So we didn’t have to wait until 5pm to get the announcement. Chris Daniels broke the story early and Chris Hansen is setting up a priority ticket wait list for the 2013-2014 NBA season to show the NBA how serious we are about getting the NBA back in Seattle.
You’ll be able to sign up for the wait list on Thursday morning at 10am on sonicsarena.com
You can take this however you like, but we finally have a silence break from Chris and company. This doesn’t show this is a done deal, but it does show a little bit of confidence from the Hansen/Ballmer camp.
I’m going to be signing up. No way I’m going to miss out on a chance to get tickets for next year!
Update: Directly sign up here on Thursday morning.
You beat me to the punch again. I must live just a few minutes behind you…
haha. Sorry, I do type over 130 words per minutes. :)
thats pretty impressive Kevin. bet your keyboard sounds crazy when you type
When they contact us in May, they’ll walk through the different level of tickets available — so the waiting list isn’t season ticket holders. They’ll probably have packages like the Mariners.
So psyched!!! The last sentence said it all “we’re in the home stretch people and we really need your support on this to help us carry us past the finish line!”
You got it Chris! For all you’ve done, you’ve got it!!!!
And they tend to not last very long either. :(
10 am
Good thing I don’t work that day.
Sacramento trolls are out in full force on Twitter, and here I left my crossbow at home.
Screw the name “Kevin”. I think I’m just gonna start calling you “Lightning”.
Shall we revisit having game threads and draft talk?
Hansen is taking ticket reservations.
Brian?
Can’t get a full season but definitely down for a 10 game package
I like your thinking Mike.
We are defibatelty past the point of no return
I’m now ready for game threads.
T3 line at work. Going to block off my calendar
Of course they are. I don’t blame them. Put yourself in their shoes. I’d be calling us arrogant bastards and some other choice words.
I still think game threads are a bad idea. Regardless of whether or not the Sonics come back next year, that team is still Sacramento’s for another couple months.
Hansen essentially gave his blessing
This is my thinking but he did put a word of caution in there in bold, green letters
So how long till the Blethen family newsletter announces this? I mean if they’re going to put up a pay wall they should try to stay relevant.
Savvy move though by trying to get the old season ticket holders back into the fold. Real easy to get a full sign up list with something like that.
Calabro on ESPN 710 at 5:30 pm, they’re going to ask him about this.
I can’t help but feel like Chris is firing one of those bullets he was sitting on unless he needed to. My confidence, at the very least, isn’t up from before the announcement.
No, no game threads.
So where we sitting for the homecoming of the NBA? Do we know if we have to put down deposits. If we have deposits then we would blow HereWeBuy.org’s credibility out of the water. If you dont have to give a deposit then EVERY FREAKING FAN better sign up since there would be no commitments
This is mostly ceremonial…of course it is funny cause it pust the Kings fans in a weird position of either making fun of this ceremonial effort as a PR stunt (which would then shine light on their own PR stunt) or they have to accept it as real…
Not really…
For Sonics lovers expecting something more crushing, this is really important. I think to me it shows that there is still some big misconceptions out there about Seattle and the NBA.
Fact: Clay Bennett was able to convince the BOG to approve relocation because of the perceived “lack of support” even though it was the politicians, citizens vote the politicians into power. This lie is still out there.
So this is a way to show the NBA that we love the SuperSonics, we want them back and we will support them when they return. This is something Hansen has to show the BOG on April 3.
Until there’s a Sac concession or BOG/reloc approval - - can’t say I’m interested yet. Perhaps it’s superstition. Can’t vest myself back in until the final i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. Hurts too much.
I wonder if Stern wanted Hansen to start doing this now……Just kind of figured that Hansen wouldve done this before if it was purely his decision. Announcement last Friday and now this hmmm makes you wonder if Stern is saying go ahead and maybe that conversation with Mastrov was more along the lines that Mastrov aint coming up with another 100 million or 136 million with Brian’s math
I don’t get the impression there is any $$ to put up at this time — mostly because how can they guarantee the $$ will be refunded if the PSA is not approved? No, it’s to see how many fans hit their website on Thursday morning at 10:00 am and ask to be on the waiting list for tickets.
I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s taking away Sacramento’s selling point. Other than sentimentality, do they have a selling point anymore? Unless they’re still stuck on that silly “TVs per sports franchise” nonsense.
