Ticket Sales Tip of the Week #33- (On the field)
It’s time to stop punishing teams who have great regular seasons with “the benefit” of starting at home in the playoffs. The reality is that “on” and “off” the field, recent numbers are suggesting it’s a disadvantage.
Let’s start with some recent playoff home team “on the field” stats. In the NHL playoffs a year ago the visiting team won over 60% of the games. The Toronto Maple Leaf’s beat Tampa in round 1 by winning 1 of their 3 home playoff dates and all 3 games as visitors in Tampa. In Rd 2, the Florida Panthers won 1 of 2 games they hosted & all 3 in Toronto to win the series.
Turning to baseball, for the first time MLB had 3 teams win over 100 games in the regular season. In addition to a bye in the 1st round, they all “earned” home field and the “privilege” to host the first 2 games on the series.
The result: 1W & 5 L’s at home & MLB’s best teams eliminated pre the ALDS.
This continued in the ALDS where neither Houston or Texas won a home game in the series. The kicker, Texas who’s playoff record is 7-0 on the road and 1-3 at home, due to having a better regular season record vs the National League NLDS series finalists, will host the World Series.
Last tidbit about the pressure of playing big games at home, for the AHL Opening Night 10 days ago, the home team lost 11 of the 12 games.
In Part 2 tomorrow, I’ll highlight the disadvantages from a Ticket Sales perspective when you start the series at home and the pressure it places on leaders @TomMcdonald, @JohnSantana and F&B chiefs like @DanMorrow. I’ll also present a solution that even the CFO is going to like.