Why are NHL tickets so expensive (especially near ice, $100+ for one ticket for a regular season game)?

Question

Family of four can enjoy level 1 seating for $450 for just one meaningless game! OUTRAGEOUS!

Answer 1

The NHL has become all about the money, just like all professional sports. The working man who built these franchises with his fan ship and ticket purchases, has been delegated to sit in front of the TV (if the game isn't blacked out because only the posh nosh can afford seats). The players, owners, and league just want their money. They don't care they have alienated the people that made them great. they have others willing to pay. The same goes for all professional sports and entertainment. You can't even take a family of 4 to a movie and a bite to eat for much less than $80-$100 any more.

It's a sad world for the little people some times.

Answer 2

While the previous answer was onto something with the size of the arena in hockey vs football and the total games vs baseball the biggest reason is the TV contract. Most major sports make their money from the TV contract. The NFL TV contract is so large that a team can go the entire season not sell a single ticket and still make a profit. The NHL TV contract is the smallest of the big 4 (even smaller than NASCAR I believe). As a result the owners have to make more of the money at the gate. I will agree that hockey is the most amazing transition from on TV to in person. Other sports the TV viewing experience is similar if not better than in person. For hockey the live game is a 1,000 times better than on TV even from the nose bleeds. I would suggest try to get upper level seats but in a center ice to blue line location. I would rather sit there than in the lower level in a corner or behind the net because when the play is at the other end you are unable to see much.

Answer 3

Many reasons but the most important is that because we love the sport so much we are willing to pay what they ask. Sounds like the price of fuel doesn't it.
Another reason is the the "suits" that go to the game to make business deals work for or own huge corporations submit the price for the tickets as a tax write off and since they can help sell out most of the good seats that leaves the nosebleeds for the rest of us.
If you watch a Leaf game it looks as if the lower seats are empty at the start of 2nd or 3rd period because the "suits" are still swilling beer in the bar.
There is another sore spot because the foamy beer they serve at the bar inside costs the same as a 12 pack up here.
Heres a hint to the "suits". Stop going to the game if you don't want to watch it anyway. Then if all the games do not sell out the rest of us can buy good seats and maybe if we are lucky they will actually lower the price of the tickets and beer so most of us can go(not likely though).
If you "suits" do not abide by all of the rules keep your head up when you are blathering throughout the game about some bullshit business deal because when you least expect it I'll lay the shoulder into you. You know who you are.

Answer 4

Supply and demand. Unfortunately much of it has to do with the popularity of a given team- if a lot of people want tickets to watch that team play, then the ownership is going to jack the price as high as they can get away with.

As a long-time (long-suffering, in some cases) Lightning fan I've seen this first hand. When the team was bad they could barely give tickets away- my brother played in a local kids hockey program at the time and they used to give REAMS of tickets to all the parents (15-20 tickets each) and practically beg them to give the tickets out at work and to friends just to get some butts in the seats. In those days my family had lower-bowl season tickets that were pretty cheap.

Fast forward to when the team finally started playing some decent hockey. Suddenly season ticket prices are on the rise and so are our seats- we're upstairs now. You can still get cheap tickets from scalpers for select games ($5 when less popular teams are in town), but in general demand is on the rise.

Jump forward again and the Lightning are Cup champs with a few banners in the rafters, and suddenly it's like trying to go to a game in Canada. All the lower seats are bought up by bandwagon businessmen that for the most part couldnt care less about actually watching the game. The nosebleed seats you used to be able to buy for $5-15 are suddenly $45-60. The glass seats that used to be $75 are now $300.

Answer 5

'Cause you have players making a million or more a year and the owners want a profit, so they have to charge high prices for the seats.
it's also unfortunate that they charge so much there when the better seating is actually a little higher up in most arenas.
For instance, here in Anaheim, I go to Ducks games and pay about $40.00 per ticket. Those are on the first level, but higher up where you can see everything.
Sometimes down near the glass, you can't see into the other corners of the rink.

Answer 6

Easy, the NHL isn't a family event. Try not sitting in the most expensive seats, yes?

Not all arenas are that expensive, a bunch in the US are much lower ... but then you go to Vancouver/Toronto/Montreal and people pay up to $400 for 1 seat near the glass.

NBA, NFL and MLB games can be just as bad.

Again, the NHL's target is not families. Try going to see a CHL game if you are in Canada, or a NCAA game if you're in the states instead.

Answer 7

Tickets are expensive for any type of show, you want ice tickets, you pay $250.00 or more, depending, you want a box then you pay $25,000.00 for a box, if you can't afford it go to the nose bleeds and pay $10.00 a ticket. He!! and that is cheap, try going to a game in Canada, you probably can't even get a ticket and if you can its crazy $$$$. The sad thing is only all the yuppy rich people can afford the good seats and they don't even care about the sport, they are just trying to impress their friends by taking them to games and then their little girlfriends sit there and look all cute and they have no idea which team they should be cheering for...pfft.

Answer 8

One of the reasons is the size of the arena. Unlike a football or baseball arena that can seat over 70,000 people an ice arena can only seat around 20,000. Less tickets to sell so you have to charge more. You can't make an ice arena the size of football or baseball arenas because the people in the nose bleed section would never be able to figure out where the puck is.

Answer 9

I agree that they are overpriced. While in college, tickets to our hockey games were expensive and their reasoning was because it was expensive for the ice rink and the upkeep of the ice rink as well as the electric to keep the entire stadium from being too cold. I don't think that that would constitute that high of a price tho. I know in Canada and some northern states tickets are more expensive cause it's more popular there and people will pay it.

Answer 10

You should try going to a Buffalo Sabres game. The Sabres have one of the lowest average ticket prices in the NHL even though they are number 1 in the Eastern Conference. That shows how much respect Mr. Golisano has for the fans, trying not to make the tickets too expensive for the not-so-good economy of Buffalo.