"Our fans have been so loyal to us for so long that we wanted to give them an opportunity to see all of the exciting young kids we have in our system," said Flyers President Ron Ryan. "It’s really just a ‘thank you’ for sticking with us through such a difficult time."
|
|
While the Phantoms’ season-ticket base is significantly smaller than their parent club (approximately 1,000, not including partial plan holders), they have not gotten any similar treatment, and in fact have been forced to pay for their playoff tickets in full.
So much for their loyalty.
Take, for instance, the Forbes family. Hays and Joanne and their daughter Lindsey became Phantoms’ season-ticket holders for the first time this season.
"We sat down and looked at it and it basically came down to we could either afford four Flyers games or 40 Phantoms games," said Hays. "It was the right decision because it’s a total family atmosphere where everyone knows everyone. It’s a lot like the Flyers games used to be back in the ’70s."
But now, after a full season of spending their money on the Phantoms, they will have to pay to see the first few Phantoms playoff games.
Meanwhile, their Flyers brethren, who for the most part haven’t been to a hockey game since last May, will get to see playoff hockey for free and all the while in the lap of luxury in a Wachovia Center club box.
"The NHL has done nothing but preach about their money problems for the past year and now they’re giving away thousands of tickets for free," said Joanne Hays. "That’s not right."
But, when it comes to the Phantoms’ season-ticket holder, Ryan could do no more than offer a shrug of the shoulders.
"No good deed goes unpunished," said Ryan sheepishly. "But our season-ticket holders deserve this. What should we do, send them to games at Reading or Trenton? Don’t get me wrong, there’s good hockey in those places too, but this is the next-best thing for our fans and we feel that it’s the least we can do for them considering the circumstances."
But it’s not just the Phantoms’ season-ticket holder who is getting the butt end of the stick with this promotion.
Hypothetically, if all of the Flyers’ season-ticket holders were to attend each first-round home game and if the series went seven games with four of them being played in Philadelphia, the Flyers would have issued 66,400 complimentary tickets in just four games.
The AHL limit for complimentary tickets in the playoffs is 400 per game.
Regardless, the total number of freebies will most likely exceed the mandated limit.
There is a limit put on free tickets for the playoffs because the money generated from gate receipts is shared revenue between the players and the 28 AHL teams.
The players are paid for their playoff participation from a player pool which is equal to 52 percent of the revenues generated at the gate league-wide in the postseason.
The remaining 48 percent is shared among the AHL franchises.
By giving away an exorbitant number of seats for free, the Flyers are simply limiting the amount of possible revenue that can come from games in Philadelphia.
"They’re just going to take money out of our pockets and invest it so they can get more money in theirs down the road," said one AHL player who requested anonymity. "It’s typical. Everybody else gets screwed except the owners."
AHL officials declined to comment on the actions of the Flyers but Ryan was adamant that what the Flyers were doing was beneficial to the AHL.
"There would be no Phantoms in the AHL if it wasn’t for the Flyers," said Ryan. "The league should be happy about that fact alone.
"It’s not like we’re giving away general seating, which is all we need to be accountable for to the AHL. And if all the Flyers fans take us up on our offer and there’s not enough seating available in the club boxes ..well ..that’s a problem we would be happy to handle."
