Senators season ticket owners weigh their options as lockout drags on
If there were an archetype of the kind of fan the National Hockey League would want to have, he might look something like Sebastien Fortin.
If there were an archetype of the kind of fan the National Hockey League would want to have, he might look something like Sebastien Fortin.
The 36-year-old works a day job as a law firm office manager and runs a small home inspection business with his brother on the side. Two years ago, they sprang for a half-season ticket package, which they planned to use to entertain clients.
He and his wife also run a hockey-mad household, filled with three kids (ages 11, four and one) who are either Ottawa Senators superfans, or headed down that path. Fortin would fall into that category too — the reformed Montreal Canadiens supporter switched allegiances around age 16, when the capital got its own team.
Last spring, when Erik Karlsson, Jason Spezza and the rest of the Senators made their surprise appearance in the first round of the playoffs, he and his brother donned team jerseys and gladiator helmets and trudged out all the way out from Orleans to lend their support.
And last week, he called the Senators to say he wanted out.
No more tickets, no more money.
“The way I feel right now, is we’re hostages to (the league’s) CBA agreements,” Fortin says. “I got to the point where I said to myself, ‘all I can do is tune out and really try to avoid it as much as I can.’”
But when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suggested a two-week moratorium on collective bargaining talks in mid-November, enough was enough.
“I saw that it was a game for them,” Fortin says. “I’m like, ‘there’s no way I want to be a part of this.’ This is just postulating.”
So Fortin e-mailed his Senators ticket representative and said if he withdrew his business, and if other season ticket holders did the same, maybe the team would start to feel the real value of money. He and his brother pay about $4,000 combined for their 200-level tickets, plus merchandise and concession purchases.
“I think it’s the strongest statement we can make out there,” he says.
Fortin’s decision to call the team after collective bargaining talks hit a roadblock isn’t uncommon, according to Senators president Cyril Leeder.
“We get feedback whenever the league has an announcement, cancelled games, or if there’s some kind of major announcement — that’s generally when we get the most of our feedback,” he says. “Right now, I think everybody’s in a mode where they’re hoping that there will be a season at some point soon.
“So they’re kind of, like the rest of us, sitting and waiting and hoping for the best.”
Leeder’s most important job at this point is damage control, and the team has been proactive in communicating with its customers. Earlier this fall, the Senators sent out a survey that asked fans what ticket, parking and concession discounts they might take advantage of if the league returned this season.
But money isn’t the answer to everything.
“In the open-ended question, I think the prevailing comment of what they would like to see most is an apology.”
Leeder says the number of season ticket holders who have cancelled so far is less than one per cent, though that number is in flux.
The team ended the 2011-2012 campaign with a season ticket base of 11,300 and Leeder says there’s no way for the team to know what it’ll be when games are played again.
Some, like Fortin, are still haggling to get their deposits back, so his account remains on the books.
“We do try and contact folks and talk to them about their decision and try to convince them to stay with us,” Leeder explains. “And I think, by and large, people I talk to are in a pretty good spot, all things considered.”
In some ways, the lockout couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Senators.
“You never want to be in a work stoppage,” he says. “For us, we certainly finished the year last year, we thought, on a pretty good note from a fan perspective.
“They were excited, they liked this team maybe … better than any of the teams in the previous 20 years. They really connected with the players and the personalities and, for us, we feel like we had a lot of momentum going. So we were real anxious to get back playing the 12-13 season after we finished 11-12.”
Losing the entire year would be devastating.
“That goes without saying, I think, for everybody. That’s the worst-case scenario.”
Guillaume Couillard is one of the Senators fans who called to cancel his season tickets, but was talked out of it.
His patience isn’t infinite, however.
“If they’re canceling the season, now I’m withdrawing my money for sure,” the 35-year-old public servant says, though he admits he’ll probably be back at some point down the road.
Like Fortin, the last lockout didn’t bother him nearly as much, and he bought his first multi-game ticket package the first season back. He and a friend moved up to half and then full season tickets, which they’ve held for several years (they’re in 209 now). His share costs about $6,000 per year.
He called the team to withdraw his money after the league torched the first batch of games, but his ticket rep (who was very busy that day, he says) worked to “take the emotion out of the decision.” The five per cent interest the Senators are paying him to leave his money with them was a factor, as was the assertion his section was one of the only ones with a waiting list.
Plus, he says, he just loves the game. A former player at various junior levels, he has high hopes his sons will take up hockey, and he’s considering billeting a Gatineau Olympiques player.
Yet Couillard’s situation also illustrates the shaky ground the NHL is treading. He was already considering backing out because he has three kids under four at home and the commute from Gatineau isn’t an easy one. The absence of a season would give him an easy out.
