![]() SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 2: Hockey fans watch the San Jose Sharks play against the Buffalo Sabres in the second period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. In California, 62.5 percent of all residents are fully vaccinated. In nearby San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the percentage of fully vaccinated residents 12 and older are 90.9, 84.4 and 84.2, respectively. While it can’t be ruled out that the vaccine mandate has turned off some spectators from attending, the Bay Area has some of the highest vaccination rates for people ages 12 and older in California.Īccording to data available on Santa Clara County Public Health website, 85.3 percent of residents ages 12 or older have been fully vaccinated. The City of San Jose mandates proof of full vaccination for spectators 12 and older for indoor events at city-owned facilities like SAP Center. “We love playing at home and the Shark Tank is as loud as anywhere when it’s half-full or full.” At the end of the day, if we play better and if we put a good product on the ice, people will come,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said last Friday, a day before he and several players entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. The Sharks are looking to get back into the playoffs after missing the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time since the mid-1990s. Still, selling tickets in a team downcycle is a challenge, especially when the local fanbase is used to a certain amount of success. “We’re not trying to maximize the number of season tickets as we may have in past years,” Becher said, “but just get people to a comfortable state with the idea that by next season, it’ll be a non-pandemic influenza.” He said the team’s on-ice performance affects individual sales, but less so for package deals like half-season and quarter-season plans. “And although they didn’t say that’s because they would feel more comfortable the second half, you can assume from that.”īecher said the Sharks have added a couple of hundred more season ticket holders since August, and got small boosts in individual ticket sales after the team started the year on a winning streak. “We have a lot of people that bought a half-season this year, and they asked if they could put their half-season of games in the second half of the year,” Becher told this news organization on Oct. More of those fans chose to use those tickets in the second half of this season, Becher said, with games in March and April more popular than some games in October and November. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 2: Hockey fans watch the San Jose Sharks play against the Buffalo Sabres in the first period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. Jonathan Becher, president of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, said in August that the team had sold around 9,000 full season tickets or equivalent for 2021-2022, down from 10,500 in 2019-2020 when the franchise was coming off an appearance in the Western Conference final.īecher said with the organization’s encouragement, more season ticket holders this year opted to purchase half-season plans, which allows them to retain their seats and go back to a full season ticket package in 2022-2023. Multiple factors are playing a role, starting with what the team believes is a hesitancy by some Sharks fans to return to arenas in a pandemic. ![]() Louis Blues, but it appears attendance will still fall well short of a sellout. Even three years ago for the 2018-19 season, the average announced attendance was 17,266, or 98.3 percent of capacity.Ī larger crowd is anticipated for the Sharks’ home game Thursday against the St. It’s a far cry from where things were years ago when the Sharks had a 205-game sellout streak that ran from Dec.
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