Steinbach Pistons announce season ticket plans

The Steinbach Pistons are hoping their new arena will spark an “era of excellence.”

The team announced their season ticket plans for the new Southeast Events Centre last week.

The Pistons will be allowing access to buy tickets gradually beginning July 2. Corporate donors for the new arena (minimum $5,000) will get first chance to lock in their seats. Anyone who donated less than that will be able to purchase beginning July 15.

Past Pistons season ticket holders will be able to nab their seats beginning Aug. 6, with the general public able to buy Aug. 24. The team has announced plans for a launch party on this day as well.

Steinbach’s sales and marketing manager, Jamie Roy, said the team is hoping to sell 2,000 season tickets, leaving roughly 600 seats available to the walk-up crowd.

“It’s definitely a lofty goal, but we feel confident we will be able to do this,” Roy said.

“There’s obviously a lot of excitement with this new facility, not only for us, but for all the other user groups in the community that will be able to make use of this facility. We just want people to join us as we unveil this beautiful new building.”

The Southeast Event Centre is also soliciting donations to help cover the final construction costs. Members of the public are able to become a “legacy builder” and have their name put on the donor wall and their club or suite seat.

In addition to the normal seating inside the bowl, the Southeast Event Centre will have 350 club seats and six suites. Interested buyers will need to make a one-time (tax deductible) donation to the building.

“By making this donation, you’re etching your name into our community’s history,” Roy said.

“You need a club or suite seat to be able to get into that space. There’s access to an exclusive menu during games, private bar, private washrooms. The perk obviously is the padded seating and a bit wider seating. There’s some really cool perks from being in that area.”

All season ticket holders will get the first opportunity to purchase tickets to other events at the SEC, and all seats in the new building will be fold down with a cup-holder.

Regular season tickets have been divided into four tiers, with the lowest P3 category priced at $13 a game. The next tier up, P2, will have fans sitting in the end where Steinbach will be attacking twice for $2 more per game.

“We want to keep it affordable for our community, while still offering a variety of options that offer different experiences in the facility,” Roy said, adding there will be student/youth pricing available.

“We really want families to be able to afford to bring their whole family to the game. At the end of the day, the kids in our community are kind of our core audience. They’re the ones that look up to the players and see them as superstars.”

The changes mean the Pistons will have the most expensive season tickets in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL). The other nine non-Winnipeg MJHL teams have an average season ticket price of just over $10.50 per game, with only the Blizzard charging more than $350 for a season ticket this year.

Steinbach and Niverville have by far the newest buildings in the league, with only Virden’s Tundra Oil and Gas place coming close, with a construction year of 2010. Roy said the new building will be “state-of-the-art,” which justifies a higher price point compared to the rest of the league.

“It’s not just going to be coming to watch hockey, we’re really working towards upping our level of game production, just to make it more entertaining,” Roy said, noting the new arena will have a new sound system, two video boards and improved lighting.

“We want to make this experience of coming to Pistons games as an option for a night out, maybe even if you don’t like hockey that much… We want to really put on a show for our community.”

The franchise isn’t holding back on what their goals will be with the new arena.

“We want to be the best junior A hockey program in Canada, and we’ve always worked to operate that way,” Roy said.

“We haven’t always had the facility to back that up, and now we will… By the end of this year we’ll be able to walk into a world-class space.”

The $17/game P1 seats put fans behind the penalty boxes along the side of the ice surface. The most expensive non-club tickets are P1-plus, which include an individual stool with tabletop and “convenient entry and exit.”

The Southeast Event Center is still on track to host the Pistons on Dec. 31, when they take on the Niverville Nighthawks.

“We can really start to dream of what opening night will look like,” Roy said.

“It is our community’s facility, and we want our whole community to join us in this ‘new era of excellence.’”

Ticket prices for the whole season will need to be adjusted, as Steinbach is set to start the season at La Broquerie’s HyLife Centre until the new building is ready.