Friday, March 7th, 2008

Once again I am responding to more than a few concerned season ticket holders and some of the posts on the Internet forum regarding our playoff game in Dundalk and the future of the Giants.

DUNDALK

First of all, don't panic. This is not a preview of things to come; we will not be playing more games in Dundalk next season. In fact, the plan for next season is to not play any games in Dundalk. The only exception would be a possible warm up game the week prior to the season starting to get the guys on the ice in a match, which might require us to play in Dundalk if the Odyssey is unavailable prior to the start of the Elite League season. If the Odyssey is available on the weekend prior, we will play any pre-season games there.

Rest assured that I have met with the Odyssey and they know how vital it is for us to have weekend dates at the Odyssey Arena to be a success in Belfast. They have already pencilled us in for more weekend dates next season than we had this season. I am pushing for as many Saturday Nights as possible because Saturday games have the best atmosphere and offer the best opportunity for people and in particular families to get to the games.

Consider this, our ten biggest crowds of the season at the Odyssey were 8 Saturday Nights, tonight's game v Nottingham (already going to be 5000+) and the 27th of December which might as well be considered a Saturday Night because of the Christmas Holidays. Our lowest 7 crowds of the season at the Odyssey were a Tuesday, a Wednesday and 5 Thursdays.

Once again to make it crystal clear, the Odyssey have promised more weekend dates than we had this year, not one or two more but as many as possible. Obviously we won't get 30 Saturday Nights but I will certainly try my best to get as close to that as possible. One thing that I can assure you of is that we won't be playing as many games in Dundalk as we did this season, hopefully we won't need to play any in Dundalk.

This is not anything to do with the facility down in Dundalk. I think they have been great to us and our fans that have made the journey down south. I don't think anyone that has been down there the past two games has any complaints.

Just to be clear. I tried to get the Sunday Night in the Odyssey but they just couldn't do the turnaround that quickly after Mamma Mia. Monday was an option I was given this week, but once again the league didn't allow it to happen and the Odyssey wasn't 100% sure they could have the ice ready in time. Also, to ask the team to travel away on a Sunday and then back on Monday to play their home date isn't fair on them either.

At least playing on Saturday in Dundalk gives us a home ice advantage in the sense that it's an hour drive down the road as opposed to a flight and a bus ride. Playing on Monday would be like travelling two days in a row and completely taking away the advantage for us of not having to travel by plane for our opening game of the playoffs. The two teams we are likely to play both currently have open dates on the Sunday so most likely we will play Saturday in Dundalk and then Sunday on the road.

SEASON TICKETS
The issue with whether the season ticket is the best value is not affected by the games in Dundalk. The season tickets cover 24 home games at the Odyssey and then there is an optional upgrade of the additional games played at the Odyssey. This season there was one game at the Odyssey to pay the upgrade for and the other four matches (and now the playoff game) were scheduled in Dundalk.

The season ticket covers 24 games and has been for 24 games the last few years because of the possibility of a team dropping out of the league and/or games being cancelled. Although this is highly unlikely now, the upgrade remains in place to give season ticket holders the option to pay the same price they paid for their season ticket games for the additional matches.

Regular Price Ticket for 24 games £336 Adult, £192 Child/Concession
Season Ticket Price with 25% discount available until April 30th
For 24 games £252 Adult, £144 Child/Concession

That means you are saving the price of 6 games (£84 for Adults, £48 for child /concessions) by purchasing a season ticket up front. Plus you have the option of spreading the payment out over the off-season instead of paying it in one lump sum.

Next season we are also going to discontinue the midweek discount prices. We tried it for one season to see if it helped out with midweek crowds and it didn't at all. We tried something new and it didn't work and it also devalued the season ticket. This is something I didn't consider at the time. I was trying to find a way to boost midweek crowds, not devalue season tickets. I want the season ticket to be worth it and with the discounted games midweek coupled with the extra amount of midweek games we played this season, it wasn't worth the same as it was in the past. These are all things that I learnt from this decision, and I will throw my hands up and say that I made a mistake.

IN CLOSING
To close this out, I really never thought that the games in Dundalk would cause this much of an uproar this season. I apologize to the fans that have missed out on seeing 5 games played at the Odyssey, I really do. I wouldn't make this decision again, it wasn't worth it to anger some of our loyal fans and to be honest, if I had to do it all over again knowing how much this has annoyed some of you, I wouldn't do it, so please bear with us to finish off this season. I know you don't want to have the final game of the year somewhere other than the Odyssey. Neither do I, but this was taken out of my hands. March 10th to the 30th is booked up with Mamma Mia, we can't do anything about this and we have known about this for a long time. It was booked long before we booked in our games last season.

I am taking the steps to correct this for next season before the problem crops up. I am booking weekends, early and often, to secure as many weekends (Saturdays in particular) for next season. I will be sitting down with the Odyssey in the next two weeks to go over our plans for next year.

In fairness, there are also a lot of you out there that have turned these games in Dundalk into a cheaper more convenient "road trip" and have made the best of the situation. For all of your added support in Dundalk, thanks. You have been unbelievable down there and made it a great experience for all of us. I know at times this was difficult to deal with but its always nice to see you having a great time down there and hopefully we will give you plenty to cheer about on the 20th and the 29th.

For those of you that see it as an inconvenience, I have given the option of taking a coach ride down to the game. It's the best I can do for this and if you still can't make it or don't want to take in a game in Dundalk then once again I am sorry.

I am certain this has covered most of your questions, but if you still feel the need to contact me, please email: office@belfastgiants.com

Todd Kelman
General Manager