Ducks Fail to Sell-out Playoff Game

Despite the incredible first round upset the Anaheim Ducks pulled off beating the NHL's top seeded San Jose Sharks, the Ducks' fans have failed to show up to the games.

According to a blog posting on the OC Register: "Only 16,277 tickets were sold for Game 3, well short of the 17,174-plus mark the club normally achieves at Honda Center. It was the first time the Ducks failed to sell out a playoff game since Game 6 of the 2006 Western Conference quarterfinals against Calgary and therefore the first playoff non-sellout since the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007."

It was the Ducks 5th worst selling game of the entire season.

NBC: The Network That Cuts Away To Heidi and Horses

Despite having Malkin, Ovechkin and Crosby, the three biggest names in hockey matching up in a scintillating 2nd round matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, NBC will cut away from Saturday's game to show horse racing if the game carries on too long.

NBC infamously did this two years ago when the Ottawa Senators-Buffalo Sabres locked up in the Eastern Conference Finals.

What ever happened to the rule in television of staying with the programming you started until it concludes?

Klitschko-Haye Fight draws huge interest

Apparently all that's wrong with boxing's heavyweight picture can be fixed with geography. While the heavyweight division has drawn little to no interest in North America since Lennox Lewis retired, ticket sales for Wladimir Klitschko's fight versus David Haye on June 20th in Germany indicate another thing overseas.

The fight will take place in Schalke stadium, normally used for football/soccer and ticket sales have been huge thus far.

Bernd Boente, managing director of Klitschko's management group, said there was huge interest in the fight as soon as the tickets went on sale last week.

"We started ticket sales on Friday of last week and on the first day we sold 30,000," Boente said. "Today we have 47,000 tickets sold. We are very sure that the fight will be sold out. I think we will have something between 60-70,000 on fight night."

New Detroit Lions Logo

So what's the best way to make people forget about the worst season perhaps in North American professional sports history? Tweak the logo, font and branding of the team.

That should do it

Sports and Twitter

CNN had a good piece earlier this week on the prevalence of sport stars and announcers using Twitter to connect with and update fans with news (if you want to call it that).

Shaquille O'Neal has emerged early as the sports world most prominent Twitterer? Tweeter? he has a following of 700,000 people on his account.

Charlie Villanueva from the Milwaukee Bucks even took the time to update his Twitter account during half-time of a game early this year to inform his followers: "In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up."

I personally could see Twitter evolve as a great self-promotion marketing tool for individual athletes; particularly amateur Olympic athletes. The Vancouver 2010 Olympics could be a breeding ground for Twitter's success with sports.

The Toronto Bills Slash Ticket Prices

No word yet if the acquisition of T.O. by the Bills is a reason for the devalued product.

Last year was the first year of a 5-year 8-game agreement between the Buffalo Bills to play a mix of their pre-season and regular season games in Toronto's Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome). The Bills' Canadian excursion was hardly a glowing success, ticket sales were lower than expected chiefly because of the fattened ticket prices Toronto organizers were charging. The negative voices have been heard and as a result Toronto organizer are now lowering ticket prices for year 2.

According to reports, the average costs of tickets will decrease by 17%.

"Of the approximately 54,000 seats that the Rogers Centre has for football, about 36,000 will be cheaper than they were last year, when the Bills broke down the border for a regular-season game in Toronto against the Miami Dolphins after playing the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rogers Centre in a pre-season game.

Ticket prices will range from $99-$275, but VIP seats will be $495. Last year, there were 4,700 tickets that were less than $100. For the game this season, more than 11,000 tickets will be available for under $100. "

Detroit Red Wings on Layaway

In an obvious effort to entice or stimulate continued season ticket sales in the recession-riddled city of Detroit, the Red Wings are introducing a layaway program.

According to the team's press release, the Wings are the first NHL club to offer the layaway service through eLayawaySPORTS and the third pro sports franchise alongside the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints.

Users of the service are charged a one-time 1.9% flat rate and then have the benefit of zero interest.