Bruins take the loss, NHL to blame?

 So the Boston Bruins lost on opening day again for the second year in a row except this time the blame goes to the NHL. What in the world makes them think that traveling to Europe to play 2 games during the regular season and coming back to the states is not a disadvantage. Not only do the players have to adjust to what, a 7 time zone shift but we as fans have to sit at home or drink at a bar at NOON on Saturday? Are you kidding me NHL? I don't have the time or energy to sit here and write out every reason for why the NHL is the worst run sports organization out of the bunch but hey lets see the last lock out went to who? Yup, the NHL, the same organization that was the LAST to accept the "mobile" transformation of their www.NHL.com website. That's right folks up until 2009 NHL.com wouldn't even load on cell phones in mobile format. Because they weren't sure if this cell phone thing would catch on, give me a break!
 While I realize MLB sent teams to Japan to open the season once, but did you see them do it again?? Is the commissioner of the NHL that obtuse that he cant look at the other organizational failures and accept the fact that maybe your American League sport should stay in America? While it seems to be random luck which teams got selected to go and which did not, it seems unfair to take 2 games out of a 82 game season and make the team fly to the moon to play. Last time I checked no fans in Prague pay for Bruins season tickets, nor do they purchase any concessions at the Garden. Fans in Boston spend their hard earned money to support their team. In this economy its hard enough to pay your mortgage never mind take a family to any night out with the price of 4 tickets parking and food. Our countries unemployment rate is at 10% and you're worried about promoting the NHL franchises in Europe? Great job NHL my hat goes off to you, way to show support to the people that you desperately need to buy your tickets! Im not only speaking as a Bruins fan. How does this joke of a European trip help a bankrupt Phoenix team?? The fans in Arizona deserve to see their team score 5 goals on Tukka Rask LIVE, not at 9am West Coast time on a Saturday watching TV. Your team cant even support itself in its own city and you use it to promote your sport in another country? Yes lets take the execs from Enron and ship them to India to teach the people how build successful companies.
 I am a hockey fan and always have been. The demise, re birth and now just plain stupidity of the NHL needs to stop. Stop screwing the hard working people that love your sport, you need us to survive!

Where have all the real FANS gone?

  My usual blog entries seem to run about 4 paragraphs longer then I intend them too so I just want to throw up a quick comment on the MLB Playoffs and their fans, from a brokers stand point of coarse. What most fans around the country seem to miss is that the majority of people enjoy winning but don't seem to want to pay for it. The word "fan" was shortened to describe a "fanatic" supporter of a team but as I watch the Tampa Bay Rays unable to sell out their home playoff games it makes me realize we need a new term for people who simply "like" a team. Don't start telling me about how the "economy" is the reason the Rays cant sell out a playoff game when tickets are selling for $15. Last time I checked the movie theater by my house charges $13.75 and they seem to always be packed. The Atlanta Braves, also in the playoffs were known to have thousands of empty seats every playoff game. This time around they might be able to finally sell out the stadium but only because their fans haven't seen a playoff game in years.
  The only teams that seem to have "fanatics" watching are the Red Sox, the Phillies and the Yankees. These fans seem to support the team year round and go try to find a playoff ticket to this Saturdays Yankees game. Prices start at almost $200 PER ticket. Compare that to the empty blue seat in Tampa waiting for a fan. The people in New York, Boston and Philadelphia have truly earned the name "Fan". We need to find a new term for the people that "enjoy" an occasional baseball game in cities like Atlanta or Tampa. I say lets go the movie theater way, people that pay $13.75 to see a movie are called "movie-goers" So the people that refuse to pay $15 to see their teams live in the playoffs should be called "Baseball-goers" during the season, not "Fans"

