Have you ever tried to buy tickets to an NHL hockey game? In Canada, it ain't easy and it ain't cheap.
Over the last year I have jumped deeply into the world of NHL hockey tickets. It is a wacky world. And there is much more going than meets the eye.
Let's first take a look at the pricing of tickets. The average cost of a ticket in Canadian markets varies widely: Ottawa ($56); Edmonton ($60); Calgary ($60); Vancouver ($65); Winnipeg ($82); Montreal ($82); and Toronto ($114). Of course, these are just average ticket prices, so you can often find seats in the upper decks for cheaper than the average price. But even then, lots of Canadians can't afford that. In Toronto, the face-value (that is, the price charged by the Maple Leafs) of upper deck seats rarely go lower than $65. Moreover, lots of teams use outlets like Ticketmaster to sell single game tickets, which likes to charge all sorts of convenience charges, much like you would find for concert tickets.
But this is far from the whole story. In some markets, the likelihood of actually finding tickets at these prices is negligible. In Vancouver, Montreal, Winnipeg and Toronto, demand for tickets far outstrips supply. Most tickets in an arena are reserved for season ticket holders, so the remaining single game tickets get swept up very quickly - sometimes you can get lucky finding a single seat by itself or grabbing last-minute seats given up by someone else, including players. Apply the standard rule of economics: when demand outstrips supply, prices will go up.
This has spawned secondary markets. The days of scalpers standing outside an arena offering tickets at a significant markup are gone. The internet is a far more efficient vehicle. Tickets can be found from private sellers on sites like Kijiji, Craigslist and EBay. But like any purchase from a stranger online, you run the risk of being screwed over. They could just give you fake tickets, like some unfortunate Winnipeg fans found out the hard way. More legitimate sites have popped up, including the behemoth StubHub. But the convenience of availability and legitimacy has a price. For major market teams like Toronto and Montreal, ticket prices on StubHub usually exceed face value by 200-300%. And even then, you can't be guaranteed a quality product.
But isn't selling above face-value illegal? Technically, yes. But so is crossing the street on a red light. The enforcement of scalping (selling tickets above face-value) is incredibly difficult for police services. In big cities, already cash-strapped police departments often have bigger fish to fry. Fraudulent ticket charges can grab some attention, but even then it isn't very easy to troll the internet looking for the culprits.
Some teams have taken it into their own hands. The Winnipeg Jets, caught in a frenzy of interest when the team announced its return to Winnipeg, made it very clear that if any season ticket holders were caught selling tickets above face value, their tickets would be revoked. They weren't kidding. Hundreds of tickets have been revoked, including a professional ticket broker in Richmond, Virginia who spoke openly about his intention to sell at a markup - he didn't seem to realize that saying such things on the record to a reporter, my Dad, might have some consequences.
But teams like Toronto don't appear to have much interest in doing so. They really don't need to. The tickets they sell are already bringing significant revenue to the team. Moreover, most of the tickets on the secondary market are sold by season ticket holders. When your team is as terrible and as engrained as the Leafs, a deep investigation of your longtime ticket holders - some since the 1930s - could be a tad unpopular. Indeed, the Leafs actually seem to be in the business of apologizing to their fans.
Getting your hands on season tickets can be next to impossible. Teams in Canada have waiting lists, but even then, you're in it for the long haul. In Vancouver, the list is currently sitting around 3,300, which is supposed to take 10+ years to get through. The team charges you an initial $150/seat fee to get on the list, and you pay an annual $50 fee to remain on the list - $25 of that goes towards any future ticket purchases. In Winnipeg, season tickets last summer sold out in only a few minutes and the team was forced to cap the waitlist at 8,000. Many of those have since dropped off the list. In Toronto the list is estimated at 4,000, but with a retention rate above 99% you are looking beyond 20 years before getting a chance to grab tickets.
In order to speed up the process, Maple Leafs fans can turn to Personal Seat Licenses (PSL). Season ticket holders can pay a one time fee to the Leafs to purchase a license to the seats, essentially making the seats a legal asset. Depending on the price point of the annual season tickets, the one-time license fee could vary from $5,000 - $40,000 per seat. Apart from the tax benefits of this legal asset (if the seats are under a business' name), the PSL can allow people to jump the 20 year queue. Let me explain: Say you have a pair of Leafs season tickets you no longer want or can afford. You can only transfer the tickets within your immediate family, but nobody wants them. If you decide not to renew them, the next person on the waiting list has the right of first refusal to the tickets. The owner of a PSL, however, has the right of first refusal to the seats on the license. Say you have a friend who loves the Leafs and desperately wants your season tickets. You can purchase a PSL from the Leafs and turn around and sell the license to your friend for a price over and above what you paid the Leafs. For example, you buy a PSL for $10,000 from the Leafs. Then you sell your PSL to your friend for $20,000. You've made a $10,000 profit. Since your friend now owns the PSL, when the seats come available, he has the right of first refusal. No need to wait 20 years.
This method of jumping the queue is becoming ever more popular. There is even a company that brokers these deals.
Thankfully, for most hockey fans the best seats are in front of the TV. And with HD technology getting more affordable by the second, high quality hockey in the comfort of your own home (or pub) is well within reach. But, admittedly, there is nothing quite like being in the arena, caught up in the frenzy of the crowd. Too bad it's so wacky to get your hands on some tickets.
*Chris is Toronto Maple Leafs Season Ticket Holder and the tickets have been in the family since the early 1980s. Here's to hoping they make the playoffs again in his lifetime*
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