Season Ticket Price Increases?

#31
I heard Pete say in an interview "I know I've made Chris Granger's job harder (nervous laugh)".

No crap!

The operations staff, Chris, Phil, etc.. are really good. I would have certainly snap-renewed by now if Malone hadn't been fired, and I told this to Phil. My price increase isn't onerous. But I do not have confidence in the basketball direction so my decision hinges more on the new arena seating (willing to wait out Pete D'Alessandro). Unfortunately, they are not in a position to make very specific commitments on the new arena seating, so I'm on the fence. Leaning to renewal, but I don't know when Pete will donk off a bad trade in a desperate splash attempt, or they will hire a dufus weak willed coach who will try to revolutionize the game like in Reno. So I'm waiting a few days to see if Pete does something so stupid it pushes me over the fence to the "not renew" side.

Yeah, Pete made his job harder. Much harder.
 
#32
You know the rest of the seats will probably be sold like the 49ers ones were so you can always get a seat that way if you really want a piece of Arco history
 
#35
at the end of the day it's just an old plastic seat that hundreds of thousands of dirty people sat in.....

Is that really worth another bump in price for tickets when you could be getting them cheaper just buying them game by game on stubhub or craigslist?
 
#37
My tix (center court, upper part of the lower bowl) went up about 8%. Like John Galt, I've got to check with my ticket partner to see if we're still in. It's a really tough decision as reselling tix this year has been difficult at times. We may actually team up with a STH near us to split one pair of seats three ways....which means the Kings lose a STH.
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#38
My biggest problem is that the front office does not have confidence in what they are doing. They are flopping around like they have no plan or too many plans.
It would have been so much better if they had come out and immediately said coach M is gone Cocach C is the coach for the rest of the year.
Instead nobody including Coach C had any idea what was going on.

If your team stinks sure I'll stick around to pay for tix to watch it get better. Wait you want me to pay without a roadmap to get there. Or you aren't confident in your turns no thanks I'll get on the next bus.
 
#40
at the end of the day it's just an old plastic seat that hundreds of thousands of dirty people sat in.....

Is that really worth another bump in price for tickets when you could be getting them cheaper just buying them game by game on stubhub or craigslist?
I almost shelled out for a seat from candlestick until my wife went ballistic! Looking back I don't blame her one bit. They were pretty pricey and now seems like a complete waste of money.
 
#43
I have a feeling that the guys who are getting the "whopping" two digit increases, might be people who were enjoying grandfathered pricing previously. Maybe they are catching up a little bit this year. People who had hung in there through the Maloof years have been granted a discount at least through last year. The guy next to me had a break of I think $9/ticket. If they closed that gap this year (in full or in part), then while I'm getting 8.4% increase, he might be getting 18 percent? Just guessing though.

I wonder if they will release any stats on renewals. I would guess plenty of people drop out this year and I wouldn't put it past Vivek to do something dramatic (i.e. hire a famous coach or GM) to kick-start the enthusiasm.
 
#44
I have a feeling that the guys who are getting the "whopping" two digit increases, might be people who were enjoying grandfathered pricing previously. Maybe they are catching up a little bit this year. People who had hung in there through the Maloof years have been granted a discount at least through last year. The guy next to me had a break of I think $9/ticket. If they closed that gap this year (in full or in part), then while I'm getting 8.4% increase, he might be getting 18 percent? Just guessing though.

I wonder if they will release any stats on renewals. I would guess plenty of people drop out this year and I wouldn't put it past Vivek to do something dramatic (i.e. hire a famous coach or GM) to kick-start the enthusiasm.
Isn't that what firing Malone was supposed to do? o_O
 
#45
Isn't that what firing Malone was supposed to do? o_O
ummm yeah. it's the truth - I'd have enthusiastically renewed day #1 if they hadn't fired Malone. I don't think I'm the only one.

Probably the only reason it has't cost Pete his job, is that it wasn't really Pete's fault. Pete is probably being a brave soldier for Vivek on this one. If Vivek could in good conscience pin this on Pete, then Pete would get fired as soon as the season ticket renewal stats start rolling in.
 
#46
Looks like my seats 219 row H went from $26 to $28 so its a little under 8% increase for next year? I am more worried about cost of new arena seats
 
#47
They clearly have a price point for the 2016-17 season that needs to happen for them to make any money after revenue sharing goes away. Even accounting for a massive jump in two years, I guess they are stuck in a position where they feel that they have to keep bumping up prices along the way to avoid a revolting sticker shock in 2 years. So, you can defend it, I guess.