The longer the lockout goes, the more damage is done.
In some cases, it has already cost the Senators priceless goodwill and work in the community.
A couple years ago, Fortin went to Scotiabank Place with his son’s hockey team (he was an assistant coach) as part of a program called the “Sens Experience.” It includes an hour of ice time on an NHL rink, a meeting with one of the players and Senators game tickets.
“That experience was just absolutely fantastic,” he says. “I mean the kids, they get hooked for life, right? They become fans, big-time fans.
“So I mean, that experience was just outstanding, and they did a fantastic job, and it’s just so disappointing to see them ruining it that way.
“Just pushing us away…”
Twitter.com/SensReporter
jgordon@ottawacitizen.com
Loading ...
If all the ticket holders of all the NHL teams return their tickets and they no longer have money to fight about, maybe they will then find a solution.
Honor your contracts, grandfather the players and get back to playing.
To me the players are not evening trying Honor there Contracts period and get back playing .If people were return there tickets might teach them a lesson .They are getting paid far to munch anyways just seems to me its a joke with them .Thinking fans are coming back after the strike wrong thinking on that part .Fans are fedup with the whole mess if i were the owner i would sell the team thats if you even could could .To me get rid of the dam union and play hockey
I for one did not purchase seasons tickets this year and neither did the other 6 guys that I go to all my games with. I won’t be coming back to this sad state of affairs. The NHL really screwed this one up by locking the players out. It’s 4.50 for a slice of pizza and 8.50 for a tall can of beer maybe both parties should realise that it’s THE FANS money they are fighting over and they are NOT getting any more from me. I have emailed all my friends and family and expressed not to buy any NHL merchandise for me.
i will not be supporting any nhl teams after the lockout including the sens..should have learned my lesson the last time..have been enjoying local jr. b action as much or better for a fraction of the price..don’t care if they ever come back..good riddence
I do feel for the fans and their frustration But as someone whose family is directly hit by the strike maybe there should be some facts on the employees who are laid off and those working at part salary with the worry of being laid off.
This strike is hitting everyone too, not just the fans and the businesses.
I was an avid hockey fan all my life beginning with the original six. After the last strike, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth and stopped watching hockey for the most part, tuning in for the odd playoff game and going to the odd live game. Now with this strike, the taste left is even more bitter and I can assure you that I will never put out money to watch another NHL game.
Based on your article, you’ve probably concluded that fans are pretty fed up and rightly so. I share half season tickets with a colleague who has decided he wants out so it is unlikely that I will be renewing. The lockout highlights the lack of value on a game-by-game basis that the NHL offers because I’m having to ask myself what I’m actually missing while at the same time having money to spend on other things. Although we’re big fans, there have been so many garbage games where only half the millionaires on the ice try to earn their pay and I now realize it makes no sense to have season tickets. What I find irks me even more than the owners bullying tactics with the players, is the attitude of the players themselves who think they’re deserving of half of the revenues without taking any risk. What recourse do I have as a fan when I spend $200 to sit through a stinker of a game? There are no consequences to them having a bad season let a lone a bad game. So, enough.
I, too, will be withdrawing my Sens support, at least in the form of purchasing seats. Earlier on in the lockout, I called the Senators as I wanted to cancel my 20 seat flex-pack. That was going to be my form of protest to both the owners and players. I was told that I could not cancel my tickets and that all sales were final, and I would be informed of two options later in the week (leaving my money in for future tickets, or having it refunded at the end of the months in which games were not played). Now there’s a smart response to an unsatisfied customer! I would like to encourage other ticket holders to pull their support and see how they (the players) like playing in an empty arena while the people who pay their salaries stay away. I, for one, will not be renewing when this all comes to a conclusion.
The greedy ,negotiating with the greedier, in order to become the greediest
I enjoyed reading about fans that, like myself, are fed up. These businessmen (owners AND players) are progressing their “negotiation” under the mistaken assumption that there are two sides to the “dispute”. They are wrong – the vital third party to the business is us – the consumers!. Fellow fans WE need to lock these greedy misguided businessmen out of our lives. We can live without seeing Crosby, Toews and Karlsson for a while – we can and must!
I was born and raised in Ottawa and, like all of us, hockey is in my veins. I have lived out of the country for more than 20 years and in Chicago the last 5 years. I arrived in the Windy City just in time to see the exciting rise of the young Hawks and to be thrilled by Mr. Toews’ raising of the Cup in 2010. I was completely absorbed by it all and made the mistake of thinking that my love for the great game equated to spending a fortune on Hawks jerseys and scalpers’ tickets to get into the United Center. I was taken in by the NHL marketing machine – “One Goal” for the Hawks…
In the States the NHL’s Madison Ave marketing machine ran a series of ads about the playoffs – “Memoires will be made” in which they would show a classic moments in Cup history. They had another series of ads showing Cup winners being asked to express their feelings about winning the prized Cup. Both ads put tears in my eye and I am now so mad about it. These greedy misguided businessmen were playing with me and all of us. I am guilty of being lead to think that these Madison Ave stiffs (hired by the owners AND players) represented the game I love. The nerve of them all! We need to take the Stanley Cup back from these greedy misguided businessmen. The fans should own it and give it out at center ice.
