Caps Tickets Easy & Cheap, Fans Quiet & Booey, Team Losey

Let me tell you the kind of stuff you have to do to push Wizards tickets.  You can't just give them away for free, but you have to PAY people to attend instead.  (And they still don't want to go).

The Caps were different though...or so I thought...

Empty Seats Everywhere, Fans Exiting Early - Thursday vs Montreal from Verizon Center

Last week I purchased two tickets to the Washington Capitals second home game at Verizon Center which took place on Thursday night.  The tickets, worse than my Wizards season tickets that cost me $9 per game, ran $50 each plus fees, a price I would not typically pay for a non playoff type game.

In the past I had been to only a few games, mostly because of the price, and the games I did attend, the amount of money that I paid did not match the amount of money on the ticket.

Which is why I was shocked when on Thursday morning, when I realized I would have trouble going to the game, that nobody wanted to take these hot tickets off me for face value.

Then I was made aware of something very surprising to me.




Tickets were going for well BELOW face value.

@dcsportsnexus I have 2 great lowers for only 50 each that nobody wants
— Caps Tickets (@Caps_Tickets) January 24, 2013

My Upper deck, literally touching the BACK WALL cost me $50 each!  I should have held off and sat down low!

The word on Twitter was that tickets were as low as half a freaking sawbuck!! That's 5 bucks for those of you who don't use cool language!  The only visual evidence I have that tickets were cheap as hell is this following amazing fan submitted screencap:

Other people told me they made it into the home opener for below face value as well, and it appears that the lockout did have some kind of effect on the NHL, specifically in Washington DC (which I think is different than other places).

The crowd at the actual game, from a Wizards fan perspective, was impressive.  From a Caps fan perspective it was a travesty.  The lower level was filled with clusters of open seats. There were several open seats scattered about the whole upper bowl.

And the volume and passion from the crowd, was virtually non-existant.  At several points in the night, the crowd was quieter than at a Wizards blowout loss.  And that was at 0-0, not only when down 4-0.

While the fans did leave early, and boo the team off the ice (very very loudly) I don't think that is the reason for the low ticket prices.  At 0-2 can it be?   Here is what it sounded like: