Not since Nov. 9, 1995, has the Avalanche failed to sell out a home game, a streak of 439 games that is the longest in NHL history.
But Paul Andrews, Kroenke Sports Enterprises executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said Sunday that a late start to the team’s annual ticket-selling campaign means there were about 250 seats unsold as the team prepared for tonight’s home-opening game against Calgary at the Pepsi Center. Roughly 300 season-ticket packages remain unsold.
“Most people think we’re sold out and you can’t get a ticket,” Andrews said. “I want them to know that there’s still tickets available.”
Because the NHL lockout wasn’t settled until July, the Avs started selling tickets later than their usual start in March, when they send season-ticket invoices to customers.
“We renewed 91 percent of our season ticket-holders, so that left us with 8 to 9 percent that went into (availability),” Andrews said. “From that point, we went into our sales process. The difference is in past years we would start that process in March.”
Most available season-ticket packages are part of separate 14-game plans. The Avalanche offered three such 14-game plans; package No. 3 is sold out. The plans are for seats in the upper bowl, but Andrews said he made roughly another 100 season tickets available Saturday, some in the lower bowl.
Andrews said the Avalanche maintains a waiting list of more than 1,000 for season tickets, which prompts the question, why haven’t they automatically been slotted into the available season tickets?
“These are people who are waiting for location-specific seats,” Andrews said. “They want, say, front row rinkside or some other exact location and they want to wait for those.”
If television ratings are an indication, the Avalanche maintains a large fan base. Wednesday’s season opener at Edmonton drew a 4.7 local rating on Altitude Sports and Entertainment, considerably higher than the numbers generated by the Rockies and Nuggets in their most recent season openers.
The sellout streak can’t last forever, but Andrews said he doesn’t believe it will end tonight.
“Do I think it’s in jeopardy? I would say not, knowing the passion that the fans in Denver have,” he said. “But I’m encouraging them to get out and buy some.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
