After 15 years of being a season ticket holder for the New York Islanders, I will be giving up my tickets at the end of this season. There are a number of reasons why I am. The main reason is I no longer feel the value is worth what I am paying for my seats. Sure, I could move to a cheaper location in the building, but where I sit is my favorite area to sit in any arena to watch hockey. I am on the blue line in the second level. This is close enough to see the players well but far enough back to see the play develop. Also, it provides an excellent view of the net nearest to my seats but is still close enough to get a decent view of the net on the opposite side of the ice. Going behind the net on this level does provide a good view of the net nearest to you depending on the pitch of the seats but a hard view of the opposite end. Move to the upper level and you might possibly be looking at ants running around.
Why am I giving up my tickets? The main reason is the organization has decided customer service is irrelevant to them. Numerous promises were made the organization declined to live up to including eliminating perks that nearly every other team provides to their season ticket holders. Concession and merchandise pricing is out of control. I have heard from friends, they are getting more benefits than I am for no apparent reason except they complain more than I do. Over the last couple of seasons, I have been lied to regarding ADA parking which is barely acceptable under the law. The final straw happened last week when my ticket rep decided to lie to me regarding how much my ticket price was increasing. It is bad enough to have our prices increase when the team fails to make the playoffs, but to claim my increase is less than 10% when, as an accountant, I know for a fact my increase is 13.6% (I believe the highest in the building).
The future performance of the team is also likely to be bad to terrible for the next half decade minimum. The current general manager, who I believe should have been fired 3 years ago, has essentially cleaned out the prospect pool of good young players and instead has signed over-the-hill players to long-term contracts with no-trade clauses making it all but impossible for there to be any meaningful turnover in players in the next 3-5 years. While the GM did finally fire the coach this season, he could have done months earlier possibly saving our season this year.
This has not been an easy decision as I do love watching hockey, but I can use the money I will save to attend a few games a season, take a couple of road trips, and for playoff tickets should the team surprise.
Finally, congrats to President Biden for clinching the necessary number of delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Let’s Go, Joe!
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