Jonathan Joyce grew up in Saskatchewan, a few hours from the nearest National Hockey League city.
A chartered accountant, he eventually found work in Calgary in 2005 and started reaping the benefits of the economic boom that's overtaken the city.
With a little money in his pocket, he decided to get in line for Calgary Flames tickets; he entered the playoff lottery last spring, was one of the lucky ones chosen and decided to buy an eight-game pack of two seats for games this season.
Here's the kicker: he's not even a Flames fan.
"I haven't yet been able to go to a game where I've been able to cheer for the Flames, but I'm not necessarily cheering for the other team," says a chuckling Joyce, who's been doing financial analysis for Nations Energy Co.
That indifference to the home team is a byproduct of growing up an Edmonton Oilers fan, and suffice it to say, that eight-game pack he purchased includes Oilers tickets.
"I've never lived in a city that had an NHL team. Even though I'm not a big fan of the Flames, I thought that I wanted to get out and at least see a fair number of games."
But the Flames aren't picky when it comes to selling tickets, and like all pro sports franchises in the city, they're reaping the benefits from a city that is flush with cash.
"I call it a perfect storm of events," said Flames vice-president of sales Rollie Cyr. "The fact that the team has done what it's done on the ice, as well as what the city has done, has created quite a juggernaut in terms of demand."
Every game this season will sell out; there's a list of about 2,000 fans who've paid $100 apiece just for the right to buy season tickets should they become available (only about 200 changed hands this past off-season). The corporate boxes, leasing from between $60,000 and $100,000 (which covers admission to every Saddledome event), also have a wait list.
And, oh yes, the team is thriving on the ice as well.
"I think at the core of the nuclear reactor, as (president) Ken (King) likes to say, is always hockey," says Cyr. "When we started this run of sellouts, we didn't have $60 oil and people were still hungry for tickets and pretty excited about the product on the ice."
The two other major pro franchises in town, the Canadian Football League Stampeders and National Lacrosse League Roughnecks, also are taking advantage of the boom.
"It's been, obviously, positive with the amount of money in town, from corporate support to attendance figures right across the board," said Stamps vice-president of business development Lee Genier, whose team has already sold out its corporate boxes for next season.
"Obviously, we went through some major changes last year with the new ownership group, which really solidified things from the stability standpoint. And many of the owners are connected to the oilpatch, where there seems to be endless pockets of money. That has brought some financial investment."
"You can't let these opportunities go by," added Roughnecks general manager Kurt Silcott. "If you jump on the opportunity, and you've got a good product, which we feel we have, you get those people in, and hopefully you can retain them and they become long-term customers for you."
The real question is how long the boom will last. Already, there are forecasts of a slowdown in the energy sector in 2007. So will that leave local wallets empty? Or just not as bulky?
"There's absolutely no question (there will be a slowdown)," predicted Bob Geddes, Ensign Energy Services' president of Canadian operations, whose company has a coveted lower-level box at the 'Dome. "Natural gas prices are half of what they were a year ago, and oil prices are strong still, but 70 per cent of the drilling done in this province is on gas. When we start slowing down there . . . every rig employs directly or indirectly 75 people, so it has a sweeping effect across the economy. I would guess there would be about $3 billion less spent in '07 than '06."
That will, no doubt, lead to some belt-tightening in the city, but it's not likely companies are going to give up corporate boxes any time soon, simply because it will remain a good return on the investment.
"Every company has to pick a lane on how they choose to provide entertainment, and it's a reasonable-cost provider of entertainment for lots of people," said Geddes. "It's a very cost-effective way to entertain customers and reward our field employees."
"Unless it's a real crunch, you probably won't see them give (the corporate boxes) up, because it's real hard to get 'em back," added Ember Resources president Terry Meek. "And it's not like companies will be losing money; they'll just be making less."
It's not as if the city hasn't been through economic slumps before, so the local teams have learned from the past and tried to focus on long-term stability instead of being subject to fluctuating markets.
And besides, said Cyr, if you have a good product, you should always be able to sell tickets.
"Quite frankly, any economic downturn is always a consideration because it impacts a lot of things; not just ticket sales, but disposable income in the building (for souvenirs and concession items)," he said.
"But this city and province is more accustomed to that volatility. Are we concerned about it? I would say yes. Is it something that can be overcome by success on the ice? I think yes."
I think it'd be more entertaining than east vs west every year... A truly international game probably wouldn't work because of the skill disparity between the Nhl and Europe.... so unless someone can think away around that (Maybe stanley cup champion vs. European all-stars... I think someone mentioned that) I guess were stuck with what we've got...
