With multiple season ticket plans, Sabres feel they can make a solid jump at the gate

Season tickets will be sold through December on a pro-rated basis, but the early estimate on the growth of the base is currently around 20%, which the club says is in the top 10 in the NHL in sales over last season. Of course, the Sabres have a lot more available inventory than most teams in the league.

The Sabres declined to give concrete numbers on current sales because they are ongoing. The team revealed its season ticket count last year of about 6,500 during the week of the home opener in October, but a 20% jump would put that number around 8,000 now, six weeks before the season begins.

The season ticket base was in the 16,000 range for the 2017-18 season, but the combination of the playoff drought and the Covid-19 pandemic cratered it last season to the lowest in franchise history, when the Sabres finished 31st in overall attendance at 9,997 per game, ahead of only Ottawa.

But that figure was spiked by the Heritage Classic in Hamilton, Ont., counting as a home game and by the two April sellouts celebrating the end of the career of beloved broadcaster Rick Jeanneret. Without those numbers, the Sabres would have been last in the league.

The Sabres say individual game tickets will go on sale next week, with Tuesday being the target day. Much like as has been seen on the hockey side with the growth of the scouting department, the team has added staff to its ticketing and sales team for the general public and owners of premium seating such as club level and suites.

All indications are that the 2021-22 season was the bottoming-out point for Sabres attendance. Many accounts were paused due to the pandemic, including most of the 1,200 or so from Canadian members, and the team is slowly getting those fans to come back and give an immediate boost to the overall numbers.

"We're really trending in the right direction and we still have a lot of work to do," said Frank Batres-Landaeta, the team's vice president of ticket sales and service. "The building seats 19,000, so you keep working."

Last October was perhaps the dreariest month at the box office in franchise history. Just over 7,300 tickets were sold for an entertaining home-opener win over Montreal, and the in-house count for some other games in the season's first month appeared to be under 5,000. Batres-Landaeta said things should look dramatically different this season, starting with the Oct. 13 season opener against Ottawa.

"I remember telling the staff last year, 'Take a mental picture of what it looks like tonight, because I can guarantee the work that we have ahead of us, it won't look the same a year from now,'" said Batres-Landaeta, in his second year with the Sabres after eight years in sales with the San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils.

"The way things are trending and what we're expecting come opening night this year will look very different. To have 7,000 people here (for the 2021 opener) as a salesperson and obviously a sports fanatic, was a tough pill to swallow. But it was the reality of the situation.

"In the past year, we're working to earn it back. That's the mantra we have on the hockey side, and that's a mantra that we have in ticket sales."

The work really started in the season's final 28 games, with a 16-9-3 record that included the Heritage Classic thumping of the Toronto Maple Leafs and iconic victories over Nashville and Chicago in front of sold-out crowds honoring Jeanneret.

"It gave me goosebumps and it gave me hope," Batres-Landaeta said. "It's the reason why I made the move from San Jose to here. In sports and in sales, we have to sell the hope for next season, no matter where you're at in the standings. So, the way that the team played definitely helped. People just got excited about the team and what (GM Kevyn Adams and coach Don Granato) are doing."

Flexibility is the key word the team is using for its sales pitches. Fans can always get a full season plan of 41 regular-season games and three preseason contests, but now there are many other options.

Batres-Landaeta said half-season plans of 22 games have generated a huge response. The "Royal" plan includes the opener vs. Ottawa and the Jan. 19 game against the New York Islanders that will be preceded by Ryan Miller's jersey retirement ceremony, while the "Gold" plan features the Dec. 1 game against Stanley Cup champion Colorado and the Feb. 21 game against Toronto that will be the Leafs' only visit of the season. Prices in the 100 level for those plans start at $54 and start at $25 for the 300 level.

The team also is offering a trio of quarter-season plans of 11 games that feature weekends, weekdays or an "All-Star" plan of top opponents and will offer customizable plans that start with as few as five games.

"We wanted to add some flexibility. We're hearing a lot from members that's what they wanted and the response to our half-season plans has been incredible," Batres-Landaeta said. "Giving them different ways to utilize their packages is essential. It can't be one size fits all. We need to find customizable ways for members to attend games."

Season ticket benefits also are increasing. The team added a "paint the ice" day after last season and offered a program entitled "Blue and Gold Insights" that allowed members to interact with players and Adams. A Ticket Trade program will be instituted this month for fans to get tickets to different games if they can't use theirs, and there is also now a Season Ticket Facebook page.

A Buffalo Bills' Super Bowl run, which features a season ticket base of 60,000, could make Sabres tickets a tough sell in the first half but the team doesn't look at that as a negative. 

"We're all excited too to see what the Bills can do and hopefully bring that Super Bowl here," Batres-Landaeta said. "We're going to be pushing on the hockey side, especially with some of the initiatives that we have here early in the season, to drum up that excitement and make sure people know that hockey is here. And we want people to know the young, exciting team that we have on the ice is a great reason to come."

Durbin moves on

The Sabres recently lost a key member of their sales and ticketing team as John Durbin, senior vice president of marketing and business strategy for Pegula Sports and Entertainment, announced last week he has started as the Chief Commercial Officer for FC Cincinnati of the United Soccer League. 

Sources said the departure of Durbin was expected for several months because he was planning to move back to Ohio to be closer to family. He began in 2014 as the Sabres' marketing director and had moved up through the company since.