Wednesday, October 10, 2012

lv wallets Fans have never wanted hockey tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins as much as they do now



Fans have never wanted hockey tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins as much as they do now. The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team belonging to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League. The team is based in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Ever since the Penguins started playing, their home arena has been the Melon Arena. However, they will relocate to a new arena from the 2010-11 NHL season.



The Highs And Lows Of The Team





The Pittsburgh Penguins were established as an expansion team in 1967 when the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams. It has won the Stanley Cup twice, once in the 1990-91 season and the other in 1991-92 season. The pairing of the Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in the 1990-91 season facilitated the Stanley Cup victory. After winning the Cup, the Pittsburgh Penguins were invited to call on President George H.W. Bush. Thus, they became the first NHL team to visit the White House. The Penguins were an impressive team all through the 1990�s.



Unfortunately, through most of the team�s history, they have had to struggle with financial difficulties. This had an effect on the composition of the team, as they often could not afford draft talented players. This resulted in the poor performance of the team and consequently the demand of the hockey tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins games was low for many years. In 1975, the team became bankrupt and it was only the intervention of a group, which included Wren Blair that prevented its closure.



In 1998 the Pittsburgh Penguins filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was again faced with the choice of moving or closing. Mario Lemieux was one of the principle creditors as his salary had been deferred for years and now amounted to millions of dollars. At this juncture, he offered to convert his salary into equity and take over the team. Lemieux had retired in 1997 and was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in the same year. However, in the year 2000 after taking over the Penguins, he came out of his retirement, much to the astonishment of the hockey community. He thus became the first player-owner in the history of NHL.



Thereafter to make the team financially viable, several top players like Jagr, Frantisek Kucera and Alexei Kovalev had to be traded. This affected the team�s performance. During the 2003-04 NHL season the purchase of hockey tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins games were at an all-time low. On an average only 11,877 fans attended each game. It was only due to stringent control on the costs that the Penguins could repay of all debts by 2005.



The Penguins staged a comeback after the acquisition of the prolific scorer Sidney Crosby. They became the finalists of the 2007- 08 Stanley Cup with the efforts of players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Jordan Staal. However, the Detroit Red Wings defeated them in the finals. Since then, the hockey tickets for Pittsburgh Penguins games have been in great demand. In certain instances the tickets for their home playoffs have got sold out in 15 minutes.
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