Penguins CEO David Morehouse said that if you would have asked him 14 years ago whether the Penguins could have put together a 14-year run of sellouts, he said that his response would have been, "No, you're crazy."
The Penguins' sellout streak began against the Blackhawks on Feb. 14, 2007, and spanned 633 regular-season and postseason games, through the Penguins' game against the Blackhawks on Saturday.
With only 16,450 tickets sold for Tuesday evening's game against the Stars -- 89.5 percent percent of the building's capacity for hockey of 18,387 -- the sellout streak came to an end.
"What it tells me is, is how deep the level of support for sports in Pittsburgh is in general, to have a streak of 14 years of sellouts," Morehouse said, reflecting on the streak. "Not only was it just the sellouts, we're leading the league in TV ratings we're leading the league in and social media hits, almost every category. It's reflective of how strong our fan base is."
Morehouse said that if it weren't for a pandemic, we wouldn't be talking about the streak coming to an end. He noted that across baseball, attendance is down 30 percent.
"It's kind of the elephant in the room," he said. "We still haven't come out of it. ... It's pretty easy to say (the streak ending) was pandemic-related. I mean, it's a shame. But you know, it's two years of our lives, two seasons, and it's going to take a little while for people to recover from it physically, emotionally, mentally, economically. There's a lot of different levels."
The majority of the teams in the NHL have policies requiring that fans show proof of full vaccination or a negative test result to attend games. Some teams require that unvaccinated fans wear masks, and a few teams require all fans to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.
The Penguins are one of the teams in the minority, with no such requirements. There are signs at the entrances at PPG Paints Arena saying that masks are "recommended," and the Penguins ask unvaccinated fans to wear masks, but there's no enforcement.
Morehouse said the team surveyed season-ticket holders in the offseason as part of the process of creating a vaccination or mask policy (or lack thereof), and he doesn't think that's the reason for attendance being down. Rather, people just got used to not attending sports games over the last two seasons.
"I don't think it's a reluctance," he said. "It could be. But I just think it's a behavior change. For two years, people haven't been getting out of their house and going to places like this. Now all of a sudden, they're open."
Morehouse said that since he was hired by the Penguins during the 2004-05 lockout, they've "never had a discussion" about not spending to the cap, and that hasn't changed this season, even with the loss in ticket revenue. Morehouse cited the technological changes and other additions to the PPG Paints Arena experience -- like the grab-and-go concessions, in-app ordering for merchandise and concessions, the BetRivers Casino club -- as things that are also important to maintaining revenue.
"It's understanding the new fan base, that people are looking for an event, you're not just looking for a game," Morehouse said.
Morehouse said that all indications from their medical advisors, the CDC, and the NHL are that "things are starting to subside" with the pandemic and return to normal. And the team will continue to improve the game-day experience at PPG Paints Arena and market the game to a newer fanbase.