But, you botch this season due to incompetence, pee of most of fans, burn your season ticket holders on the value of their tickets ... and tell them, if you want more of where that came from, you'll need to dig deeper into your wallet next year? In a season where they just keep showing off that their balls are brass but their ears are tone deaf, this might be the best example.

A couple of weeks into this season, the crowds were good, the season ticket base was pretty strong and very happy, the team played hard and gave a crap, and we were winning. We weren't world beaters, but it seemed like perhaps we'd started to move down a path.

Now that they've screwed it all up and raised the ticket prices, you'd have to think none of those good things will be true at the start of next season ... when we start over, yet again, with the same people that put this season into the ditch in the front office and a mediocre coach. Color me excited.
 
#48
OK this happened :)

Chris Granger just called me!! lol I gotta hand it to the guy. My caller ID was my ticket rep, but the guy on the other end of the phone was Chris Granger. That is "Disney service". Tell you one thing, they read twitter and probably here too.

I don't know the particulars of the lady on twitter who said she had a 14% increase - I don't know the arithmetic for her seats.

My seats are going up 8.4% ($10) and I'm ok with it. It is $129 for very nice mid-court seats. I jumped the gun taking up for the person who said she got a 14% increase - I think she has a beef with the organization but it isn't MY beef.

Like I said, to me under the circumstances a 8.4% ticket price increase isn't a deal breaker. I will renew or not renew for other reasons and I've told the Kings what they are (a little complicated). If I believe I will have equivalent seats in the new place - based on new and unknown price tiers - I will renew with or without a new coach.
Even if tickets stay the same price the Kings went down 50%. So tickets have gone up more than 100% if you care about what's going on when you're watching the Kings.
 
#50
Raising season ticket prices for this product they have created is like your gym bulldozing the basketball court, locker rooms, half the workout equipment, and the snack bar and then proceeding to raise your monthly membership fee.


This current basketball isn't worth the price of gas and parking to watch
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#51
Chris Granger just seems to have too good a touch to be unaware how tone deaf this is, so I'm going to assume it comes form other sources.

1001 logical reasons to raise them. The raising them is not the problem. Its timing and state of the team and fanbase that make it a problem.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#52
I have to wonder what David Stern is thinking right now and whether he and Granger have spoken about the poopoostorm that is Sacramento. Of course, Stern is probably very relieved he stepped down when he did...
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#53
I'm giving the kings until the trade deadline to hire a legit coach or make a nice exciting trade. If not I will not renew after several years. It's all about direction.
 
#54
Man there are rumblings that Thibs might be coaching for his job. If he gets fired I pray to god that DMC goes into the FO and says if Thibs isn't here in 2 days Gay and I are out. Thibs and cousins bonded at team usa is put him ahead of Karl
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#56
I would love Thibs. But defense isn't in the FO's vision.
Yes alas, I was thinking same thing when I saw Thibs' name pop up in the wiretaps, but come on, that would be a complete capitulation by the pace/NBA 3.0 crowd, and PDA's little postits he passes to Corbin in games would be completely ignored. I don't think Vivek even has the basketball to see what Thibs is doing. We're beyond COYs here -- Thibs ain't sexy.
 
#57
I don't live in Sacramento so it's hard for me to tell folks to make the sacrifice and not renew. But nothing would give me greater pleasure than for the fans of Sacramento to show their displeasure with their wallets. However, I know that people have had these tickets for a long time and it's hard to give that up even with the increase. I certainly wouldn't renew, but then again I'm not in that position so I can't really say with certainty.
 
#59
Basically what this means is the money that Vivek promised to invest in building the arena is going to come from the fans slowly. Vivek gets a loan, the fans make the payments.

I guess fans would be ok with the increase if this moron didn't somehow derail his own improving team. If the Kings continued on the same path that got them to 9-6 and ends up the season around .500, I can see fans biting on the tickets because there would be so much promise for the next season. But that ship has sailed and the person that made that happen is Vivek himself.

Vivek thinks he knows best, yet he doesn't get this simple logic. The fans show up when the team is winning, not when they play run & gun while losing every game.
 
#60
To you season ticket holders, may you consider using your current negotiating power to collectively force some answers out of the front office.

What are they planning to do for the fans and how will they assure this fiasco will be fixed? The only time you guys will have this much power is before you hand them your money. Once you commit, they can care less.

I know many of the answers will be more of the same run around type. But at least have your voice heard. Tell Vivek, "NO ONE CARES ABOUT PLAYING LIKE THE WARRIORS!". The style that Malone had the team playing was very exciting and we don't need any run and gun and run our franchise center to the ground.