Stub hub and other "scalper" sites are the same as getting ticks from an actual "scalper" outside any venue before a game, meaning your gonna pay crazy prices if you want great seats. I have ticket contacts for games in Buffalo, Ottawa, and Montreal, and usually they can get game tickets when those teams play in Toronto as well. Last year my buddy got online as soon as tickets went on sale and snagged us each a lower gold seat for the first game of the season vs. Mtl, although separate because only singles were available, and my Sens scalper buddy hooked us up with lower golds side by side (10 rows from the ice near centre ice) for the 2nd game of the season against Ottawa, we paid $250 each for those, and the others were face value of $203 plus taxes. Not cheap by any means but i had the time of my life and will always have the memories. Cant wait to do it all over again in October.
I would expect a New Yorker of all people to know that... a) There is a hell of a lot of wealth in major cities... and b) there are a lot of corporations that purchase tickets as a business expense.
Toronto is one of North America's largest financial centres. The city itself produces a bigger percentage of Canada's GDP then the entire province of B.C. and the Golden Horseshoe (area from Niagara Falls to Oshawa) produces over a 1/3 of Canada's GDP.
The city is host to countless major national and international companies, including the likes of Manulife Financial, Google Canada, Four Seasons, and 5 of the world's top 20 most powerful banks, among many others. It is also home to the Toronto Stock Exchange, which has the most resource listings of any exchance and is the 7th most active in the world.
The bottomline is that there are many people in the city that have money to burn and are more then willing to burn it on the $550 tickets and the $30 burgers in the platinum lounges. They drive their Ferraris to the game and leave in their friend's Aston Martin. If these people aren't purchasing the tickets, then one of the many major corporations in the area do and write it off as a business expense.
I take all your points but will repeat that NYC is all that and more, with mind-boggling amounts of wealthy people, yet the pricing pressure on all 4 majors sports has made tickets come way down on the secondary market. There is a point where people just refuse to pay.
The only other franchise in North America that has a similar pricing anomaly is the Boston Red Sox (resale average is $124 vs league average of $56), but the Red Sox are a top 3 team and the Leafs haven't been good in a long time. Oddly enough, the next most expensive MLB team is the Blue Jays with an average resale value of $91
So yes, it does come down to insanely strong demand for pro hockey in Toronto combined with high disposable income. I think the city would be able to support a second franchise, much like NYC has the Mets & Yankees
You're obviously very sensitive, so sorry to offend. I don't know Toronto very well, but I do know Montreal and it's just been my impression that there is more to do there and Toronto is more of a "business first" kind of town
as far as entertainment/nightlife, it's true montreal does beat out toronto, in my opinion at least. that doesnt change the fact toronto is a wolrd class city and there's probably just as many, if not more things to do here. maybe you should check it out sometime before forming such an opinion. just sayin'.
I take all your points but will repeat that NYC is all that and more, with mind-boggling amounts of wealthy people, yet the pricing pressure on all 4 majors sports has made tickets come way down on the secondary market. There is a point where people just refuse to pay.
The only other franchise in North America that has a similar pricing anomaly is the Boston Red Sox (resale average is $124 vs league average of $56), but the Red Sox are a top 3 team and the Leafs haven't been good in a long time. Oddly enough, the next most expensive MLB team is the Blue Jays with an average resale value of $91
So yes, it does come down to insanely strong demand for pro hockey in Toronto combined with high disposable income. I think the city would be able to support a second franchise, much like NYC has the Mets & Yankees
the difference is in toronto no one gives a **** about the raptors, jays, argos and toronto fc. sure they draw, our city is diverse and each sport has it's own die hard fans. but tickets to those events are nowhere near the level supply vs demand as the leafs.
on the topic of a second franchise, easily. with the surrounding area you could agrue the GTA cold support 3 franchises. especially when consider hamilton/niagra and windsor/london areas help keep the wings and sabres in business.
i'd also like to add that things would be much different in toronto if we had 3 teams like the new york area has with the rangers, islanders and devils. that's a whole hell of alot more competition than the leafs have. there's absolutely no reason for the leafs not to charge what they do at the moment. if someone boycotts going to leafs games there's literally thousands of people waiting in line to take his place.
I take all your points but will repeat that NYC is all that and more, with mind-boggling amounts of wealthy people, yet the pricing pressure on all 4 majors sports has made tickets come way down on the secondary market. There is a point where people just refuse to pay.
The only other franchise in North America that has a similar pricing anomaly is the Boston Red Sox (resale average is $124 vs league average of $56), but the Red Sox are a top 3 team and the Leafs haven't been good in a long time. Oddly enough, the next most expensive MLB team is the Blue Jays with an average resale value of $91
So yes, it does come down to insanely strong demand for pro hockey in Toronto combined with high disposable income. I think the city would be able to support a second franchise, much like NYC has the Mets & Yankees
I think you came to your own conclusion on that one.
You are probably correct, there is a point where people will go "I won't pay for that," however clearly it has not been reached yet. To their credit, MLSE has been very careful in raising their ticket prices. It hasn't been touched in two years, not because they don't believe that people will buy it, but because of the public outrage that will follow. They saw it last time they raised ticket prices, and they saw it when they raised TFC prices (where season ticket holders abandoned the team en masse). As Richard Peddie, top executive at MLSE said last year (paraphrasing), "we cannot justify raising ticket prices at this time."
How much would one expect to pay for two (side-by-side) tix for opening night vs the Habs in the upper-bowl (preferably the first few rows)? And how would I go about ensuring that I get my hands on a ticket (<200$) for the game (dates and locations would be useful)?
How much would one expect to pay for two (side-by-side) tix for opening night vs the Habs in the upper-bowl (preferably the first few rows)? And how would I go about ensuring that I get my hands on a ticket (<200$) for the game (dates and locations would be useful)?
- The only way you can get two side by side is through scalpers and online brokers
- You're gonna be paying $250 MINIMUM PER TICKET for opening night vs. the Habs
- For under 200$ total in that area of the rink you're looking at a midweek game vs. an out of division opponent
