May 19, 2003
Not Such A New Idea
One reason I love blogging is having the opportunity to point out facts other folks have forgotten. Such is the case today with this news out of Texas regarding the NBA Western Conference Finals:
Dallas Mavericks fans who tried to buy tickets online to the first two games of the series in San Antonio have been frustrated in recent days when the orders were canceled because their credit card billing address did not come from areas apparently specified by the San Antonio Spurs.
A notice on Ticketmaster's Web site states that sales to games at the SBC Center "will be restricted to residents of San Antonio, Austin and south of San Antonio areas." Dallas is located nearly 200 miles north of Austin and 275 miles north of San Antonio.
"It probably adds to (the rivalry)," said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who received about 20 e-mails from fans who wanted to purchase tickets to the game. "We have a lot of upset Mavs fans who have friends in San Antonio who would have loved to go to the game, actually got online and bought tickets and had the purchases canceled."
Actually, Mavericks fans aren't the first who have ever been victimized by such a sales strategy. In fact, the first time I can remember it being used was during the 2000 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Pittsburgh Penguins fans were prevented from purchasing tickets for games in Washington for a series between the Pens and the Caps. Pens fans complained loud and long, but their protests were met with indifference from a chuckling Caps owner, Ted Leonsis.
Why? Two reasons really. First of all, Washington, D.C. is among the most popular destination for newly minted college graduates from the Pittsburgh area. Combined with Penguins fans who regularly made the 3.5 hour ride down from the Steel City, Penguins fans would regularly outnumber the Caps faithful in their own arena. And after losing multiple playoff series to the Penguins over the years, Leonsis decided to throw a bone to the home faithful.
The other reason can be found in the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Caps were efficiently swept in four games by the Detroit Red Wings. Much like the Penguins series in the past, MCI Center was crawling with Red Wings fans for Games Three and Four in Washington. By the time I took my seat for Game Four, the MCI Center was a virtual sea of red and white, with nary a Caps jersey to be found in the arena.
To say the least, it took the edge off of the evening -- and robbed the Caps of any sort of home ice advantage (not that it would have mattered). By the time the team returned to the playoffs two years later, the new owner was ready to stiff the out-of-town folks, no matter what it cost.
By and large, Leonsis's strategy worked, with far fewer Penguins fans in the stands than usual. Despite the success of his gamesmanship, the Caps were still blown off the ice in Game One of that series, one they eventually lost in five games.
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The Carolina Hurricanes did the same thing last year for the Finals. After they had 1500 or so Leafs fans show up for a Sunday afternoon game in the Eastern Conference finals, they locked down Ticketmaster sales to cards with billing addresses in the states of VA, NC, SC and GA. It worked well (I went to Game 4, and there wasn't but a sprinkling of Commies, er, Wings fans), but, of course, the magic ran out in that series after the Canes' Game 3 3OT loss, after Hull tied it up in the last two minutes of regulation.
Posted by:
at May 20, 2003 02:42 PM
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05:08 PM