The Bruins "may still be a long way from the nightly
sellouts and standing-room only crowds that punctuated their
days in the Boston Garden, but after three seasons of
plummeting attendance at the FleetCenter, the B's finally
appear to have stopped the bleeding," according to Michael
Felger of the BOSTON HERALD. Felger writes, "Thanks to an
extensive price reduction plan, the Bruins are reporting a
95 percent season-ticket renewal rate," which is its
"strongest renewal performance since the mid-1980s." Behind
the "highest ticket prices in the league," the team saw
their season-ticket base drop last year by around 30% from
about 16,000 in '95-96 to around 10,500 last year. Bruins
Dir of Ticket Operations Matt Brennan said that with the
renewal rate and 1,000 new orders this summer, he expects
the base to hit at least 11,500 (BOSTON HERALD, 7/23).
OTHER TEAM NOTES: The Senators, who had 9,900 season-
ticket holders last season, have a 93.4% renewal rate from
last year and already have 1,400 new accounts opened three
months before the schedule starts. Club officials predict
the team "will easily pass the 11,000 mark this year." But
team President Roy Mlakar said he is still "a little
disappointed in what we've gotten from the corporate sector.
In most NHL cities, it's 55%-58% and we're a little bit
below that. That's something we have to work on" (OTTAWA
SUN, 7/18)....In Edmonton, Tony Blais reports that interest
from the C$375,000 raised by Oiler fans to help local
investors buy the team, will be used to buy tickets for
students. About 1,700 game tickets will be handed out to
city students each season (EDMONTON SUN, 7/22).
