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50-50 brings success to Raiders

Apr 9, 2011 | 7:32 AM

It’s not just great hockey that made the playoffs good for the Raiders, it is the success of their new 50/50 draw system.

“The new 50/50 has been exceptional certainly with the playoff pots and the pots late in the regular season,” said Bruce Vance, business manager for the Prince Albert Raiders. “We are getting some very, very big numbers and it’s just great for the organization.”

“The average person spent over $6.69 on a ticket and that is huge numbers when you are looking at 3,200 or 3,300 people in the rink.”

The hockey club knew the system would be popular and that people in Prince Albert would like it, Vance said.

Under the old system a payout would be between $1,200 and $1,500 per game, whereas payouts towards the end of the regular season game with the new system were between $2,400 and $2,500.

The biggest payout was the $10,823 during playoff game six of the Eastern Conference quarter final against the Blades.

“It will be early next season by the time we pay it off and we figured it would take us a year’s worth of games. We’ve only had it really for 16 games and it’s almost paid itself off in 16 games,” Vance said.

The money raised by the system goes to support the players through the education fund, which provides players with some tuition funding.

ahill@panow.com