Playoff tickets: Red Wings can't lose. (Detroit Red Wings hockey team)

Crain's Detroit Business, April, 1998 by McCracken, Jeffrey

Joe Louis Arena's aisles won't be the only thing overflowing for the Detroit Red Wings this week as the National Hockey League playoffs begin. So, too, should the franchise's bank account. The team has raised playoff ticket prices 10 percent to 30 percent from 1997. A prime lower-bowl seat for the Stanley Cup Finals, should the team make it that far, will cost $200, up from $150 a year ago.

Tickets went on sale to the public last week. Furthermore, the team's 1998 playoff ticket policy, which requires buyers to purchase tickets to a minimum of four games, means that $4 million to $5.5 million flows into Red Wing coffers before the first game is played. The figure rises depending on how many fans buy tickets to more than four games. If the unthinkable happens and...

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