Eroding? The season ticket wait list is years long, you think they’re gonna have unclaimed season tickets nobody will buy?
Have you ever had season tickets for the Patriots?
Because I have; twice.
And guess what; when the team starts to lose year after year and does not make the playoffs, the cost and the commitment of time to attend games starts to come into question, it did with myself and my friends.
Twice.
I'm sure there is a good percentage of season ticket holders that tailgate prior to the game, tailgate after the game......oh yeah, and they go inside the stadium and watch the game too. Attending a football game for a lot of people is an all day affair.
Let's say they finish 6-11/8-9 this year; that's two years in a row of sub 500 records and no playoffs. I would venture to guess a percentage of season ticket holders are going to do a hard pass on their tickets.
When the team was finishing 12-4/13-3/14-2, getting a first round bye and hosting the AFCCG, that ticket was the hottest thing in town, sure there's a waiting list a mile long and why not, everyone loves a winner.
Not sure how long you've been a fan, but this team was a laughing stock for a long time, they played in a third rate shithole of a stadium that was in the middle of nowhere and rarely made the playoffs, they went to two Super Bowls in 40 years and lost both times, went to the AFLCG and got demolished. The Patriots were fourth fiddle around here until Brady and Belichick came along.
This was always a Red Sox town first, then Bruins, then Celtics or Celtics/Bruins, they go back and forth......................................................................then Patriots.
My best friends boss has had season tickets since they opened the new stadium, his company did work there, he already told him if they do not make the playoffs this year, he's giving them up.
His boss gave him and his son tickets to the Tampa game; they got home at 3:00am..........and he's got to get up at 5:00am to go to work, he was quite the ball of energy on Monday.
And I'm sure there is waiting list for tickets; if the team is not performing well and tickets become available, will those people step up?
Now that Brady is gone, how many of those fans are actually still fans of the team vs being fans of Brady and started to follow the team after they won their first Super Bowl?
And if you read what I wrote, I started with "IF" as in "If the season ticket base starts to erode" because at the end of the day, that's mostly what Kraft cares about.
Just like the owner of any business.
I was also speaking to the point of "cause things to get kind of ugly ".........what's uglier than a season ticket base that "might" start to erode?