To cover his butt, no way this gets this far like this, without it being at the very least a wink wink done deal
I agree, I think Hansen is very careful in making sure everything is done on the up and up with the NBA. Geez, he’s not going to blow all the money and time he’s put into this for some PR gimmick gone wrong. No, this is definitely on an internal timeline he has and is part of his presentation for the NBA as well as making sure they hit the ground running when/if the deal is approved.
Calabro says, “this is big news”
“time to prove to the NBA we support the Sonics”
That’s a generous way of reading the situation, though. I think taking that this is “wink wink done” from this is probably just as unfounded as Sac fans thinking this is a desperate move to court favor from the BOG. Let’s slow down here.
I understand that, but I think this announcement has turned the corner for enough where we can at least put up those threads, ya know?
I wonder how we’re supposed to prove we were 2007-08 ST holders to get our seats back.
Calabor, “PR effort carried by Sacramento to this point”
“Hansen saying ‘our turn now’”
Calabro “we are somewhere we haven’t been for five years, just go to the website on Thursday and say, ‘yeah I’m in!’”
Calabro “it’s nut cuttin time” “this is the time to get serious”
Once the sale and move is approved you’ll be surprised how fast the time will fly by.
That is especially true for the organization. The smoother the transition it will be. You don’t want to do all this last minute and turn people off.
I wouldn’t go that far, but I could see the NBA saying you better put a conditional season ticket wait list so we don’t have to scramble at the last minute. Trust me, having a season ticket list set up in essentially 5 months or less (tickets need to go out by mid September at the latest) and then needing to figure out single game ticket sales would be extremely difficult. Does anyone know what the OKC season tick stuff was like? That could be used as a good reference to quiet down any speculation.
They are going to reach out to you directly. Best to show your support/interest as well on Thursday. Then when they contact you in May you can tell them you were a season ticket holder.
They made it clear prior season ticket holders will have priority.
*The sooner they have all if this stuff lined up the smoother the transition will be
Um the name you use is the same on the 07-08 database. Put 2 and 2 together and wham bam thank you ma’am.
Really not that hard…..just easier to have peoples updated numbers. If there is no money down on this EVERYBODY ON THIS SITE BETTER SIGN UP AND GET EVERYONE THEY KNOW TOO.
Lets blow HEREWEBUY out of the water.
Calabro
“I implore you all, show your support on Thursday” “this is huge, this is international this is how we’ll get the Sonics back”
Incredibly Sac fans/media think this is a sign the heat is on for Hansen. INCREDIBLE! Yes. The heat is on to sell tickets to start paying for the almost billion dollar investment that’s being made. I’ve never been so annoyed with blindness hope.
I don’t see this announcement as “turned the corner”. As I see it, nothing has changed. We are in the same place we were on Fri with Stern’s public scolding of Sac’s offer.
Does Hansen own Clay Bennett’s database?
I remember when the Sonics moved to OKC, they had to use a brand new list because they didn’t have access to the OKC Hornets list.
I will say that there is something to be said about saving the PR battle until after KJ showed all their cards…Sacramento set the baseline for the PR/Market support game. Just like SAC trolls think that somehow they are benefiting from Hansen submitting the first offer, Hansen can benefit from seeing Sacramento’s hands. The big difference of course is that it is much easier to drum up some PR than it is to drum up another $100 million dollars
You know what ??? If we were in their shoes, that’s probably how we would spin it.
Sacramento has to find another $100 million for the bid
Seattle setting up season ticket requests.
Who’s scrambling??
Just for the record. Still not a fan of game threads. I will never be a fan until it is as official as can be. Anything less is entirely presumptuous. I understand feeling good about the direction. But until it’s official, I’m not able to process the thought. Sorry to those who feel otherwise. But I’m not jumping h gun on this thing. And I say so confidently as i know many out there feel the same.
what do you think? twitter blast? facebook event? what else can we do to get people on board for thursday?
HELLOOOO??? How’s it going to look to the NBA when Hansen goes to the April 3 meeting with over 100,000 people on the list to buy tickets for the Sonics and to say he hit that mark within hours of going live? Friends, lovers of the Sonics, this is huge.
If you just heard Calabro, you heard the passion in his voice — we are almost there!!! This is incredibly important.
