After the schedule and ticket prices were revealed for the IIHF Continental Cup Super Final, taking place at the Motorpoint Arena in January, regular TCW contributor Ben Ellington gave us his thoughts.
Bargain. Absolute bargain. For me there are no other words for it. Nine games over four days with a price range of £30 to £75 for an all-in tournament ticket. In this day and age those are ridiculous prices and I will be right there on the opening day of sales securing my ticket for the tournament. I would be confident in saying that I don’t think many of us expected those prices for the whole shebang. To put that into figures, the most expensive Gold adult ticket at £75 works out at £8.33 per game (£7.22 Silver & £6.66 Bronze). A festival of hockey in our own city with prices not just attractive but I think they are priced to sell the Arena out each day, especially when you consider that from the Panthers own press release, they say “Day Tickets, Individual Game Tickets and Finals Day Tickets will go on sale in December subject to availability.” At those prices I’m not expecting much, if any availability.
The IIHF and Panthers should be congratulated for setting the tournament at an affordable level and giving supporters the opportunity to see teams they wouldn’t normally encounter. I suppose the litmus test will be the games on Thursday 15th January as Panthers are not involved on the particular day. The attendance on that Thursday will be very interesting, especially the afternoon game of Denmark’s Hening Blue Fox against Kazakhstan’s HC Torpedo. That has game of the tournament potential for me and it is one I will most certainly be attending.
I like the split into two groups of three and then a finals day. This year there will actually be a Continental Cup final game instead of relying on who finishes top of a round robin group. For those unaware, two three-team round robin groups will be played Wednesday to Friday. On Saturday’s ‘Finals Day’, the two 3rd placed teams play first, followed by the two second placed teams and then colluding with the Continental Cup Final between the two group winners. The first round of the competition will be played in Lithuania and Romania. The group winners from those contests will head to the Semi-Final round in Angers, France where the hosts will be joined by Italian side Cortina. The top two from that group will head to Nottingham in January to make up the six-team final round.
Panthers will head into the tournament as top seeds, followed by Torpedo of Kazakhstan as second seeds. These two teams have been split in the group phase so if the seedings are correct, this is the most likely final at 7pm on the Saturday. This presents a great opportunity for Panthers to make history in a European tournament once again as they compete to become the first British team to win the tournament for a second time. After playing in three groups away from home when winning the Cup in 2017, home comforts and advantage present Panthers with the best opportunity to lift the trophy in my opinion.
Maybe a debate for another time but what these prices have shown is that perhaps the play-off finals weekend and maybe even game night tickets for hockey in the UK are over-priced. There were a lot of comments from Panthers fans along the lines of ‘shows the play-offs are a rip-off’ and some even questioning the prices of league games at the Motorpoint Arena. While I think there is a valid point there, I do feel that these ticket prices for the Continental Cup have been set deliberately lower to attract a full building and maybe even fans from around the country.
All in all, great work from the Panthers and the IIHF. January cannot come soon enough.
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