Playoff tickets less than plentiful
Sabres and Hurricanes' home game restrictions limit availability
By GENE WARNER
News Staff Reporter
5/16/2006
Buffalo Sabres fans, take note. When you go to HSBC Arena to cheer on the Sabres in the Eastern Conference finals, you may be sitting next to a person who paid five times as much - or one-fifth as much - as you did for your ticket.
And if the Sabres make it to the Stanley Cup finals, that figure will rise to 6:1.
The most diehard Sabres fans planning a trek to Raleigh, N.C., may have found something even more shocking Monday. Anyone going onto the Carolina Hurricanes Web site to buy tickets for the first two games there was greeted by a blunt message:
"Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of bordering states," with residency based on credit-card address. "Orders by residents outside of this area will be canceled without notice and refunds given."
In other words, the Hurricanes appear concerned that their arena could be filled with too many Sabres fans.
Has anyone told them how many transplanted Western New Yorkers are living in Raleigh or Charlotte?
Top Sabres officials wouldn't touch the issue with a 5-foot-long hockey stick Monday, but no such restrictions will apply when Sabres tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Sabres fans buying tickets here for the Stanley Cup semifinals will pay anywhere from $100 to $200 a seat. Those ticket prices are $100 for 300 Level seats, $150 to $200 for the 100 and 200 Levels.
In contrast, season-ticket holders who purchased playoff tickets in advance paid anywhere from just $20 to $85 per seat.
Sticker shock is here - at both extremes.
Some people may be shocked by the idea of spending $400 for a pair of seats. Others may be just as shocked to buy a third-round playoff ticket for only $20.
The reason for the disparity between season-ticket and box-office prices is simple. The Sabres want to give season-ticket holders every incentive they can.
"You'll keep hearing a consistent message from us," said Daniel DiPofi, the Sabres chief operating officer. "Season-ticket holders are the lifeblood of our organization. We want to keep showing people the advantages of being a season-ticket holder."
That's also why the Sabres are holding out some tickets for each game, for potential new season-ticket holders.
"There will be no discount from the box office [price], but we are putting several hundred tickets on hold for people willing to commit a 30 percent deposit on season tickets for next year," DiPofi said.
So how many tickets will be available Wednesday morning?
The Sabres start with about 17,000 tickets per game, not counting suite seats. About 11,300 have been sold to season-ticket holders for each of the first home two games, Games 3 and 4. That leaves roughly 5,700 tickets per game.
Two other factors will reduce that number. The allotment of tickets to the National Hockey League goes up in the Stanley Cup semifinals, and the Sabres are holding several hundred seats aside for potential season-ticket holders.
So about 4,000 tickets will go on sale Wednesday for each game.
The Sabres are adding one new restriction to their Wednesday ticket-selling event. The limit for each order is four tickets per game, down from eight.
"We're trying to get tickets in more people's hands," public relations director Michael M. Gilbert said.
Sabres officials are advising fans to shop online, by phone or at Tops markets.
"If I were a buyer, I'd go to the Internet," DiPofi said.
As the Sabres have whipped up a lot of excitement in their two series wins, the team now has accepted deposits from about 2,000 new season-ticket holders for next season. This season's figure was 8,861, including minipacks. While the Sabres have no interest in trying to bar Carolina fans, the Hurricanes' policy is novel, if not completely new.
Five years ago, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis created a program to stop anyone from the Pittsburgh area from buying tickets on the Capitals' Web site.
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