Masai Ujiri 'feels for the fans' as rebuilding Raptors raise ticket prices again

[C Court]

The Raptors used to have regular sellouts of 20,000+ for every game. Last season, they averaged 19,500.

As well, there were a lot more no shows in the second half of the season. Seatholders couldn’t move their tickets and left them empty. So while Raptors attendance is still strong, there are signs of declining demand for tickets.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

The seats were sold before the start of the year. It's the re-sale market that tanked. Mostly post the all-star, as people started walking away. Even if the price was free, most of these games were not worth watching.

[Mikistan]

After about 9 years of being a season seat holder we letting them go this year. Worked our way from 17th row upper bowl to 2nd row upper bowl upgrading every year and optimizing for value vs price, but just can't keep paying it to go 5 times a year and give the discounts to friends and family with me fronting the cash

[hyper316]

The Raptors used to have regular sellouts of 20,000+ for every game. Last season, they averaged 19,500.

As well, there were a lot more no shows in the second half of the season. Seatholders couldn’t move their tickets and left them empty. So while Raptors attendance is still strong, there are signs of declining demand for tickets.

Ya, even realgm post game threads showed lack of interest. The product is not worth watching in person or at home

[Mark_83]

I didn't realize Bobby Webster was part of Andrew Schulz's posse.

[Pacernation]

What kind of prices are we talking here? 1000 $ for a family for a regular season game? Are those courtsideseats? Can't believe it is that expensive to watch a random game in january. But I'm not from Canada or the USA so I got no clue but that sounds insane to me. In Germany you can go to a random Bundesligagame with decent seats for around 30-50 € so 250 € per person including parking, drinks and food sounds unreal to me..

[refshateRaps]

It is what it is. Real fans helped to build this into a guaranteed money printer for very wealthy peeps. Now most true hardcore basketball fans no longer hold much value to ownership.

Between Corporation involvement, along with the growing number of very wealthy casuals who simply like to do things that are expensive for the simple fact they can say they 'did it', this will only continue to get worse in a growing City with no competition whatsoever.

Thankfully we have a neighbour who own season tix and don't they dont even care about basketball so they toss of a few tickets during the season. Guy has more signed jerseys in his basement then the hall of fame but hardly even cares about basketball. A sign of the times as to the type of fans holding tickets. No matter how much money I have there's absolutely no value in my eyes to pay for regulars season games at the asking price for any opponent.

Post championship has shown they all know they no longer have to try to put out a winning product and it's clear they have had zero interest too. Congrats to the owners as they now have a golden cow which basically milks itself.

Your the type of individual that corporate doesn't give a crap about, unless you spend on merchandise, have cable/league pass that don't stream games on IPTV like all these losers here(yeah you know who you are ) and buy tickets on games they have no use for you. There is a certain market and demographics that corporate likes to cater to, those dumb casuals who don't care about the product and have loads of disposable income. Many of these are tourists that just want to attend the games in Toronto because it's trendy, this is just straight facts.

Outside of Corporate tickets and spending the Organization is truly catering to the peeps wanting to say they 'did the thing' in the look at me social media generation. Most true basketball fans, even those who had season tickets for decades have reverted to IPTV and Cable programming and just buy some merch to enjoy or support the team and product.

There simply is no reasonable entertainment value anymore in the regular season unless you're a real estate broker, business person or mainstream influencer gaining promotion by sitting front rows. Everyone else paying is getting excessively raked for 3 hours and you just can only hope the Raps at least win or you see a close game. Otherwise the atmosphere will be meh and for the next year at least this could be a common occurrence. Expensive things will always draw interest for those looking to do something so this is who they'll cater to going forward so they may get away with it?

[will]

Isn't this the guy who held onto that (if I speak, I'm in trouble. Innnn trouble), Pascal and ADOBE for too long, and doubled down dealing for a center who can't play in crunch time for a lotto pick?

The opportunities were there prior. He made his decision and we all get to deal with the results of it.

[C Court]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

[DelAbbot]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

A good chunk of the wait list probably lost interest too like the season seat holders

[ontnut]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

A good chunk of the wait list probably lost interest too like the season seat holders

The market for SS crashed along with the COVID stock and crypto markets lol. Raps tickets at the time were sometimes looked at as just another investment and/or luxury item people could buy with their new found $$$. Plus the team was actually good at the time.

[And1Skip]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

Interesting. I have a coworker who buys 6 games from me every year and I let her go to member events when I can’t go, she’s been on the wait list for several years and was told there was 6000 people ahead of her. She’s desperate to become an SSH. Wished they do a survey for all registered wait list people to get a sense on the demand. I selfishly don’t want her to become a SSH yet because I will have to find someone else to buy those 6 games from me at cost lol.

[tecumseh18]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

I would think so. My rep called me back last week after I cancelled a month ago. I said the price was too high. He suggested sharing the tickets with other friends, etc, to spread the cost around, and I replied (a) I already did that, as would be obvious from a perusal of my ticket transfers for the last few years and (b), that didn't change the fact that per game ticket prices - e.g. for a Wednesday game against Charlotte in February - were too high. It was especially annoying when big stars wouldn't come up over the border with their teams, yet we suckers still had to pay premium prices for those games.

He also asked if the existing member gifts were enough or could be improved. I laughed that off at the time, but in retrospect I should have said to make them a $2,000 cash payment to my bank account, and I'd reconsider. It would be like vendors of new condos or cars during a recession, giving back money to purchasers just to keep the official list price elevated.

[DelAbbot]

Saw this post today in another online group of Raptors season seat members.

lol MLSE called asking about reason for not renewing and gave a little extra time

If MLSE is really giving extra time for fans to rethink their cancellation, it tells me the Raptors tix wait list isn't all that strong.

I would think so. My rep called me back last week after I cancelled a month ago. I said the price was too high. He suggested sharing the tickets with other friends, etc, to spread the cost around, and I replied (a) I already did that, as would be obvious from a perusal of my ticket transfers for the last few years and (b), that didn't change the fact that per game ticket prices - e.g. for a Wednesday game against Charlotte in February - were too high. It was especially annoying when big stars wouldn't come up over the border with their teams, yet we suckers still had to pay premium prices for those games.

He also asked if the existing member gifts were enough or could be improved. I laughed that off at the time, but in retrospect I should have said to make them a $2,000 cash payment to my bank account, and I'd reconsider. It would be like vendors of new condos or cars during a recession, giving back money to purchasers just to keep the official list price elevated.

This is a good idea for MLSE.

[ItsDanger]

If MLSE is giving you a lot of extra time and/or incentives to renew your SSH, that likely means the waiting list isn't as long as often suggested on here or maybe the commitment from that list wasn't as serious as assumed.