So he wants us to have more comments in a game thread than Sacramento?
“a Sonics sales team member will contact you in May to discuss available seating options”
Sonics sales team member…I didn’t think those existed anymore. Didn’t they go extinct like five years ago? Things are getting real!
And before it gets blown out of proportion, that was a joke.
I still want to do game threads though.
Love it — I’m already blasting my list and will continue — love the ticker at the top of sonicsarena.com
Yes.
yeah, no need for game threads. If you want to do it just lump them in a multi-game thread. Or just take notes to tell people what you observed one teh sale is official or not. Look at the schedule, Sac will win maybe 5 of their remaining games so it won’t be too exciting.
I agree with you that taking this as a sure sign it’s done is just as presumptuous as Sac fans thinking it means the opposite. But let’s just say for the sake of argument that it is done or pretty much. They got to get going on tickets sometime, right? I don’t know what to think exactly. I can see both sides.
Fake updates, fake thread comment races….Is anything about you real anymore Kevin!?!?!?
When Hansen wrote it’s time to show our support, I’m all for the game threads now. I felt weird about it before, now though, I’m all in.
Will there be more details forthcoming ? Is this waitlist just an indication of interest ? Does anybody recall how this went down with OKC ?
Yeah, but a lot of these guys are going to be on the team next year. Should at least become familiar with how Thomas is not a starting point guard in the NBA, why Tyreke Evans actually might be a salvageable and key player going forward.
Can’t go into next season demanding so and so needs to be traded just because of highlights and stats. Gotta watch the guys.
Have I ever been real? Can you verify that I totally exist? ;)
This. Nothing left to be said.
And I forgot that NBATV uses home announcers for the telecasts… So… TV goes on mute and music goes on.
ugh. San Antonio showing zero effort or intensity. Gonna get run off their home floor in back to back games.
Gonzaga game might be getting most my attention until Suns-Nuggets and Warriors-Knicks start.
My daughter is so pleased with this news that she suggests we paint the Space Needle green & gold in honor of the Sonics’ return.
That’s a great idea!
Can’t go into next season just on highlights and stats ? I can. For me - I don’t want to get emotionally invested until the deal is completely approved.
+1000
Oh man that’s a GREAT idea.
Ferris wheel lights should be lit up green & gold, too !!
I realize this is a total first world problem, so don’t take my whining too seriously. :)
I’m pretty sure Clay Bennett owns the database of Sonics ST holders. I don’t think he’s allowed to sell it to Hansen because I’m pretty sure ST holders never gave consent for Bennett’s group to sell their personal info, even if it’s for something the ST holders would absolutely want. If Bennett could sell that list to Hansen, what’s to stop him from selling that list to any ol’ telemarketing firm?
So I’m left to wonder: how do I prove I was a ST holder in 2008?
I asked them on twitter. I’ll let you know what they say.
I’m there..can’t wait to sign up on Thursday. I hope to buy season tickets.
LETS RESIGN DAMIEN WILKINS!!!!
i think calvin booth’s available too!
PS..Softy said on his show about an hour ago that this is just to see the level of interest in season tickets. If needed, Hansen can take this data to the NBA BoG next month. Softy urged everyone to sign up to show the NBA we are starving for Sonics basketball.
Yeah, Lightning fingers. You thankfully exist for us here @ SonicsRising. But, Man - - - I can do without the fake updates. The roller coaster is a tough enough without the fake updates.
Stern works for Hansen, not the other way round.
Not until Hansen is approved and Stern may work for them on paper….but Stern does the layman’s work in these matters. BoG just makes sure that it makes sense for their league
Chris Daniels@ChrisDaniels5
In part - @kunal_merchant from @thingbigsacto wrote “Today’s news is another indication that Sacramento continues to build the momentum…”
Think Big isnt thinking out side the box…..spin that narrative Sacramento. We get it, we know how that goes……it makes the sting hurt that much more SMH
Chris Daniels @ChrisDaniels5
In part - @kunal_merchant from @thinkbigsacto wrote “Today’s news is another indication that Sacramento continues to build the momentum…”
________________________________________________________________
A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
And chicks dig the long ball(s)
Egads, no, Friday night Stern made it clear that time is running out for Sacramento. He also made it clear it’s an open competition between the two bids. It is critical Seattle SuperSonics fans BLOW AWAY the NBA by giving Hansen a huge waiting list for tickets.