Sometimes waiting until last minute for tickets just does not work

  In the ticket business we call these people "bottom feeders". While that term does bring some derogatory emotion you must see it from a ticket brokers point of view. The same 5% of the people call 1 hour before every single Red Sox or Bruins game wondering if they can get in the door for $15. The story is usually the same, years ago they waited until last minute to decide if they wanted to go to see their favorite sports team, and when they finally made up their mind it was 55 and misty outside. Or the team had just come home from loosing 4 in a row and the fan base along with the ticket prices went sour. At this point the so called "fan" was able to purchase tickets for nothing and got the bright idea that they should never purchase tickets in advance. Well I work for a ticket broker and let me set the record straight.
 While waiting until last minute may pay off sometimes especially for an outdoor even since the price is so determined by weather, think about it. If its 55 and raining yes you can get Red Sox seats for 1/2 price but do you really care? Do you really want to sit in a half filled Fenway Park on a damp seat waiting an hour through a rain delay? Is that really worth "waiting" to save $20 a ticket? Better yet look at the Boston Bruins 1st pre season game Sep 25th vs Florida. Balcony tickets were selling for between $7 and $15 from June until 2 days before the game. You could have sat ON THE ICE for $35 to $40, as most of our Twitter and Facebook learned since they heard us constantly telling people PRICE WILL GO UP hurry up and buy! So what happened? Well 24 hours before the event the $7 Balcony seats jumped to $25 and the $35 Loges went to $60. 4 hours before the game on Saturday night it was $50 for the SAME balcony seats you could have purchased for $7 for over 3 months!! And those $35 Loge seats on the Ice? Forget about it they were NON existent since people all of a sudden realized "Hey this is Tyler Seguin's 1st game in Boston"
 Another great example is whats happening right now in New York. NY Yankees fans LOVE to wait until last minute for every game since a large portion of them believe they aren't the types to EVER let anyone take them for anything. Well the Yankees are in the ALDS playing against the Twins, and seats to get in the door which for 2 MONTHS have been selling for $55-$65 are now upwards of $120 and climbing with inventory on the secondary market at 25% of what it used to be in the past week. Everyone who graduated high school, and even some folks that didn't can comprehend supply and demand. There are only so many seats at an arena, people seem to forget that sometimes. Once real fans purchase the seats from brokers guess what, they are no longer EVER available for sale because those fans are actually going to the game!! So I am writing this to give fans, especially the ones in Boston right now that think the Boston Celtics fiasco of Opening Day vs Lebron & the New Big 3 of the Heat will fall down to a $50 ticket, a wake up call. People love hype, radio stations and tv stations ratings are based on that exact hype.
  What do you think every sports media outlet in the world will be talking about come 3rd week of October? Lebron and the Big 3 LIVE IN BOSTON! Keep that in mind as you wait for the Celtics vs Heat Opening Day Tickets to drop to the price of a movie ticket. Just do me a favor and start calling your friends now to see who's house you'll be watching the game at.

Official Rules & Instructions for Twitter Raffles

 If you would like to enter our weekly free ticket raffles and giveaways on Twitter please read all the rules carefully if you miss any of these steps you will not be selected.

1. You must be following us on twitter. No ReTweets will count as entries from twitter users not following our @AdmitOneBoston account.
2. In order to be eligible for the weekly Friday raffle you must ReTweet BOTH Raffle Tweets during the week. Raffle Tweets will be posted on Monday & Thursday for drawings held Friday afternoon. Both raffle tweets must be ReTweeted to have a valid entry.
3. This is what the raffle tweet looks like, **RAFFLE TWEET** Follow us & CLICK ReTweet to enter into the Raffle for #FREE #NameOfTeamWeAreGivingAway #Tickets You must ReTweet this & Follow to be entered. they will always look exactly the same every week with the name of the team we are giving tickets away to being the only thing that changes.
4. Only ReTweets via web count. You must use a computer to ReTweet by clicking the retweet button on the bottom right of each raffle tweet. No ReTweets from Uber Twitter, HootSuite, Tweetdeck or any other app will count as valid ReTweets. 
5. If you are using your computer via web to ReTweet you will only be able to click retweet one time on each raffle tweet. Clicking retweet on all our other tweets that day, while is much appreciated by us will not count as extra entries.
6. You can ReTweet both raffle tweets at any time during the week as long as you have clicked retweet on each one before the raffle is done on Friday afternoon.
7. Both the raffle tweets of the week once posted will always be found in our Favorites section for easy access.
8. If your account is protected and we are not following you your entry will not be valid since we have no way of checking your account to see if both raffle tweets have actually been retweeted.
9. Once a winner is selected on Friday & their name posted on our twitter account, the winner must send us a tweet saying that they have won. We will then follow the winners twitter account so that they are able to send us a direct message with their contact info so we can get them the tickets.
10. Winners will have 24 hours to tweet us regarding their prize. If the winner does not tweet us within 24 hours of their name being selected they forfeit the prize and any claim to it.
11. Rules for raffles and giveaways are subject to change at any time. Check this site for updates of any rule & regulation changes to the twtter raffles.
12. We will no longer be answering any tweets with specific questions on raffles as we have gotten a lot of complaints from followers having to read the same tweets over and over from us.

