from Ben Pope of the Chiago Sun-Times,

After months of surveys, studies, focus groups, conversations, brainstorms and fresh ideas, they unveiled a new season-ticket membership program Wednesday — with an emphasis on the “membership” aspect, designed to provide fans far more than a simple ticket to every game.

They hope the program will maintain the energetic atmosphere and relatively large crowds through this transitional era. They also hope it’ll initiate a new relationship between the franchise, which seems to realize its previous sales brand of exclusivity and elitism no longer flies, and its fans.

“The fans have built this program,” Hawks business president Jaime Faulkner told the Sun-Times.

“They are not shy about telling us what they care about. We listened and we’ve incorporated all of their feedback, or as much as we could, into this membership program. We hope they’ll be happy. We hope that they see this program and say, ‘Yes, you heard what we said, and you’ve delivered on that.’”

There’s one aspect of the new ticketing program fans will inevitably care most about: the price. And on that front, Jamie Spencer — the Hawks’ new vice president of revenue — wants to make something very clear.

“They’ve told us this, and we’ve heard them, and we’ve done the research and we agree with them,” he said. “Our tickets are too expensive.”

Therefore, 84% of seats will be cheaper next season. Another 9% will stay roughly the same, leaving just 7% more expensive. Plans no longer require purchasing tickets for preseason games either, further reducing the cost.

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