Saturday's second half of season on-sale strongest ever

OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators made available Saturday individual game tickets for the second half of the season -- the final 22 regular-season meetings at the Corel Centre -- with grand success, seeing 5,000 tickets sold in the first 30 minutes through the Capital Tickets website, www.CapitalTickets.ca, and 7,500 in an hour. At 4 p.m. Saturday, tickets sales from every point-of-purchase means (Internet, phones, box office and Sports Experts outlets) reached 16,500.

"We knew Hockey Country fans were back in full force with us this season, but these numbers also show the confidence they have in the overall NHL product and their Senators' team," said Roy Mlakar, president and chief executive officer of the Senators.

Mlakar also said the increase in website sales indicates consumers have become friendly with the ease of website purchases. "Fans who went on-line at CapitalTickets.ca were able to get quicker and easier access to tickets to the games they want to see."

Like many other professional teams, the Senators have offered their fans the opportunity to complete their own ticket purchases, including printing their own tickets at home. In addition, fans have the ability to deliver tickets directly to their credit card, similar to technology seen in airports and car rental companies. Using this delivery method, fans can avoid box office line-ups by bringing the credit card they used to purchase the tickets directly to the ticket taker who then swipes the card and prints a receipt that identifies the customer seat locations.

Today, the Senators experienced an overall increase of 55 per cent from the same day in 2003-04 for a total of 16,500 tickets sold with Internet ticket sales, accounting for 58 per cent of the tickets sold across all sales channels.

Over the first 11 regular-season games to date this season, the Senators have averaged 19,220 in attendance and had seven sell-outs as 211,417 have visited the Corel Centre.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.CapitalTickets.ca; by phone at (613) 599-FANS (3267) or 1-877-788-FANS (3267); in person at any Sport Experts location in the Ottawa-Gatineau area and at the Corel Centre box office.

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