The outlook for Winter sports teams in Boston part 1

  Finding topics to blog about hard to come by, I asked our followers on our Twitter Page for some suggestions. The overall consensus seemed to be that people were curious about my outlook for the Bruins & Celtics for the upcoming season. Working for Admit One gives me a unique perspective into how fans feel about their home teams chances of being competitive and having a chance to win it all. I mean who can blame them, would you want to shell out a few hundred bucks to take your girlfriend or boyfriend to a game only to see the Celtics get blown out by 30 points or the Bruins skate around for 60 minutes without scoring a single goal? No of coarse not, and we don't expect you to. That's why the price of tickets on the secondary market is set by you, the fans. When the teams start winning, everyone wants to go and the price sky rockets. When the teams start losing, well, lets just say Box seats to the last Red Sox vs Orioles home stand a week ago were selling for $7 each a few hours before the game.
  So what do I think of the Bruins & Celtics chances this year? Well I'll get to that because honestly I'm just one guy with one opinion. Whats more interesting is what the fans of the Celtics & Bruins think about their team, and right or wrong, I can give you their perspective from a ticket brokers point of view. 
  We started selling Boston Bruins Tickets for the upcoming season on our site www.BruinsTix.com
over 2 months ago. As you can imagine demand was slow in July and August but the key match ups stayed hot. Opening day is always a huge ticket and opening up the Garden against Ovechkin & The Capitals was sure to be a big ticket. Not only do you see Ovechkin opening night but 3 days later you get the NY Rangers in town on a Saturday. Fans have been pretty pumped to see Tyler Seguin in real life which caused the prices of the first preseason game vs Florida to jump from $7 all the way up to $50 by game time with almost no seats being left anywhere. From both mine and the fans perspective he has not disappointed racking up a goal and an assist in only 2 games played. This kid is a superstar and seeing him up close from our Ice seats on Wednesday night leads me to believe he will fit right in. While having Mark Savard on the fence for the season sure makes reaching the Stanley Cup an uphill battle, having Tyler Seguin up front should have fans saying Mark who? rather quickly. The NHL season is long and usually injury plagued, seems like the team who can stay the healthiest usually makes it the furthest. With the combination of Zdeno Chara having a contract year, Seguin playing on the same line as either Lucic or Bergeron, and Tuukka Rask spending the pre season looking as sharp as where he left off in 2010, the B's should not only be a power house in the east but win over Buffalo and Ottawa to take the Division.
 Stay tuned in the next few days for my Boston Celtics perspective & feel free to join us on our Twitter Page and give me your feedback on the blog or make a topic request.

The end of the 2010 Red Sox season

 As the 2010 Red Sox season comes to an end I would like to share with everyone my point of view on a teams "popularity". What most people fail to realize is that popularity and winning are both cyclical. A dynasty is both. However a quote unquote "dynasty" is not what the average fan is looking for. We love the "Cinderella" the "underdog". Most people believe that a winning team, a consistently winning team that is, will garnish higher attendance at the ball park and more fan interest. Both the NY Yankees and Atlanta Braves have proven otherwise. The Atlanta Braves for all the post seasons they have made now no longer can even sell out a home playoff game. The Yankees, while being a hot World Series ticket in 2009 was actually a ticket that sold for FACE value in 2003 vs Florida. You see the Yankees were coming to the end of their "dynasty" and fans were, well, sick and tired of all the winning. They might not admit it, but the secondary market never lies. Fans were expecting the Yankees to win, so why shell out hundreds of dollars to see it live when you can watch it at home for free, I mean you already know the result. Well, sort of since the Yankees actually lost that series to Florida and the red hot Josh Becket in 6 games.
  The Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series bleacher tickets were selling for $1500. In 2007 the same ticket cost $650. Fans get bored with winning faster then they get bored with losing. The fans in Boston keep screaming for a World Series, can I ask WHY? There are 30 teams in Major League Baseball and only 2 make it to the dance and only 1 can win that coveted World Series trophy. Does that mean its not worth paying for a ticket if you either expect your team to win or lose? Does the experience of being at a Sunday Red Sox Yankees game at Fenway mean so much less if the game isnt for all the marbles? To those fans out there that say yes, I say go ask your 6 year old if he cares. Ask him if the experience of seeing Big Papi hit a home run vs the Yanks is diminished in his eyes because the team is not chasing October.
   To the real fans out there I say, if the weather is nice this weekend take your kid to Fenway. I know the Sox are eliminated and the Yankees have clinched the playoffs but your kids will not care. Tickets are 75% cheaper then ever and in this economy stretching a dollar and showing your kids a good time is more important then ever.  Their memory will always be, being at a Sox Yankees game with their dad, not of the standings.

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