Ticket prices for University of Maine hockey games are going up significantly next season, with increases on most season packages ranging from 23% to 32% and the cheapest single game option jumping up 40%.
University of Maine Vice President and Director of Athletics Jude Killy said the department decided to raise ticket prices following an analysis from a consulting firm.
“The reality is we have escalating costs just like everywhere else and, in a way, this helps us better support our operating budget,” Killy said. “It was recommended to us that we should have increased the prices more than we did, but we felt this was an appropriate increase.”
Killy said the analysis by Playfly Aspire, a sports entertainment and marketing firm, compared UMaine’s price structure with its competitors — regionally and nationally — and also included feedback from a fan survey.
“We got really good information from the fan survey. There were some focus groups and all that information combined together is how we priced everything,” he said.
Under the new pricing structure, season ticket holders in the gold section are the only ones who won’t be impacted as they will still pay $750 for a season ticket.
The silver section increase is 22.9% ($405 to $539), the blue section has gone up 23.7% ($370 to $485) and the white section has the largest increase at 32.3% from $270 to $399.
The gold and blue sections have seatbacks while the silver section has both seatbacks and bleacher seats, depending on the location.
Logan Desmond, UMaine’s associate athletic director for revenue generation, said the department has established red, navy and green sections that used to be part of the white section. The season ticket prices range from $361 for red, $307 for navy and $270 for green. They are all bleacher seats without backs.
Full and half-season tickets will go on sale on Tuesday.
There will be an additional increase for first-time season ticket holders, according to Desmond.
Single game tickets will also see an increase with the cheapest increasing from $22 to $31, according to Desmond.
Those tickets will go on sale later this summer.
Desmond said the analysis from Playfly Aspire modernizes the department’s approach to its ticket pricing.
“We wanted to do right by our most loyal fans, our season ticket-holders,” Desmond said. “We’re certainly sensitive to how our season ticket holders and our fans feel. But with the cost of everything going up, it was necessary at this time.”
Killy said one of the reasons the ticket price jump may seem high is the program hasn’t increased prices incrementally on a more regular basis.
“If we had just gone up 3 to 7% every year, this becomes less of an issue because we’re increasing it on an annual basis,” Killy said.
The Alfond Arena recently underwent a $50 million renovation, and the university unveiled a Black Bear Student-Athlete Experience Fund, which allows fans a platform to contribute financially to UMaine teams and student-athletes.
Killy stressed that the Alfond Arena upgrade and the student-athlete fund are “completely separate” and had no impact on the ticket price increase.
The Harold Alfond Foundation and gifts from donors provided the money for the area upgrade and donors and philanthropists are also supplying the financial support for the Black Bear Student-Athlete Experience Fund.
Desmond said there are 700 people on the waiting list for season tickets and that half-season ticket-holders will have an opportunity to purchase full season tickets. If there are two sets of people who share half-season tickets, the ones who have been season ticket holders the longest will get the first opportunity to purchase full season tickets, and they will relocate the other half-season ticket holders.
“Full season ticket holders will be guaranteed to get the best per-game price,” said Desmond.
Desmond anticipates some attrition from the rise in ticket prices but said “historically we have renewed at a very, very high mark. Ninety-five percent plus which is unheard of in the ticket industry. I think we will renew at a high clip again.”
UMaine sold out 16 of its 17 home games last season, with the only exception being a Sunday afternoon 7-2 win over Lindenwood on Dec. 14. UMaine drew 4,842, which is 138 below capacity of 4,980.
“At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, which is to be competitively successful, and we think this is something that will continue to put us in that conversation,” Killy said.
UMaine earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2023-24 and 2024-25. The team won its first Hockey East tournament since 2004 in 2024-25.
But last season the Black Bears, with 13 newcomers, had a disappointing 18-14-3 campaign and were eliminated in the Hockey East quarterfinals by Boston College.
