Laurie and I have been talking this over for a couple of days, and I figured this might make for interesting blog fodder.

We’ve decided not to renew our season tickets with the Sharks next season. Which given we’ve had season tickets since the Sharks first season, and we’re going through the 20th season now, probably comes as a surprise (especially to folks who know us well).

Why are we doing this? Well, it’s not because we’re upset at the Sharks, or the quality of hockey, or the cost, or whatever. It’s because we both want to spend less time sitting in a hockey arena.

Think about it. If you’re full season ticket holders, you’re committing to 43 games a year. Lots of season ticket holders sell off chunks; in our case we average about 35 games a year. That’s over a month a year sitting in the arena, so from October to June (depending on how deep a team goes into the playoffs), you’re committing a big chunk of time and a lot of evenings to being at the game. This year, especially, I’ve felt at times that it’s gotten in the way of some of the other things I want to do (especially photography), where the friday night or saturday game really limits the ability to do other things on the weekend. When I birded Panoche a few weeks ago, I only covered about half the territory I’d planned on because I needed to get back for a game.

Our decision was to drop the tickets and buy on the open market (hello, Stubhub) rather than hang onto the tickets and have to deal with selling off the ones we don’t want. It’s just less hassle and gives us more flexibility (and no responsibility…)

So we’ll still be in the arena, just less — and watching more TV from home, where we can multitask or PVR the games if we need to. or (gasp) miss one. I expect we’ll try tobuy tickets down in that area, or maybe grab tickets from some of our seat neighbors who sell them off, since we like that section and the folks in it, and we like the angle (or perhaps we’re just used to it…)

amusingly enough, we both had been thinking about this independently for a while, and weren’t sure whether to mention it to each other. And amusingly enough, neither of us was at all surprised to find out the other one was also thinking that way; the joy of sharing your life with someone for a long time….

And yes, this opens up options. We’ve wanted to check out hockey in other venues, and this frees up some cash (and time!) to give us a chance to, say, try the edmonton/red deer/Calgary trifecta, or do a trip through ottawa, toronto, montreal and some of the OHL. Or just start getting back up to Vancouver again on a more regular basis and wallow in the WHL and take in a game or two at GM place.

Oh, and we’ve also decided not to buy playoff tickets this year. Partly for this reason, partly because we just don’t think this team will go deep and can’t convince outselves to spend the money for another first or second round exit. maybe they’ll prove us wrong, if so, we’ll happily cheer (from home).

Go sharks!