This is an important time for the Edmonton Oilers. The fanbase’s angst is at an all-time high with the team failing to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons despite great play from Connor McDavid. As a result, many fans have shown skepticism to renew their season tickets.

The Oilers operate their premium season tickets on three-year contracts. The first-ever round of these contracts began back in 2016-17, which was the inaugural season at Rogers Place. Season ticket holders got bang for their buck in the first year, but, in the next two years, obviously didn’t.

I’ve heard stories about companies with seats in the loge level who couldn’t even find employees who were interested in going to games for free towards the end of the year. Now the Oilers are trying to get people to renew these seats for the next three seasons.

That brings us to this week’s What Would You Do Wednesday question. If you’re a skeptical season ticket holder, what would get you to renew your tickets? If you aren’t one, what would the team have to do in order for you to consider shelling out thousands of dollars on season seats?

The big thing, of course, will be the hiring of a new general manager to steer the ship. I think, ultimately, that’s what people care about here. At the end of the day, Oilers fans don’t care about random perks, they want to be in the building watching a winning team and they want first access to playoff tickets. In other smaller, non-traditional markets, you’ll see things like a luncheon with players, free jerseys, the ability to skate on the ice surface at designated times, vacation packages, and concert tickets.

This year, the Oilers are rolling out a few new features to their season tickets:

New things season ticket holders will see starting next season are discounts on food and apparel, arena tours, monthly open practices, and access to extra tickets at discounted prices. None of these things, to be honest, are very major upgrades and most are already standard things for most other organizations.

The big thing here is the fact there wasn’t a rise in ticket prices. (I’m seeing conflicting reports on Twitter that there was a slight raise, likely for inflation, but it was much smaller than the standard raise we’ve seen each year.) Obviously, it’s incredibly hard to justify spending even more on tickets when there was so little value in investing in them over the oast couple of years.

Personally, if I’m the Oilers, I would offer people a discount on renewing season tickets. So many people lost so much value with the team being out of contention the last two seasons and this would be a positive gesture to compensate for that. I see from a business standpoint why that wouldn’t be very feasible, but I think, beyond the team doing a complete 180, it’s the best thing the organization can offer to show fan loyalty at this point.