Wednesday, May 20, 2015

UNO Hockey Approaches Sellout with Only 160 Tickets Available

After just over three weeks of public sales, UNO only has 160 tickets remaining for hockey at the new arena. Depending on which side of the argument you lie on, it's good news.  People who love the idea of UNO having their own arena point out that it's an endorsement of the plan.  People against moving to the smaller arena can point out the fact that UNO could have sold more tickets, if the arena had been sized appropriately.  (#oohAhhSmallerThanLastYearsCrowd)

There's no turning the clock back on what I've called "the mistake"; it's nearing completion, right or wrong.  It doesn't even look like expansion was even considered when the building was designed, based on the drawings and images I've seen thus far.  So Maverick fans are going to live with a 7500 seat arena. Will that mean more people show up for an exhibition game during the holidays, because that might be the only chance people have to get in?  Maybe.  The bigger impact is going to be dampening the crowds that show up in January and February, which historically tend to be bigger (and quite a bit so) than the arena's capacity. That'll fuel a secondary ticket market, which will be good for season ticket holders who can't make it to every game.  It'll also enable North Dakota fans to continue to bring a thousand fans down I-29 to Omaha in February.  (What, you thought that building a smaller arena would keep the green hordes out?  Bahhaha...)

If you need three tickets, you are in luck because their are 19 sets of three tickets still available.  There are only two sets of four tickets still available, and just eight pairs.  There are still several groups of 5-10 tickets that could be split up into pairs or other groupings.  It'll be interesting to see how much longer most of the remaining tickets last; I suspect that by September, there will only be a handful of single tickets available - which would be a virtual sellout in my mind.

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