B-Sens aim to fill the seats this season

By Alex Mahar 

With the home opener set for Friday night, the B-Sens are looking to fill the seats more often this season. Photo by Alex Mahar/QNet News.

BELLEVILLE– The Belleville Senators begin their home schedule Friday night at the CAA Arena against the Binghamton Devils.

It’s the beginning of the teams third season in the American Hockey League. The team struggled at times last year to fill their home arena after the team had success in that department during their inaugural season in 2017-2018.

This year the team’s marketing and ticket sales staff has taken new tactics to try and fill the seats.

“For people who think season tickets aren’t right for you because it is too many games, we are offering new flex packs of 15, 20 and 30 games where you select specific games and seats and are guaranteed those seats for each of the games you would like to go to,” said Josh Furmidge an account executive with the team.

“There are also new promotional packages that we offering this season,” adds Furmidge.

The McDonald’s package is $24-dollars plus tax and includes a ticket and a Big Mac meal from participating McDonald’s restaurants in Belleville. The Coca-Cola pack includes a Coca-Cola drink in a custom cup, a ballot to enter in the team’s draws for items like game worn equipment, jerseys and other prizes as well as the ultimate prize of a ballot for a chance to win tickets to a concert of your choice at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa for $24-dollars.

The final new package is the family pack. This package includes four tickets to any Saturday night home game for a discounted price of $78-dollars.

Furmidge also says that the team has seen an up-tick in ticket sales this season.

“We tried to focus last season on group sales. It’s carried over this season as we are seeing some new groups come out this year that we didn’t see last season.”

“The team had a great end to the second half of the season last year and just missed the playoffs by one game so I think the momentum has carried over to this year. We also held the rookie showcase tournament here in Belleville which has people in the city thinking about hockey a little sooner than they were last year which has helped draw some more fans,” said Furmidge.

The B-Sens have had no issues filling the seats for games against local rivals; the Toronto Marlies and Laval Rocket. This season the Senators are hoping to attract more fans on what have been known as slower nights in the past.

Belleville has missed the playoffs two years in a row. Team success could be a huge factor in ticket sales this season as the novelty of an AHL hockey team in Belleville is starting to wear off.

This year’s team is already looking more promising then in years past with 13 players having NHL experience and another few players being considered some of the senior team’s top prospects moving forward.

To find out more information about season, package or single game tickets visit bellevillesenators.com