June 7, 2007

Ducks fans invited to party Saturday in Anaheim

By: North County Times wire services -

ANAHEIM - Anaheim Ducks fans who want to keep the post-Stanley Cup party going are invited to meet Saturday at the Honda Center for a victory celebration that will feature the entire roster of the championship team and some "surprises," a city official said today.

"We want to make sure the fans have a way to celebrate and acknowledge the players who brought this championship to Orange County," said city spokesman John Nicoletti.

"We always take our cue from the team, and the team wanted to make sure the celebration and grand arrival of the players is concurrent," he said. "This gives everybody the opportunity to be in one place."

Fans will be treated to free hot dogs, soda and potato chips and get a close-up look at the hockey team that brought the Stanley Cup to the Golden State for the first time, Nicoletti said.

The party is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. and will also include live music and entertainment, he said, promising some crowd-pleasing surprises in the lineup.

When the Angels won the World Series baseball crown in 2002, there was a short parade from the then-Arrowhead Pond to the parking lot of Angels Stadium. But a blow-out in the parking lot is more appropriate for the early evening time frame, Nicoletti said. He said the party will last two hours.

Banners outside City Hall West on South Anaheim Boulevard and message boards all over the resort area congratulating the team contribute to the festive air, Nicoletti said.

Now that the Ducks are hockey's Stanley Cup champions, getting tickets for next season is expected to be harder.

Tim Ryan, the team's chief operating officer, told NBC4 after yesterday's cup-clinching 6-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators that all 40 home games at the Honda Center may sell out.

The Ducks sold out their final 22 regular-season home games and all 13 home playoff games.

The team's average home attendance of 16,377 was an 8.2 percent increase over the previous season and the highest since the 1997-98 season, which averaged 17,068.

Cal State Fullerton marketing professor Tom Boyd predicted the team would "have a higher rate of renewals for their season tickets, and Orange County companies that don't own season tickets are likely to jump on that bandwagon because that will become a hotter ticket and a little more impressive to give to a client."

"The real challenge for the Ducks will be how to figure out how to keep those fans after somebody else wins the Stanley Cup. It's a tough task in Southern California because of the number of alternatives," along with the region's small hockey fan base, Boyd said.

Because of the Stanley Cup championship, the Ducks "will pick up a few fans for life, people who got really involved and fell in love with the sport and fell in love with the team," he said, but they " will have to continue to entertain fans to hold onto their gains."

The Ducks' rivals to the north, the Los Angeles Kings, could also benefit from the Ducks' Stanley Cup triumph because of the increased attention paid to hockey, "as long as they're not dismal," Boyd said.