If you were in attendance at the Scottrade Center for the Blues-Blackhawks game or if you watched on TV, you are aware that there were a ton of Blackhawks fans in the seats. That’s a pretty normal situation when the Blackhawks come to town, but Saturday’s game seemed to be an exception to the rule.
The game was the team’s fourth sellout of the season:
#stlblues attendance: 19,808 … 4th sellout of the season. @solomonsside
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 15, 2015
There’s no way of really knowing how many Blackhawks fans were actually there, but the number had to be close to 50%. That’s pretty crazy while being impressive for Blackhawks fans and embarrassing for Blues fans.
How can the Blues remedy this situation?
Realistically, there’s not much you can do considering the proximity of the two cities and the fact the Blackhawks are one of the most popular teams in the league.
The team has already tried to keep Blackhawks fans out by requiring fans who bought a ticket to the game to also buy tickets to another home game. Other teams have required fans to have a zip code in or around the city to buy tickets. Both of these methods are easily thwarted by the secondary ticket market such as StubHub.
Currently, Blues fans are selling their tickets to Blackhawks fans on the secondary market because they’re making a nice profit. Aside from the profit, the growing sentiment from fans is that it’s frustrating to attend Blues-Blackhawks games due to the huge opposing presence. How can you alter this mindset?
The real answer to this solution lies with how the Blues play on the ice.
The Blues need to offer an on-ice experience which dwarfs the idea of making a potential profit. They need to make the game so appealing that fans would ignore the possibility of a $50 or $60 profit. As things stand, and perhaps this is tied to all of the playoff collapses, fans are more than willing to watch from home because the in-person experience isn’t worth the difference between the price paid for the ticket and the price the ticket sells for on the secondary market.
The Blues are going to need to dispatch some good teams in the playoffs and they’re going to need to do so consistently across multiple years. Blackhawks fans have always come to the Scottrade Center, but the numbers really took off once they won a Stanley Cup. The same could be said of the Blues. If and when the Blues win a Cup, Blackhawks fans will have a harder time finding a seat in the Scottrade simply because Blues fans want to be in attendance.
Once again, the answer is winning. Deep playoff runs or a Stanley Cup can solve a lot of problems and it could go a long way in making sure Blues fans are the majority in the Scottrade Center.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
