Glen Taylor a hard-liner

[Worm Guts]

Of course, if there's still a lockout come draft time all the stud underclassmen might just stay in school.

[Worm Guts]

Also ticket prices need to go up. These buy tickets for as low as our draft pick is offers only ruin the franchise. Obviously, they're hoping some of the guys who buy $2 tickets stick but it doesn't seem to be the case when i watch wolves games.

Raising ticket prices doesn't do any good if no one shows up. If fans are in the building they can at least spend money on concessions.

[Foye]

Also ticket prices need to go up. These buy tickets for as low as our draft pick is offers only ruin the franchise. Obviously, they're hoping some of the guys who buy $2 tickets stick but it doesn't seem to be the case when i watch wolves games.

Raising ticket prices doesn't do any good if no one shows up. If fans are in the building they can at least spend money on concessions.

Do Americans really spend that much on concessions?

In Germany on average I'd say we spend much more on the ticket than on the concessions.

I usually buy nothing at all but maybe some beer when I go to soccer games. Usually, I buy my 1st beer on the railway station (because it's cheaper there ) and the 2nd in the stadium.
I would say the average German soccer fan spends a bit more than me on concessions - but not much more. And then there's a lot of guys who don't buy anything at all.
The concessions aren't really what clubs are making money with over here.

Inflating the ticket prices just isn't good. The house might be a little more packed but how are you going to justify increased prices when your team gets better?
Some fans are going to be pissed about that and stay at home.
Really, with some of the upper level ticket prices from last season you couldn't even go to the cinema here in Germany.

[Worm Guts]

I don't think anyone expects tickets to stay at 2 dollars. It's billed as a special ticket price. I don't know how much the team makes in concessions, but it's better than nothing and it's better to have people in the building.

[Foye]

I don't think anyone expects tickets to stay at 2 dollars. It's billed as a special ticket price. I don't know how much the team makes in concessions, but it's better than nothing and it's better to have people in the building.

If you want a packed house just keep the ticket prices at an acceptable level for people with average income and hand out free tickets to students/school kids. They'll go there with their friends/parents and buy food on concessions as well. If they like it they'll come back - buying tickets for the regular price.
The other people with relatively solid income will still be paying the higher (or should I say regular) ticket prices.
I don't think selling low is in the teams economic interest. I know $2 is just a special ticket price - but how much do the regular (cheaper) upper level tickets cost? Less than $8?. That would be less than a ticket on the cinema I'm working for even on Tuesday when we reduce prices by like 3 € compared to the weekend.
It doesn't make people feel like it's a special thing to go to the Timberwolves if ticket prices are so low they could achieve to go there every day.

[Worm Guts]

If you hand out free tickets a lot them will end up in the hands of kids who have no interest in going and have no money to spend if they do. If you sell tickets for cheap at least you know the people who bought them want to go.
If the Wolves thought they could make more money charging full price for all their tickets, I'm sure they would do it. And I'm sure they've put way more effort into figuring out what will make them more money than either of us has.

[shrink]

Free Tickets can lead to:
Revenue from parking
Revenue from concessions
Revenue from future sales/goodwill
Better experience for all from a fuller arena

Empty seats produce no revenue - the only incremental cost of leaving a seat empty is perhaps a slightly quicker clean-up.

If the team can increase it's attendance (briefly) by filling up empty seats, and not pull too much revenue away from people who'd have paid more to buy seats, then it isn't always a bad thing. The key is the goodwill, so that once the team starts winning, they have a larger fanbase to sell more expensive tickets to in the future.

Lastly, I should point out that win the Wolves were winning, the team was generating profits. The market here is not bad - the product simply needs some improvement, and the people will come.

[Krapinsky]

On the BS Report, the Ticketmaster CEO said the average ticket holder spends $15 on merch + concessions

[shrink]

I don't blame him, and without more concessions to put more balance economically and competitively, I'd be happy if there was no deal today, until a fairer system can be worked out.

Imagine you're invited to play in a auction fantasy league, and you bought in for $500. You get to spend $60, while other teams get to spend $90. You have to overpay for transactions like adding free agents - other teams don't. At what point do to say, "Hey - these rules aren't fair?"

