Blackhawks’ price of success

The price of success for the fans is always a bit of a sticking point for NHL fans, and with the Blackhawks now being the new hotness in Chicago, owner Rocky Wirtz is doing something his father “Dollar” Bill Wirtz would surely have been proud of. The Blackhawks are raising season ticket prices for next season a whopping 20% according to Chris Kuc.

In a letter sent to those holding season tickets, the Hawks announced that the average price for seats for the 2010-11 season will increase by 20 percent. The largest increase will be for the most inexpensive seats (6 percent of the tickets), which were raised from $12 to $20 (67 percent).

Nothing like taking advantage of a fanbase that cares again, right? For some, like NHL super agent Allan Walsh, the angle of supply and demand isn’t missed but Walsh also notes that teams aren’t exactly playing nice with the fans and their wallets either and used Twitter to say as much:

The 2004-05 lockout had nothing to do with making game affordable for fans, the line was used by NHL because it struck a cord with ave. fan

Obviously you have to keep in mind that this is coming from a player agent that’s always looking to get a little bit more money from teams for his clients, but there’s a metric ton of truth to what he says. A lot of what the NHL did say after the lockout was meant to win fans back over and affordability was a major issue and still is in a lot of markets.

Chicago, incidentally, ranked out as 18th among the 30 NHL teams as far as ticket prices went this season. That 20% raise should help the Blackhawks rise in the salary standings next year much the same way as their team on the ice has of late.