The next three weeks are important for Seattle. I’m hoping for a grass roots slow sort of huge “ground swell” of SuperSonic love to cap off this amazing and heartbreaking story that started back in 2006.
Can’t even spell it right! Sorry, but if you’re going to think, have to spell it right.
Haha. These guys are starting to remind me of the Iraqi Foreign Minister. Nothing but old news here!
Now that SacBee accuses Hansen of copying the “Here we buy” idea. Maybe so but I’m certain we’ll get more than 5,000 commitments for season tickets.
most likely we will.
Those fans can buy the tickets now. I am not bashing them, but having a season ticket campaign contingent on new ownership is just as dumb as it would have been when Bennett was trying to move the team. I also think this is a little different in its scope.
We are at war with eastasia. We were always at war with eastasia.
Sacramento fans probably think Stern has the Maloofs in some room with a cage over their faces waiting to put a rat in it unless the sell to Mastrov.
Stern did become commissioner in 1984…
Now that SacBee accuses Hansen of copying the “Here we buy” idea.
Well, the “Small Market, Big Heart” documentary was basically copying “Sonicsgate.” So there.
Conspiracy? Kevin, you need to fake investigate this and give us a fake update about a fake conspiracy on a fake report that david stern is actually big brother.
ive officially lost the ability to feel sorry for sacramento fans. the ones that post on STR anyway. amazing collection of douches. i wish them nothing but the worst.
ive officially lost the ability to feel sorry for sacramento fans. the ones that post on STR anyway. amazing collection of douches. i wish them nothing but the worst.
Well, they probably hate us, too. As Aaron Levin said, just remember who the puppetmaster is.
I mean Levine.
Cowtown fans are on a roll tonight
For all the STR fans there are some good ones. Like Wallywagon is pretty open minded and Athletic86. They know how big of hole they are in. The other believe every word Bruski and CMD spew…..
Speaking of CMD he is saying plagarizing…..he should try suing….would love to see Hansen destroying him via the legal system
I’m about 90% sure Athletic86 was posting here under ‘miltonbradley’, just based on tone, and the timing of a few posts. There are plenty of good posters over there, and they seem like a good fanbase, we just think they’re terrible because they’re saying the opposite of what we want to hear, just as we are for them.
I just don’t even bother going to StR anymore, especially when I know they’re going off. Nothing good can come from it.
I agree. Blog fights are stupid.
What? plagiarizing what?
copying the “here we buy” idea
Oh…. okay then CMD…..yes, that is serious.
It has been a while since I’ve written a satirical piece not relating to my book.
Except in our case it works …
Here’s the SacBee and Carmichael Dave in a nutshell. IT’S A SIGNED DOCUMENT!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddmXM-96-no
I suppose we could accuse them of plagiarizing “Save our Sonics” with their fan movement to save the Kings. And their documentary, as I noted earlier.
As far as we know someone up high told Hansen to do this to help his case. Now lets sell more fake tickets than Here We Buy!
Not to mention that Seattle has food every year, and KJ is promising that Sacramento is going to have food this year. Nice try.
I got an arena survey via email from Hansen’s group last year. I’m sure the only way they could know I was a season ticket holder was by having the list in some way.
Looks like the Blethen family newsletter finally posted the story but they buried it real deep.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/nbainseattle/2013/03/11/chris-hansen-announces-sonics-ticket-waitlist/
I 100% believe that Hansen ran this by Stern and the NBA before doing it. It would be unbelievably foolish as well as completely out of character for him not to have.
Which just adds another weird chapter to this story. I remember in 2007 when Jim Balsillie tried to buy the Nashville Predators and was vetoed as an owner after collecting deposits on season tickets before he actually owned the team or had been approved for relocation to Hamilton, Ontario.
This whole thing makes my head spin.
Don’t bother, the amount of league pass folks doesn’t really make it worth the time.
Hawes had a good night, 27 points, 10 boards, 7 assists, 2 blocks, beating the Nets.
Spurs look like they can win with pretty much any combination they put on the floor. i also think the Parker injury is a little overblown to give him some rest before the playoffs. And it looks like the real Russell Westbrook might be rearing his head just in time to keep the ball from Durant in the playoffs.
