Tickets in short supply as SC Stingrays play annual "Pack the House Night" Saturday

20 Jan 2010 by Sean in Charleston Sports

On Saturday, the North Charleston Coliseum is going to party like it’s 1993.  The East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) Stingrays have been calling North Charleston home for 17 seasons.  The crowds have dwindled since the team’s early years.  But this Saturday, the team’s annual “Pack the House Night” offers hockey fans $5 tickets in an effort to sell out their game against the Reading (PA) Royals.

I’m a big hockey fan, and I attended the team’s first and third ever games in 1993.  While the fans aren’t making the drive to Montague Ave. like they were back then, the Stingrays have been rolling lately.

With 28 wins in 43 games, the ‘Rays lead the ECHL by a wide margin, going into the All-Star break with 62 points in the standings.  For comparison, Eastern-Division-leading Reading has 48 points in 40 games.

Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Tickets for Saturday’s game in North Charleston are just as hot as the Stingrays.  Lower-bowl tickets are already sold out, and as of Tuesday morning, the Stingrays’ Facebook page reported only 2,000 seats left for the game, which starts at 7:05 p.m.

“The players love it,” said Stingrays Community Relations Manager Katie Ginther. “It’s so loud. ... They say it’s great—it’s cool to skate out and not see an open seat.”

The team recently added curtains to cordon off some of the surplus seats in the upper-level and lower the arena’s official capacity for hockey.  For Saturday’s game, the curtains will be removed and 10,595 seats will be made available.  Expect a sell-out.

The inexpensive seats draw well and attract locals who might not already be hockey fans.

“This crowd is a little different,” Gither said. “We have a lot of new people.”

Seeing a game in person is its own sales pitch.  Hockey is fast, hard-hitting and—somehow—graceful.  The extra exposure is virtually guaranteed to convert some of these “new people” into casual hockey fans.

Call the Stingrays office at (843) 744-2248 for tickets and more information.