Based on the games I go to I think that part of the problem is ticket prices. I don’t mind the expensive seats down low but for me the problem is the middle ring. I can’t justify ever paying 65/75 dollars for a seat on that level. It seems that other people may feel the same way as those seats are usually empty on game days (in addition to lower bowl corners). Although I can’t statistically prove that it is empty, I’d guess to say the Devils feel this way since the 65 dollar seats are always the promotional ones for 35 dollars. While I am aware of these discounts, if you aren’t a AAA member or Prudential Employee you might not know about the cut prices. Why not just make these always 35 dollars and make the 35 dollar upstairs seats more 25/30 seats. It also always seems that the 10-35 dollar price range is sold out or very close to it, no matter who is playing. I can speak on behalf of my friends when I say that we would be inclined to go to a few more games at the 25 dollar price range. The team could also make the middle bowl a family section, full season except for the ranger games, opening night and closing night it’s four tickets 150 or something like that.

Advertising is always an issue, how many times have I seen a devils commercial not on MSG+? probably never. We’ve got the best goalie of all time for a few more years and one of the best up and coming goal scorers, why not use them to help sell tickets? I understand that it is an issue for Lou, that he doesn’t want players feeling more important than the team. It’s understandable, we have always been built around team play and it seems to have worked for the last 15 years.

I’ve always thought they need to market better in New Jersey. I see commercials about tickets (mostly during Devils games) and some ads appearing in conjunction to NJ Transit. But people need to know WHY they should come to see the Devils. Having their TV rights owned by a company that owns their biggest rival doesn’t help them much.

Price is part of the problem. About half of the tickets are too expensive for how I would picture them (mostly on the lower level). There are discounts which are good, and if you know enough of the different groups that subscribe to them, it does help save money. But there just aren’t enough seats for under $50 and a lot of empty seats down low. Think about how a ticket scalper would drop his street price at game time so he doesn’t have to eat the ticket. Imagine of the team’s box office did that too. I also think ticketmaster.com drives people away with their extra fees. I won’t buy from them unless absolutely necessary.

And look at the new arena. Being in Newark gives it a bad rap. They need to do something about that (moving the arena wouldn’t be possible). I never feel like there’s a problem walking from Penn Station to the arena, but a lot of people may feel that way. Parking and driving there isn’t practical or cost affordable. So they really need to make mass transit more accessable to everyone. Look at the NJ Transit map. Here’s where I see a big problem. Half of the trains in NJ go to (Newark’s) Penn Station, a short walk from the arena. Half go to the other side of Newark, where transfering becomes more time consuming and more costly, or facing having to drive in or get off at Broad St and traverse Newark to the arena. I know I would have been to fewer games there if I didn’t live close to a station that goes directly to Penn Station. Point being, if they made it easier for the fans in Morris, Essex, Passaic, and Bergen counties to get to the arena, more of them would.

Maybe they need to play outdoors once a month to help draw interest.

I like how you pointed out in this post that if you strictly look at the Devils average attendance they will always be in the middle of the pack even if they sold out every game. The Devils and their fans who care about this issue need to focus more on percentage capacity, which would ideally be at least 90% for most games. I think the move to Newark has clearly helped, they were barely cracking 80% in cavernous Continental.

The next part is partly on the Devils but also partly on Newark and its subsequent “gentrification and development”. Newark as a city has a terrible rep, although the area the arena is very nice, the rest of Newark simply put is not. It has proximity to Manhattan and has a few universities in the area, the powers that be in Newark obviously hope that improving conditions, access to NYC, and lower rents can pull the city up. Whether this happens remains to be seen.

Some of the other comments have hit on the advertising, which needs to vastly improve, and the transportation. I agree with a lot of the comments on transportation. Despite being so close to Penn Station the New Jersey Transit system is not well set up for games. I used to live in Hackensack, NJ and the only way to take mass transit to a night game was to get on a bus for an hour. This is ridiculous because the drive is about 15 minutes, and when you can take the train its about 30 minutes. Inexplicably the trains to Newark stop at 430 pm, which left me with a choice of an hour long bus ride or driving to the game. Cant speak for other areas, but Hackensack isnt in the middle of nowhere (about 5 miles from the GWB) so this always puzzled me, although from above comments it seems like its a problem.

while there a things we can point to that keep people from attending games – how about spreading our love and passion for the game and our Devils by bringing non-puck heads to games whenever we can? I share the frustration of going to Rangers/Flyers games and seeing as many (or more) rival team fans – not what our guys deserve!

So – bring a buddy!

In my opinion, ticket prices have a lot to do with attendance issues. The areas in which attendance seems to be sparse, are the 100 level (along the sides of the ice) and the center sections of the 200 level. I was thinking about it at today’s game that if the highest price in the 200 level was $30, and there were say 6 rows of the balcony in where tickets were $40, attendance might improve.

The $10 tickets, in which I’ve gotten more than ten times in the year and a half since the Devils moved are a great deal. They usually seem to sell out. Additionally I take advantage of as many AAA, NJTransit, etc. discounts where the balcony seats are discounted to $35. If you could get season tickets in the balcony, for $35 a game, I think that I would do that. However, I’m not inclined to get season tickets in the black for $25 when I can get better seats for many games for only a little more. I still make it to many, if not most games, but ticket prices do influence my decision to attend and I’m a big fan. I think the casual fan is turned off by the ticket prices even if they don’t realize how good a product they get for the money. When I was younger, and my family didn’t have disposal income, we were lucky to make it to 2-3 games a year. We wanted to go to more but we just couldn’t afford it. Now, we are able to get to more games but it is still expensive.

Another turn off for people is parking. I think that when people have to spend an additional $15-$20 to park it hits them harder than even the price of the tickets. I’m lucky because I go to law school in Newark and have a monthly pass for school that I use for games so I don’t have to pay to park, however I know that many people are outraged at the price of parking. After graduation, I can see the number of games I go to declining in part due to work, but also in part because parking will become the equivalent of buying another ticket.

Ultimately, a bigger problem might be that there aren’t that many fans of hockey as other sports. Personally, there is no other sport I would want to attend live, but I think that a lot of people just don’t care that much about the Devils. There are a lot of fans who make an appearance once a year, but they don’t care enough about the sport to make it to a bunch of games a year. I don’t know whether marketing or cheaper tickets will fix the problem that people don’t really care for hockey that much. Most of my friends have little or no interest in going to a Devils game. Today, they were all more interested in Wild Card Sunday than a Devils game in Newark. I truly don’t know whether there is anything the Devils can do to combat an overall lack of interest.

As a final observation, the crowd on Saturday night was one of the best I have ever been apart of. I won’t go to a Devils/Ranger or Devils/Flyers game because I really don’t enjoy it. I don’t like people throwing beer at each other, screaming obscenities, and fights breaking out around me. I’m 23, love the Devils, but I have no interest in fighting someone over the fact that I don’t like the Rangers. I also don’t enjoy getting beer thrown at me or having people do nothing but curse the whole time. It was beyond refreshing on Friday night to have a group of fans who rooted for their team but were really pleasant to be around. We had more friendly conversations with Canadiens fans in the course of one evening than I’ve had all season with Devils fans. The atmosphere in the arena was great with the crowd really into the game. I’ll be at the next Montreal game and hope that the crowd if just as big.