Perfect Storm of Visiting Original 6 Team with National Following, Time of Year, Cheaper Ticket Costs Led to T-Mobile Arena Turning Toronto Blue Thursday

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

Thursday when the Toronto Maple Leafs scored in the first period in their game against the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a sizable blue-and-white-clad chunk of the crowd roared with approval.

 

And in the waning few minutes of the third period when the game’s fate was clearly decided — the Maple Leafs were leading, 6-3, over the Golden Knights — nobody could deny that a wave of Leafs hockey sweaters had washed over the VGK’s home arena. The sizable number of visiting team fans was a sight Golden Knights fans — the ones who had stuck around until the end — have not seen in Year 2. The thousands of fans wearing visiting team colors Thursday were reminiscent of a Golden Knights-Minnesota Wild game in Year 1 and the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup clincher in Game 5 in Las Vegas.

 

But Thursday’s Golden Knights home game raised a question — how can an arena have so many visiting team fans when the Golden Knights have 14,000 season ticket holders in a crowd that average 18,302 after 29 home dates? Check out the cheers in the arena after the Leafs scored a goal on Golden Knights home ice.  How many VGK season ticket holders sold their tickets on the secondary market that ended up in the hands of Maple Leafs fans? How many VGK tickets were being peddled by scalpers and brokers? According to Greg Cohen of TicketIQ, an online secondary ticket marketplace, the Vegas Golden Knights have about 300 secondary market listings per game, while the NHL team average is around 650 per game. (That does NOT include available secondary market tickets available through the team’s VGK Ticket Exchange, Cohen noted.)

The visiting team’s opposing colors all over the arena was a scene Golden Knights officials didn’t think they’d see too much of in 2018-19, especially after the VGK began cancelling accounts of season ticket holders who were deemed by the VGK as selling too many of their tickets through unauthorized third parties and through social media.

 

Owner Bill Foley told LVSportsBiz.com last season that he thought that some home games had too many visiting team fans. The Golden Knights were not keen on unauthorized scalpers and brokers. And they made changes in the platforms that control the secondary ticket market by re-branding their Flash Tickets into the VGK Ticket Exchange.  (The VGK even created an in-house video to explain the Ticket Exchange.)  The Knights also cut the business cord with StubHub in season two after the team got in a legal dispute with the giant secondary ticket reseller over postseason ticket sales last season.

 

While the Golden Knights score big financially in ticket revenue with all these SRO crowds at T-Mobile Arena, they were hoping to have a “better balance” of home and away fans in season two (translation, less visiting team fans) with the team’s secondary ticket market changes. So, it’s hard to pin the Toronto blue all over T-Mobile Arena on the VGK.

 

Instead, it was likely the result of a perfect storm of circumstances that involved a visiting historic NHL team enjoying a good season with a national following of fans coming to Las Vegas for a Thursday night game/long weekend in the dead of winter.

 

Throw in the fact that Maple Leafs tickets are scarce and expensive for home games back in Toronto and that the Vegas game at T-Mobile Arena was likely circled by Leafs fans shortly after the 2018-19 NHL schedule came out.

 

Savvy Golden Knights fans who are season ticket holders and ticket brokers able to get their hands on VGK-Leafs game tickets for the Valentine’s Day match knew there would be a high demand for tickets by Maple Leafs Nation. So they let supply-and-demand do its thing to ask for inflated ticket prices — costs, though, that were acceptable to visiting Leafs fans accustomed to paying even higher ticket prices for games back in Toronto.

 

LVSportsBiz.com interviewed a province of Ontario couple, Leafs fans David Alexander and new wife Lorraine Paquette, before the game who said the secondary market tickets for the game in Las Vegas cost less than what they would have spent for a game in Toronto. They decided to get married in Las Vegas while they were here to attend the game.

 

“Leafs Nation is so huge. It goes back to the Original 6 when Hockey Night in Canada broadcast Leafs games on Saturday night from coast to coast. Leafs tickets in Toronto are so expensive and so hard to get, so it’s an opportunity to see them at an away game,” Alexander told LVSportsBiz.com. “Auston Matthews was quoted as saying that this was a great vacation opportunity to see them play. He is so right.”

 

Canadian businessman and Las Vegas snowbird Justin Gaudry from northwest Ontario, who spent just under $7,500 for a year-to-year ticket membership with the VGK but then had the ticket deal cancelled by the Golden Knights, said Leafs fans likely descended on Las Vegas from all points across Canada.

 

“The Leafs fan base stretches from coast to coast, so they aren’t just coming from the Greater Toronto Area. They are coming from everywhere, including NW Ontario where I live and westward, which is generally easier and cheaper to fly to Vegas than it would be from Toronto. Getting away from winter is a bonus for fans from Alberta to Ottawa. Vancouver less so maybe, but still nice to fly in to temps above freezing. The cold snap in town would not have fazed anyone coming from the frozen tundra,” Gaudry said.

 

“This happens in many arenas in Canada when the Leafs come to town. Also many destination cities as well like Miami, Tampa, Phoenix, LA, Anaheim and SJ, especially if they swing through in the winter.

 

“Bottom line is, even those STH that attend the vast majority of their games may have picked this one to sell. The team does say they don’t expect everyone to go to every game. However, insisting on selling through the platforms that will allow them to wet their beak, will ensure games like Toronto and other teams with good traveling fan bases can take over T-Mobile arena anytime they choose.”

 

A visiting team’s fan base swarming into its opponent’s home venue is hardly new. In baseball, Boston Red Sox fans priced out of Fenway Park made field trips to Baltimore to watch Sox games at Camden Yards, while Yankees fans fly south to take over Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. when the Rays host the Yanks. Cubs and Mets fans have been known to take over the Marlins’ ballparks over the years.

 

Even Golden Knights fans hit the trail to places like Phoenix and Los Angeles to make their presence known at VGK opponents’ arenas, where they can buy tickets at lower prices that justify the travel costs.

 

T-Mobile Arena will see more visiting teams’ fans this week.  After the Golden Knights play the Colorado Avalanche in Denver Monday night, the Vegas team hosts the Original 6 Boston Bruins Wednesday and the Winnipeg Jets Friday.

 

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