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Renewed Enthusiasm
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"There's been great demand across the board," said Van Stone, who added that two of the multi-game packages offered -- the Original Six and Weekend packages -- have sold out. "Season tickets in the lower bowl are about sold out. The team's performance kind of gave us the catapult to do this. We're selling one of the best products in the NHL right now."
Baltimore resident Brandon Wise is one of the Capitals' new customers. Wise, 26, purchased a full-season ticket package and opted to pay it off in 12 interest-free monthly installments.
"The Caps are a very exciting team with Ovechkin, Backstrom and Green," said Wise, who cut back on the number of Maryland football games he attends to afford his Capitals tickets. "I always wanted to buy season tickets to the Caps, and this was the right time."
Merchandise sales and traffic on the team's Web site are also up, according to Tim McDermott, the senior vice president of marketing. Merchandise sales, encompassing online as well as in-store sales at Verizon Center and Kettler Capitals Iceplex, have jumped 151 percent over last year, McDermott said. Online sales in 2006 ranked 21st in the NHL; last season the Capitals were sixth. Web traffic, meanwhile, has increased 50 percent over last year, he added.
"Every single business indicator is trending up," McDermott said.
Another encouraging indicator, McDermott said, is television ratings, which grew steadily after Boudreau took over and reached record levels in the playoffs. The Capitals garnered a 3.5 Nielsen rating on Comcast SportsNet for five games and a 3.6 on NBC. Game 7 pulled a 5.6, the highest rating for a hockey telecast on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.
Amid all the positive signs, Leonsis said this is not the time for self-congratulation.
"This year is so important," Leonsis said. "If we make the playoffs, go deep in the playoffs, we'll get 90, 95 percent renewals next year. I've always felt this is a great market, but it was up to us to find the formula, the product, the style of play, the approach, to activate it. We're almost there."
He paused and put his index finger and thumb about an inch apart.
"We're that close."
