All tickets free for Penguins exhibition game
PITTSBURGH - When the Pittsburgh Penguins host the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday in the second hockey game ever at the brand-new Consol Energy Center, team CEO David Morehouse expects a full house of 18,000 and gate receipts of $0.
He couldn't be happier about either number.
In what's believed to be a first-of-its-kind promotion, the Penguins are staging a free preseason game billed as the "Ultimate Home Game." The team is forgoing more than $1 million in gate receipts by giving away tickets, including 8,000 to college and trade school students who will also attend an in-game job fair. The other 10,000 tickets are going to area youth hockey leagues, a charity that gives event tickets to underprivileged kids and members of the team's Kids Club.
Where's the catch? "There's no catch," Morehouse told The Associated Press. "Part of the reward of doing good things is that it makes you feel good." Earlier this year, the Penguins were ranked first in "fan relations" in an ESPN Magazine survey of all 122 North American major pro sports franchises, getting especially high marks for fan appreciation and player accessibility.
Mike Ozanian, a national editor and sports business expert at Forbes magazine, credits Hall of Fame player Mario Lemieux, who bought the team when it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999.
"I think he's been unrecognized nationally for the great job he's done with the franchise," Ozanian said.
Morehouse, a Pittsburgh-area guy, remembers sneaking into poorly attended games as a kid in the 1970s, when ushers would sometimes let fans in for free after the first period. That's not a problem these days.
The Penguins have sold out more than 160 straight games and built a season ticket waiting list of 3,800 people. It doesn't hurt that the team used several high draft picks from their lean years to build a core of young stars who won the Stanley Cup in 2009.
Though he's loath to take credit for it, Morehouse came up with the idea of a free preseason game for young people. The Penguins added a third home preseason game so they could give away free tickets without slighting season ticket holders accustomed to attending two preseason games, Morehouse said.
When it became a question of how to attract a houseful of young fans - future ticket-buyers - the team turned to a business consortium that's wrestling with how to bolster the region's economic future: the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which runs a website devoted to trying to keep students from leaving the region after they get their degrees.
The site, ImaginePittsburghJobs.com, lists about 22,000 jobs, more than half with salaries of at least $40,000, said Randy Dearth, CEO of Lanxess Corp., a chemical company spun off from Bayer. Dearth also chairs the conference's workplace committee.
Since the beginning of September, 18,000 young job-hunters have registered at the site. Nearly 4,000 of them won two tickets each in a lottery for the Sept. 25 game, where local corporate sponsors will be showcasing jobs and networking with potential hires.
