The possibility of an NHL lockout "didn’t deter Blackhawks fans from snapping up tickets for the 2012-13 regular season Monday," according to Chris Kuc of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Blackhawks VP/Ticket Operations & Customer Relations Chris Werner said, "The phone lines and the number of ports people could get into on the web reached its capacity right out of the gate." Werner said Blackhawks ticket sales were "trending a little bit ahead of last year. It seems like we have more interest than we’ve had in the past." Kuc noted the team has "led the NHL in attendance four consecutive seasons and dating back to the end of the ’07-08 campaign have had a run of 190 capacity crowds, counting regular season and playoffs." Season-ticket holders "posted a renewal rate of more than 99 percent for '12-13, increasing over last season, and the waiting list for season tickets has grown to around 11,000" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/21). CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS' Danny Ecker noted within a few hours, "about half of the Hawks' 41 home games were sold out, primarily for matchups with 'original six' opponents ... as well as other marquee games, such as the Pittsburgh Penguins, who come to town Nov. 5." Werner said that as of late Monday, "only a few games still had tickets available, and most are single seats or standing-room-only tickets." He "estimates that the first day of sales was '10 to 20 percent ahead' of last year's sales pace" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 8/21).
