Wyatt Hamilton's Blog

Lately the talk of pricing has been thrown around a lot and that has made me think about how professional teams charge admission. I believe one of the best places to look would be the home of “The Great 8”, Alexander Ovechkin.

The Great 8 - Alexander Ovechkin

He is fast, skilled, aggressive, and most importantly entertaining. Since entering the NHL in the 2005-06 season, he has won countless awards, scoring titles, resurrected a failing franchise, accepted a key to the city, penned numerous endorsement deals, oh and signed one of the richest contracts in leagues history at 13 years $124 million. He is THE face of not only the Washington Capitals but also the NHL.

So I guess the question behind the Capitals decision to invest that sort of dollar amount in one player is…Does price indicate quality?

When Ovi joined the Caps, he took them from a team that had trouble getting any fans at all, to a franchise that has the hottest ticket in town where everyone will do just about anything to get their hands on them. The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg had an interesting blog about how the Caps have raised ticket prices for the third season in a row. They have moved from a sale to profit orientation pricing scheme; even with these increases they are still in the bottom third of the league for average season ticket sales, which goes to show how low their ticket prices were before Ovi.

Personally I think it is hard not to justify this guys contract. His marketability is something every other NHL front office drools over and wished they had. ESPN featured Ovechkin on E:60;

if one player can do this for your team…give the dog a bone… scratch that, 124 million bones.