Bell Centre: customer experience among NHL’s most expensive

As you know, the customer experience at the Bell Centre is interesting (especially when the club isn’t rebuilding), but it’s expensive. You have to pull out all the stops to see the Habs.

How expensive?

TSN did the math, assuming that a group of four buys tickets at the average price available. Add to that two beers, four small soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking for an hour(an hour?) and a trip to the store.

Comparing these figures with those across the NHL, we realize that the CH has the seventh most expensive customer experience in the entire NHL.

In real terms, that works out (in US dollars) at $552.57 (for the 2022 fiscal year) for what I’ve just listed. That’s an increase of 25% ($111.89) over prices 11 years ago, in 2012.

It’s an expensive game, we agree. It may be going up like a lot of things in life, but many people can afford less and less to go to the Bell Centre.

I told you that the Habs were ranked seventh in the entire NHL in this regard. And what you need to know is that the CH is still far from the top in terms of price.

Here’s the top-6.

• Maple Leafs (1): $697.75
• Kraken (2): $672.89
• Golden Knights (3): $649.72
• Rangers (4): $645.42
• Blackhawks (5): $573.76
• Bruins (6): $569.96

As we can see, among the original teams, the Habs are only ahead of the Red Wings, who rank 10th. The customer experience there is $479.40.

Remember, however, that for the CH and the Maple Leafs, prices are still in U.S. dollars.

It’s interesting to note that prices in the U.S., based on the original franchises ahead of the Habs, are up sharply: 55% for New York, 45% for Chicago and 51% for Boston.

In Toronto, the increase is just 11%. And Montreal, as mentioned, is up 25%. Of course, there’s no basis for comparison for Seattle and Vegas, newcomers to the NHL who weren’t around in 2012.

In other words, prices are up significantly in the big U.S. markets. The increase is less marked than in Canada, as can be seen from the table.

Are you surprised?

In burst

– A new challenge for Marc-André Bergeron?

– Well done.

– All the better.

– Judge is not healthy.