The Oilers are among the NHL’s ballers with ticket revenue
By baggedmilk
6 years agoVegas Golden Knights owner, Bill Foley, sat down with Forbes magazine to talk about his new team, the hockey landscape in Vegas and what it’s like to start a brand new team. What does that have to do with the Oilers? Foley talked about how they’re one of the top earning teams in the league in terms of ticket revenue.
Before I get started, I think it’s pretty obvious that the Oilers make stacks of cash from ticket sales—that’s not news. Frankly, I assume there is nothing but solid gold toilets at the Chateau Katz, and I’d even bet they can do cool tricks like spraying your butt with warm air and perfume. As an aside, I was once in Japan for a hot minute and one of the best things I’ve ever experienced was having my butt dried gently with the warm kisses of an air-blowing robot toilet—it’s a luxury the whole world deserves to try at least once.
Anyway…
Back in the Forbes interview, Bill Foley explained how the response for season tickets has been huge in Vegas and that there is a culture of hockey fans that are already living there or are likely to visit. According to the league’s 31st owner, Vegas was a great spot for an NHL team to land according to his models and the sales seem to back that up. Without even playing a single game, the Vegas Golden Knights are in the top seven or eight spots in terms of ticket revenue.
“We are number five, six or seven in terms of ticket revenue in the league. That’s how good Las Vegas has been to us,” says Foley as we sit on a veranda at his Chalk Hill winery in Sonoma County. “Edmonton has more revenue in their brand-new arena. The Rangers, Toronto, Chicago Black Hawks, they’re all ahead of us. Montreal is right with us. We have more revenue than the Flyers, Penguins, the Boston Bruins. Most of our tickets are multi-year. The lower bowl is three to ten years.”
If I’m understanding this quote correctly, and I will readily admit I’m the furthest thing from a mathematician, economist or even a stats guy, the Edmonton Oilers could rank in the top four in terms of ticket revenue. That’s a hell of a stat for a team that spent the last decade in the league’s basement. Yes, I know we have the new arena, and yeah I know that people love to take shots about the public funding and how lucky we are to have Connor McDavid, but I would question how many fan bases would continue to avidly support their team (with ticket price increases!) after 10 years of crawling through a turd pipe Andy Dufresne style.
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