Now I realize that these greedy misguided businessmen don’t “own” hockey. Who the heck do these guys think they are! They are so lucky to be able to fool people into thinking that the NHL “is” hockey. This labour non-sense proves otherwise. The great game survives. Just go to a 67’s game or your local rink. Rest up for the World Junior tournament and take it all in. These non-pros will remind us all of what the game is all about – our tradition – our history – our culture.
Melnyk, Bettman, Fehr (and his little brother), Rocky Wirtz, Crosby, Toews and Karlsson please take the rest of the year off. In fact take the rest of the decade off so you don’t fool anyone into again thinking you are at all relevant.
Lord Stanley, the Rocket and Cyclone Taylor are turning over in their graves. How could the great game of hockey now be represented by these morons.
It’s about time the fans woke up. They’re the only part of the equation that no one seems to care about. The owners and the players think only about filling their pockets. If the fans keep buying tickets, they’re nothing but suckers and the owners and the players will just keep on taking advantage of them.
Very upset about this strike, specially what is going on in North America of so many people out of work, and how many of these people who work the games are loosing money while Billionaires, and Millionaires argue out money. I have pretty much have given up on the NHL, and sadly our Sens.. So happy we have the 67′s and our team in Carleton Place.. I really don’t know if I can go back to the NHL and our Sens.. specially knowing we’ll be doing this again in another 5 years..
I think it’s important not to punish our team because of the actions of the league or players association.
I know Melnyk has lost a lot of money in his time as Sens owner, and he will likely lose a lot more before he sells the team (which he will). The lockout is not his fault (he has publicly expressed his frustration at the process) and it isn’t any of our players fault either.
We are lucky to have an NHL team in such a small market, and Ottawa is a fickle enough market at the best of times. I have left my money with the team to collect the 5% interest, and any real hockey fan who appreciates having NHL hockey in Ottawa will continue to support the team when hockey resumes (if not this year than next).
“But when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suggested a two-week moratorium on collective bargaining talks in mid-November, enough was enough.
“I saw that it was a game for them,” Fortin says. “I’m like, ‘there’s no way I want to be a part of this.’ This is just postulating.””
Yes, it’s just a game, people. This is the point. I love hockey, but am I really supposed to be upset that there’s no hockey this winter? Get over it people, there’s more pressing problems in the world.
What I wish people like Bettman, the owners and all the other overpaid morons associated with the NHL, is that all this money they are fighting over comes from us, the fans. Most of whom cannot afford the kind of money it costs to attend NHL games these days. Why don’t they just stop their petty bickering, and just do the only fair thing and just split everything down the middle.
I’m mad as hell about this lockout. The issue is with the big spending clubs that went overboard with ridiculous contracts. Ottawa was not one of those clubs. Sure the Kovalev & Gonchar contracts were not the best… but they were for 3 yrs at the most..
The Owners are being too harsh with their requests… and the players are being too greedy with theirs.
The players that were signed to contracts before the lockout should be paid in full… by each club. — in their entirety. So if you signed a 12 yr or 14 yr contract… you (the team) should be responsible to pay the full amount over the length of that contract.
Get to 50-50 right away with the make whole. Give the players the 9 yr contract term they want BUT with a 20% variance. You have to give the players some wiggle room.
Leave UFA at age 28..
Sign on the dotted line.. and get back on the ice.
Walking away from the Sens.. means they will walk away from Ottawa permanently… which will do more damage to Ottawa’s economy way more than a lockout would.
Sandy, Brooke, and others advocating that we continue to spend our money on the Senators:
I don’t want to see the Senators leave either, but enough is enough. Consider it this way – every day we see headlines about “Company X loses $100 million in Q3″ it’s all just numbers relating to companies we don’t care much for. But when I see a headline “NHLPA and NHL $181 million apart” and think about that a little more, I realize it’s my money that’s in that $181 million. These people (The owners and the players) can’t even agree how to split the money WE give them. We don’t ask much in return either — every week or so, go out there and play a game you love to play, we’ll come to watch, buy a few drinks and a hot dog, then take the hour long bus ride back home.