I can’t imagine that too many season ticketholders will begrudge the Hansen group getting his or her contact information. The information might actually be owned by the NBA. They could give it to any of their franchises.
Know what I find promising about this?
The only way Hansen gets the list of 07/08 season ticket holders is from the boxes holding the old Sonics history in MOHAI.
The only way he gets into that is by asking Clay Bennett and OKC nicely, and having them say “yes”.
Is this precedence for Clay and OKC handing us back the rest of our history as well? Did the process for the entire history transfer begin with the old ticket holders’ list?
*rubs hands with glee*
I admire everyone’s optimism on here, but I’m not quite on the same page about the meaning of today’s announcement…To me, this just seems rushed and out of place. Why would you push this out on two days’ notice? A majority of your season ticket holders are older, and not following the news closely. I am sincerely worried that in the 7-10 days following the website’s launch, the number of tickets being “reserved” is going to be a disappointing figure. Not because there is any lack of interest or desire, but because people don’t in Seattle don’t operating this quickly. I would have expected Hansen to provide several weeks and/or 1-2 months notice before opening up this kind of offering.
This smells like the NBA’s doing. My worried hunch is that the NBA BOG is attempting to “validate” Hansen’s assertion that the pent-up demand for tickets is very high, and they want Hansen’s waitlist to be long and heavy to validate this. “….Registering your interest will be a critical step in demonstrating to the NBA and basketball fans around the country the unbelievable passion that exists in the Emerald City to BRING BACK OUR SONICS!”
You don’t write these words unless the NBA is trying to get information out of you. I hope the above figures are correct and the line requesting season tickets is 100k deep. I simply worry this will not be the case, not on this short of a timeframe.
Does anyone know if Bennett started selling season tickets before relocation was approved? I only ask because that would give us some insight on this announcement. i personally don’t think this is much of ploy other than to have some figures to present and to actually have a database ready to solicit people for season tickets. It takes awhile to get these things going considering they have to have a bunch of representatives assigned to people. I tend to think this was an NBA directive to just have things ready should the vote be approved. I have been trying to read into it both ways, and it seems like a logistics move more than anything.
I hope you are right. I don’t want to find myself having to cheer for Miami again in the finals. I hate Miami. And I hate having rooting for them.
I totally agree with this. It seems like folks are reading into this a little too far.
Yes, don’t your remember the lawsuit that season ticket holders filed against clay bennet? He encouraged fans to renew with the promise of no price increases at key arena. Then he filed for relocation and a group called “save our sonics” who a certain Brian Robinson was a leader of encouraged a group to sue against breach of contract since all the hype about renewing season tickets in Seattle was false advertisment as Bennet wanted to move the team (and successfully did) to OKC the next season.
But I assume you mean taking deposits in the city to be relocated to before relocation was approved. That I don’t believe Clay Bennet did not do since he had 2 years remaining on his lease at Key Arena before a certain mayor allowed him to leave for $45 million dollars. I don’t have any sources on that though, but I don’t seem to remember him taking deposits from OKC until after the court ruling came out in July allowing the team to relocate
Thats a very dreary way to look at it. I believe if it was an issue that the NBA would want resolved or would want to see, it would have been asked before Hansen ever purchased a team. I believe that the HereweBuy.org has like 5000 commitments. How many people did we have that rally? Now I understand a good amount of people who were at the rally were not going to be season ticket holders.
The thing is that this thing isnt for season ticket requests from my reading its just interested in purchasing tickets.
I believe that if the NBA wants this it is because they want to use it as justification. I believe that we can far surpass the 5,000 people mark relatively quickly and the NBA will use that, the RSN money, the corporate dollars, etc. in their justification of taking a team from a city that has done a good job of stepping up to the plate. It would be pretty hard to tell Sacramento and make it look any less than a complete screw job if you were taking a team that will only sell half its allotted tickets.
Also we may be all over analyzing the situation and it could simply Chris doing his due diligence in preparation and has nothing to do with the NBA wanting anything or Hansen bringing the figures to the league.
Put it this way if we far surpass the commitment of HereWeBuy.org which has been around for a while in like a week or heck a day then that is going to speak volumes in changing the narrative about fan support.
Personally I think Chris is going to have the corporate sponsorship dollars that are committed leaked soon and the RSN already has been kind of in a way by David Aldridge speculating that it will be around 50 million dollars per year which far surpasses Sacramento’s 14 million per.
