business. Gone are those days when the fan was top priority. Now it’s all about corporate sponsorship and filling the seats with those who could give two craps about the sport. It doesn’t matter who’s in attendance, as long as it’s all paid for. Right?

It’s a shame that it’s come to this, a team that “isn’t Ed Snyder’s team anymore.”  No. A team that isn’t the true fans’ team anymore.  But this is the reality: hockey is a business now, and the Flyers are no exception. The Wachovia Center really is “The Big Bank Building.”