$82.00 a ticket means MTS Centre is big enough

At 15,015, Winnipeg's MTS Centre is the smallest arena in the National Hockey League. The most obvious way to make up for this shortfall is to charge more per seat, and that's exactly what True North has done. By setting the average ticket price at $82.00, that makes the MTS centre 3rd most expensive place to watch a club hockey game in the world. Second only to Toronto($115.96) and Montreal($86.44). Ottawa is 10th at $59.74.

(I left in Atlanta just for the sake of comparing it to Winnipeg)

Average Ticket Price
1. Toronto $115.96
2. Montreal $86.44
3. Winnipeg $82.00
4. Calgary $66.68
5. Vancouver $65.20
6. Edmonton $64.87
7. Minnesota $62.63
8. Philadelphia $60.89
9. Pittsburgh $60.04
10.Ottawa $59.74
11.Rangers $58.57
12.Islanders $58.44
13.Washington $55.57
14.Chicago $55.39
15.Boston $54.94
16.Florida $54.12
17.Detroit $51.73
18.Nashville $51.04
19.New Jersey $50.83
20.Los Angeles $50.05
21.Columbus $47.66
22.San Jose $45.71
23.Anaheim $44.44
24.Atlanta $43.59
25.Carolina $41.58
26.Colorado $40.62
27.St.Louis $40.57
28.Tampa $37.73
29.Buffalo $36.43
30.Phoenix $36.15
31.Dallas $29.68

Here is the order of teams in potential ticket revenue based on sell outs. These figures are on a per game basis.

Seating Capacity x Average Ticket Price

1. Toronto $2,182,251
2. Montreal $1,838,838
3. Calgary $1,286,190
4. Winnipeg $1,231,230
5. Vancouver$1,229,672
6. Philadelphia $1,189,607
7. Ottawa $1,144,200
8. Minnesota $1,131,348
9. Edmonton $1,092,345
10.Chicago $1,092,124
11.Pittsburgh $1,085,943
12.Rangers $1,065,974
13.Detroit $1,038,014
14.Washington $1,022,376
15.Boston $965,021
16.Islanders $948,714
17.Florida $922,204
18.Los Angeles $906,805
19.New Jersey $895,878
20.Nashville $873,447
21.Columbus $864,743
22.San Jose $802,759
23.St.Louis $776,915
24.Carolina $776,714
25.Atlanta $768,230
26.Anaheim $763,212
27.Tampa $745,469
28.Colorado $731,444
29.Buffalo $680,876
30.Phoenix $619,068
31.Dallas $550,029

It should be noted the fact the 15,015 seat MTS centre is the smallest rink in the league by about 2600 seats means fewer concessions sales. However, aggressive ticket prices is just another way to help offset that. We know the NHL starved fans will pony up now, but the million dollar question of course is: Can Winnipegers stomach paying some of the highest hockey prices in the world long term?

Footnotes:

http://teammarketing.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/News/NHL%20FCI%202010-11.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ice_hockey_arenas_by_capacity