Here’s an article about that lawsuit
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003915562_sonicslawsuit01m.html
From what I read and have heard about this is that it is just a commitment. Its not putting down deposits. Like Sacramento’s Herewebuy.org no money is being committed by the fans. Thats why EVERYONE and their dog need to sign this even if you dont want season tickets or cant afford them. Im sure everyone would buy tickets to a game at some point so sign the darn thing.
Thats why I think it is to show that we have solid fan support and if we can surpass Sacramento in like a few days that would something because they are the “greatest fanbase in the history of the universe” and all. We surpass it and one of their talking points is gone especially since that website has been around for a while/
Right, that is the key here. No actual money deposit is being taken. This is simply a survey to gauge interest.
5,576 Loyal Fans
$23,603,000 in tickets
Thats to this date…….Lets commit ourselves and our dollar bills (if applicable) and blow that movement out of the water and show them the big boys come to play. Now I dont take for granted that the 23 million is probably less than half when the money call actually comes to those committed fans.
Yeah, that’s the difference though. They don’t need to “pledge” money to a season ticket. They can call up and put a deposit down right now! They have a choice of pledging support, or actually showing support. So 5000+ names pledging support is simply uninspiring to me.
Now this being said, I don’t know how many fans we would have actually putting money down here if it were possible (which i believe is not possible with a BOG affirmation vote). However, this does give us a fair scale to measure fan support against Sacramento. They could have taken money instead of names, but there choice to a route that can be construed more impressive in a PR statement opens up the door for us to have a “race” against them. Don’t think I believe PR statements mean anything, especially to the BOG, but I’ve seen it posted here many times that Sonics fans wish we could take a swing back at Sacramento’s PR push. Chris Hansen gave us that chance today. He’s a quiet man, I don’t think we will get another chance before April 16. Let’s not let him down.
according to wikipedia, Bennett didn’t start selling season tix until sept 8.. they were sold out by sept 12.
I’m referring of course to after the relocation was approved.
I think they’d promote it very heavily if it were that critical. I do agree, however, that saying we need to do it to prove our passion to the NBA is curious.
Last time I looked there we’re 52,000 followers
over at Sonics Arena , Those guys better sign up
on Thursday to help CH out.
Those names would really help establish that we
as a basketball city loves the return of the Sonics,
and has the support of the fans here.
Kevin Johnson has been selling the cow-town of
Sacramento, as having the best fans, better than Seattle’s
He has been selling those poison pills, to the press.
media, and former NBA payers, to gain sympathy,
KJ knows very well that they are running out of time.
Game almost over.
This priority ticket sale I believe would be the final
nail to the cross in convincing the BOG that Seattle
has the best fans in the NBA.
It’s the silliest thing but now I’m getting nervous for this lol. Will do my part the best I can, hope we show up by the thousands on Thursday
We will.
I’ll be there
Yep Ill be signing along with a lot of the family and friends.
This is something we can do to benefit Chris once again. Time to rally the legions and show our might and to show the NBA what they screwed up on 5 years ago and quite frankly our local leaders who helped screw the pooch
So that is about a 3rd of what the arena will hold. So, if I am a Sacramento fan, I am hoping that does not include the present ticket holders.
So how many of the seats in the new Sonics arena will be for season tickets? I would think that there would be room for 75-80% would be season ticket, right? Maybe more. So, that means about 12-13K season tickets or more. If they get 20K priority wait list, that should do it for us. That should be easy enough to do.
Man, if they have 6000+ sign up to that thing in under 24hrs… how silly is Sacto going to look?
For some reason I feel this is like making OJ try on the glove, ya know, if it fits it’s pretty much the nail in the coffin for sac if its too snug, more questions arise about what kind of basketball town this is.
I think we have great basketball fans here but anything less than huge numbers will be a disappointment.
Thanks, not that it really mattered as they all knew it was coming and probably had things ready to roll out already. Shoot, he had the staff move from Seattle so it was probably pretty streamlined. My feeling is with a wait list is that the tickets probably would sell out within a day to a week given how long this has been in the news (assuming there is still a large amount of fan interest). I think the Winnipeg Jets sold out their tickets in mere hours and those required a multiyear commitment.