After I read this article today in the paper, I called up the sens to get whatever money I can back from them. I got my 90% back and left them with 10% deposit, as apparently you can’t cancel your package partway through a season. Many other fans will or already have called to do the same thing. This will sting our home team for sure. Hopefully this is happening all over the NHL so everyone involved feels the pain. I’d love to watch the highlights on TSN the morning after opening night watching replay after replay of empty NHL arenas for a while.
If we, the fans who are paying these players and owners, hit them where it hurts the hardest – even if its for a short term – hopefully they approach the next CBA differently, remembering the pain it is to rebuild the sport after so many labour disputes.
I’ll be back at the Scotiabank place eventually, but not until I’ve seen something from the league that shows they deserve us back. Lower ticket prices, lower concessions, and not just a ’3-games of free parking’ or ‘an extra set of tickets to a home game’ like they were asking about in that survey they sent a few weeks ago. They were giving out a free pair of tix just from buying one of the new jerseys last year (which is now sitting in the back of my closet).
For now.. enjoy some great Junior hockey. The 67s, baby Sens, and the Olympiques are loving lockout years and in a couple weeks we’ll have the World Juniors. I’m excited!
I have been struggling for awhile as to what to do with our season’s tickets… My partner and I have lost interest in hockey… we’ve adjusted to doing other things with our time and money.
The NHL is fat with the $3.1 BILLION in record revenues from the 2011-12. I have read that Comcast in the States (Sports net’s equivalent) will be paying the NHL $185 MILLION – even if the puck doesn’t drop. I have the impression that the NHL are getting more money for the Saturday night “Classics” in royalties.
What we, the frustrated fans should do to drive the point home, is LAUNCH a BREACH OF CONTRACT LAWSUIT against the NHL and its owners. As a earlier commenter wrote, they want to hold on to 10% of OUR money, as a contract is a contract… WELL! The owners and management of the league need to compensate us for our support of the league which is not reciprocal…
PICTURE THIS: I brought the woman I love into MY world and MY passion for hockey. She attended a first LIVE game with me @ Scotiabank Place… She realized how exciting the game was without the commentator’s voice telling us what was happening… She had to watch the action!
A lovely Usherette by the name of Elizabeth heard me tell another fan how frustrating it was NOT to be able to buy the 10 seconds ($50) on the big screen to wish my partner a happy birthday… about 30 minutes later, Elizabeth showed up with a birthday card and Senators lapel pin. That made getting 2012-13 seasons’ tickets very easy, although it means a 5 hour return trip after her day’s work… for every game
By this time last year, we had spent more than $500 dollars on Senators’ paraphernalia. My partner is now worried that, this far into a season, we might see B level players instead of the ones we were contracted to see…
This year, I’m thinking of selling most of it and removing the large Senators’ crest I have on the back window of my Baja, as well as the smaller ones at the corners of the windows on my car and hers. The reason I have NOT done it yet, is because of my respect for Eugene Melnyk and my longer association with the Senators founders and management.
I wonder if Clayton Ruby would take up our cause?
Wow. I’m suprised how myopic the view is on here. You think the NHL is fat with $3.1B in revenue? Most of the teams in the league lose money, including Ottawa.
You think it’s your money in the $181M gap between the players and owners? I don’t think so. In Ottawa your money (and mine) was spent long before that gap. The Sens lost $18M in 2010-11. You didn’t read that headline because it wasn’t made public. Maybe if you had you would realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say you plan to “hit them where it hurts”. Melnyk has been hit there enough that he is probably numb! The players don’t care if you don’t go back as they get paid either way, and really the league probably doesn’t either as they will survive too. The only things you accomplish in not supporting the team is to hasten Melnyk’s departure as owner and to prove once again that Leafs fans are right about Ottawa fans being bandwagon hoppers.
If you appreciate having an NHL hockey team support it. It’s not a right.
Brooke,
When M. Melnyk bought his NHL franchise, he did so as a well informed business man. I don’t need to tell him how to spend his fortune, or lose it, nor should I have to hear about how much money he is making or loosing.
Separate yourself from the business.
I am a hockey fan. They call me the prototypical NHL fan. I love hockey, I play it, I coach it, and I’ve been pulling the bandwagon uphill.
I should not be a hostage to the CBA. I should not have to choose who is right, NHL owners or the NHL PA.
I don’t want to hear about the pain, show me the baby.
Until the league can show me we will not be hostages again in a few years, I am out. Why should I love a sport that treats me this way?
People that argue about who’s making what, and who’s right in this CBA mess are plainly wrong. You are not a player in that game. It is their game, and the value of your argument as a fan is exactly zero.
The NHL needs people in their seats to survive. Cancelling my season seats is the only message I can send in this fiasco. If they have less of our money, it might help value it a bit more.
Today I got confirmation of my full 100% refund.