Yes, I crunched the numbers. How much are the Panthers losing with this lockout? They’re losing more than hard earned fans with their last playoff run, and they’re losing valuable air time in the sunshine state.
Among other expenses, the Panthers are losing ticket sales. As one of the smaller markets in the NHL their prices are what a Canadian hockey fan would call awesome. Other markets might call them reasonable. However you may see them, the tickets still contribute a fair amount to the success of any given team. Their revenue relies heavily on ticket sales.
The Florida Panthers’ website lists their 2011-12 season the clubs most successful since their move to the Bank Atlantic Center, now the BB&T Center in 1998. In their first season at the newly named BB&T Center, their listed average attendance was 18,501 with 13 sellouts. In 2011-12, they listed their average attendance as 16,629 with 17 sellouts.
Now that the lockout is in full swing and not coming to a halt anytime soon, the revenue lost from ticket sales is enormous. Each game the Panthers don’t play costs them just over a million dollars. Taking into account the average ticket price for every section, and the average amount of seats per section, I calculated the approximate amount of dollars lost per game.
The total capacity of the BB&T Center is 19,250. With the average announced attendance of any given game last season being 16,629, I came up with a way that included 17,170 tickets sold.
Using ticketmaster as a model, I counted approximate seating in each section and accounted for the different price ranges. The seats and prices vary in each section, so the amount of seats and their prices were averaged out between the same shape of section.
The upper bowl has approximately 7,750 seats which have an average ticket price of $34.00. This means the whole upper bowl excluding standing room brings in $263,500. This is for an average game price.
The lower bowl centre ice seats are split into 6 sections. The closer to the ice, the more expensive the ticket. They range from $60-$80. There are approximately 2,592 seats in those 6 sections. With an average of $70 per ticket, those 6 sections bring in $181,440.
The curved sections in the corners of the lower bowl vary the most in price. The most expensive being $159 and the least being $90. Averaging those prices out over the 3,312 seats comes out to $70 a seat, costing $412,344.
The lower bowls final section located at the ends; behind each net, seats approximately 2,448 fans. These sections tickets range between $60-$80, averaging to $70. These two end sections amount to $171,360.
When all the sections are added up it amounts to $1,028,644 in generated ticket sales with an attendance of 17,170. The Panthers are losing approximately just over a million dollars with every home game that isn’t played. With an average of 41 home games a season, this means the club will lose $42,174,404.
Using the same model of attendance and ticket prices, to date, the Panthers have lost approximately $4,114,576 in the month of October. Since the regular season schedule from the 2012-13 season has been taken down until December, this approximation is based on the four home games played last season by the Panthers.
When the numbers are crunched it makes the lockout that much more real in terms of revenue lost, and the revenue that will not be made up when the season starts. It’s a huge risk to lockout a league in the first place, but to depend on the small markets to come back like they were at the end of last season is unrealistic.
