By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Another Golden Knights first — a double overtime playoff game that ended with a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings and a 2-0 first round playoff lead over their Pacific Division rivals.
Erik Haula slipped the game-winner under Kings goalie Jonathan Quick.
LVSportsBiz.com with some post-game interviews of James Neal, Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore.
Neal.
Tuch.
And Theodore.
Kings fans — the small band of them in the arena — left the building unhappy.
You have heard the story about Las Vegans travelling to California and complaining about prices there.
Here’s a twist — how about Southern Californians coming to T-Mobile Arena and lamenting the high prices of Golden Knights tickets for Game 2 Friday night.
Truck driver Paul Wilborn bought an upper bowl ticket for $212 for Game 2 and says he spent $85 for a Game 3 ticket at Staples Center Sunday.
Wilborn said the low number of Kings fans in the 18,000-plus crowds at T-Mobile Arena in Games 1 and 2 can be traced to the high ticket prices.
“The ticket prices are high for a first round game,” Wilborn told LVSportsBiz.com as he drank a $15 beer on the plaza outside the VGK ice house on the Strip.
Ramon Alvarez came from Ventura, Calif. to watch his Kings and forked over $302 to StubHub for a secondary market ticket.
“I don’t think I’ll even come back here,” Alvarez said.
That’s probably fine with owner VGK owner Bill Foley and his Golden Knights business staff, who have consciously planned a strategy to keep tickets in the hands of Golden Knights fans for the playoffs.
Many Knights season ticket holders unloaded their tickets during the regular season to make a hefty profit. But those same fans kept their playoff tickets when they took a “vow” to not sell their postseason tickets when they were able to buy those tickets at a lower price than if they wanted the flexibility to re-sell the tickets.
Several Kings fans mentioned that Wednesday’s game drew so few LA fans because it was in the middle of the week and not too many Kings fans were going to travel mid-week for an away playoff game.
Kings fan Nate Williams said more Las Vegas fans stepped up in the playoffs to take the team’s vow to not re-sell their postseason tickets. That was his explanation for so few Kings fans in the arena Wednesday and Friday when so many came to Las Vegas during the regular season to root for their Kings .
At Game 1 Wednesday, a partisan Knights crowd roared as one unified arena to celebrate a 1-0 victory.
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The ticket revenues for Game 2 are impressive. With a record attendance of 18,588, and let’s estimate an average ticket cost of $160, the Golden Knights generated nearly $3 million in ticket sales revenues.
The Kings and Knights move into OT tied at 1-1.
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Golden Knights fans have a fascination with knight helmets and there were quite an assortment out there on the arena plaza before the game. I’ll let the photos do the talking.
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LVSportsBiz.com has a great friend in T-Mobile Arena’s chie executive chef, Garry DeLucia, who comes up with all types of tasty culinary treats.
DeLucia said he has a pair of fun Knights-Kings playoff hot dog specials.
There’s the Dueling Dogs $15 deal — a Golden Knights hot dog with neon green relish, electric red pepper and desert yellow mustard and a Kings’ bacon-wrapped dog with sour cream.
And the foot-long Knife & Fork dog for about $10 with chili, cheese and jalapenos that is so big it requires a fork and knife to eat.
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