A Letter To Maple Leaf Season Ticket Holders

It is fascinating to look at the NHL from a financial perspective.  Two (2) interesting metrics are Price Per Ticket and Operating Income by team.  Check this out:

Price Per Ticket - US $ (Based on the week of January 10, 2011)

Toronto                $209.26
Montreal              $194.46
Vancouver           $157.76
Pittsburgh             $144.76
Edmonton            $121.49
Source:  SeatGeek

Operating Income - US $ (in millions, 2009)

Toronto                $78.90
Montreal              $31.30
NY Rangers         $27.70
Detroit                 $27.40
Chicago               $20.90
Source:  Forbes November 11, 2009

Imagine paying on average $209.26 for one ticket to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs!  What are these fans thinking about? This franchise has done next to nothing since they won the Stanley Cup in 1967.  In fact, they have missed the playoff for the past five (5) years (and won't make it this year either), they have the longest active Stanley Cup drought in the league and are the only Original Six team to not have won the Cup post league expansion.  Despite this pile of dung they serve up every year, this franchise has the highest valuation in the league at $470 million and makes far more Operating Income than the number two team, the Montreal Canadiens at $31.3 million.  When you look at the entire NHL Operating Income of $183.5 million, you quickly realize the Maple Leafs earn 43% of that total.

After looking at these numbers and the sustained below average performance of this team for the past 40 years, I wondered what the yearly letter from the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. says to the Maple Leaf season ticket holders.   Below I have crafted how it might look:

Dear Maple Leaf Season Ticket Holder,

Congratulations on becoming a season ticket holder for the 2010-2011 hockey season.  We are prepared for another exciting season of Leaf hockey at the Air Canada Center.  Frankly, we are absolutely blown away by your support.  We have not made the playoffs in years, we don't expect to make it this year and we have not won the Stanley Cup in over 40 years.  Despite this, you continue to support our franchise, your perseverance is noteworthy and we are grateful.

Going into this season we are encouraged as our season ticket wait list is now over 3,000 strong.  Evidence that our mediocre hockey team is not only a source of entertainment for you, but for many other folks in the area.  In fact, you should tell your friends one interim solution to the waiting list is our VIP Mini Packs - check them out on our website at http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=42099.  This promotion allows you to get two (2) tickets to five (5) Leaf games AND two (2) tickets to five (5) Toronto Raptors games.  Due to the demand for sub-par sports entertainment in the Metro-Toronto area we have ingeniously applied a ticket tying practice.  This way when you buy Leaf tickets you can augment your hockey disappointment by getting a dose of frustration from our below average basketball team.  We have seen the Microsoft Corporation bundle mediocre products, so we decided to give it a shot.  It's turning out to be a real money-maker for us so far.

As for future direction of the club, we are petrified of what a franchise in Hamilton poses to our business model.  Could you imagine the possibility of Leaf season ticket holders switching allegiances en masse to an ownership group that could actually outfit a winning hockey team?  We still remain supportive of Burkie and his staff though admittedly we are scratching our heads on why Phil Kessel and Kris Versteeg have a combined plus/minus of -26 as of this writing.

Despite all appearances we are not the Washington Redskins.  We can judge talent and we will not overpay our players.  We again thank you for being a season ticket holder!

Sincerely,


Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd.