Sheffield Steelers: Orange Army show their mettle ahead of Panthers clash

The club decided to charge a regular season price for the exhibition game.That has surprised some of the Orange Army, but the adult prices of around £20 do not appear to have put many off with around 5,000 seats already spoken for.It is Steelers' first Elite League home game since the pandemic lockdown was enforced in February 2020.While supporters have seen Steelers via the internet-streamed mini series, they haven't been able to see them in the flesh."It might be a friendly but it is our first game back," said club owner Tony Smith. "We have got to suck up a lot of losses, a lot of costs," he said, referring to the Covid 19 lockdown. "We need to generate every single penny we can."Smith revealed there had been "some consideration" of the notion of charging a £5 ticket fee."We decided against that, we decided we'd charge full money and we will have a great show that night. It will be equally as good as any other night in the season. It was the right thing to do."Smith said there were big discounts for children but the maths wouldn't stack up if they had charged less for adults."For a £20 ticket we get about £16 from that, the rest goes to the Arena, Ticketmaster and admin and everything else. I don't know how that compares with football, or a night out at the pictures, or going bowling but we used to be pretty good value for money and I think we still are."Fans are going to want to come back, they have been without hockey for a long time and I think we are going to fill that Arena. We are already closing on 5,000 ticket sales."We could have played at iceSheffield, which we have done in the past for pre-season. But things have changed and all our games are in the Arena now, which is what the fans want."Fans will see a variety of new players in orange shirts after a busy summer of import signings.