The NBA as a whole puts out a better product if it promotes competition, and it gives all owners and their fans a legitimate belief they can win. The MIA-superteams is not going to stop. The LAL "who cares about the lux, we'll just keep Bynum as a spare" teams are not going to stop. I want MIN and the majority of teams to be on an equal footing when they all try to compete.

[The J Rocka]

In our case, players constantly coming and going it doesn't make sense to make all these jerseys or t-shirts with players that could leave, then they don't really sell. Not to mention, the Wolves Gymnasium (pro shop) is in a bad spot in Target Center and nothing about the shop pops out and convinces people to shop there.

I can definitely see the demand of merchandise moving up with the addition of Rubio and Williams to go along with all-star Kevin Love. If your team wins, people buy merchandise. Lynx were losing at one point and the demand for their merchandise was low. Lynx made the Playoffs and are WNBA Champions and the demand for jerseys and other team merchandise will go up. They were selling out the t-shirts when I went to the games and can't even remember the last time a Wolves piece of merchandise ever sold out.

[Foye]

If you hand out free tickets a lot them will end up in the hands of kids who have no interest in going and have no money to spend if they do. If you sell tickets for cheap at least you know the people who bought them want to go.
If the Wolves thought they could make more money charging full price for all their tickets, I'm sure they would do it. And I'm sure they've put way more effort into figuring out what will make them more money than either of us has.

Well, if you want to generate more money you've gotta expand your market. Students usually have money - although not much and school kids mostly would go with one of their parents - who have money, too. And parents usually spend a lot more for their kids than they would consume alone.

[shrink]

Maybe others knew about this, but I just heard it. I didn't know Glen Taylor has been a hard-liner since 2006

A couple of days before the start of training camp in 2006, David Stern received an uncomfortable letter at the NBA’s New York offices.

Eight owners signed a petition that demanded Stern address the small market/big market financial disparity they felt was a serious and growing problem. Obviously, they didn’t need to write him a letter like he was their local representative in Congress; he works for them. They did so to make a symbolic point and then released the letter to some media outlets to make sure the issue became public.

It read: “We are asking you to embrace this issue because the hard truth is that our current economic system works only for larger-market teams and a few teams that have extraordinary success on the court and for the latter group of teams, only when they experience extraordinary success. The rest of us are looking at significant and unacceptable annual financial losses."

The authors of the letter were Paul Allen of Portland, Herb Simon on Indiana, Bob Johnson of Charlotte, George Shinn of New Orleans, Larry Miller of Utah, Michael Heisley of Memphis, Glen Taylor of Minnesota and Herb Kohl of Milwaukee.

Johnson and Shinn have since sold their teams and Miller has passed away, giving way to his son, Greg. But the situations in those markets haven’t changed.

In essence, that letter is the root of the current lockout. And, it is turning out, perhaps a core reason the owners can’t make a deal with the players after more than two years of negotiations.

Robert Sarver of Phoenix and Dan Gilbert of Cleveland didn’t sign the letter in ’06, but they are now two of the biggest advocates for change in both revenue sharing and reducing player compensation. The Maloof family that owns the Kings was coming off six consecutive winning seasons and was used to selling every seat when the letter was authored. Now, they are in dire financial straits and are certainly looking for reform. In addition to the Bobcats and Hornets changing hands, the Wizards, Warriors, 76ers, Pistons and Hawks have also been sold in the past two years to groups who are expecting a new CBA to be more favorable to owners than the previous one. The Nets were also sold last season, but new owner Mikhail Prokhorov is not believed to be among those clamoring for change.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... ok-control

There was a side issue in Stern's NBA that wanted to allow the NBA to contract two teams without the permission of the players association. New Orleans and Sacramento seem likely, but apparently Kohl and a few other owners have been trying to get out as well. This list makes me worry.

[Krapinsky]

According to this article, Glen Tayor was one of 10 owners to sign a new letter saying the 50-50 deal was a bad deal for the owners.

According to sources within the NBA, the league’s labor relations board received a letter from 10 owners strongly opposed to the final offer Stern put on the table offering a 50-50 split.

Owners for Indiana, Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Portland and Sacramento said in the letter that they feel that a 50-50 revenue split represents a bad deal for the owners.

http://www.ibj.com/the-score/2011/11/15 ... post/30783

Maybe it's time to stop making the Taylor is a billionaire argument and start worrying about the Timberwolves moving, or gulp, contracting some day.