SCF Game 2 In Denver: Fans Struggle To Calculate Way To Afford Secondary Market Tickets To Watch Avs vs Lightning At Ball Arena

June 18, 2022June 18, 2022 Alan Snel Jared Bednar

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

Welcome to pure capitalism, the father-and-son, Stanley Cup Final version at Ball Arena in downtown Denver.

Dad Jim Caldwell, 47, and son Kaden, turning 15, sat on sidewalk concrete with their backs to the Colorado Avalanche arena wall after catching a flight from Salt Lake City to Denver.

The money goal: spend a maximum of $2,500 for two tickets to tonight’s Tampa Bay Lightning vs Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup Final Game 2, round-trip airfare to and from Salt Lake and overnight lodging.

Dad kept looking at the secondary market ticket prices on his cell phone before saying, “I’m not positive it could happen.”

The Colorado Avalanche fans were jubilant tonight. Photo credits for this story: LVSportsBiz.com

Welcome to the calculus of ticket price monitoring at major sports events, where fans gaze at ticket reseller sites on their phones while mixing price, seat location and “what I can afford” into a mental blender in hopes of eventually pushing that ticket purchase button.

Caldwell, a communications industry worker, said he wants a ticket for less than $950 close to center ice.

Sure, there are cheaper tickets on the resale websites. But Caldwell has location standards: “We can get seats in the corners for less than $950, but it’s better to see the whole game from near center ice.”

The Caldwells watched Colorado’s 4-3 overtime win over Tampa Bay in Game 1 Wednesday from their living room couch in Salt Lake City.

“We watched the game and the ticket prices fluctuate in Salt Lake City,” Caldwell said.

But dad wanted to give son a birthday present to remember for his 15th, so they landed in Denver at 7 a.m. today, took local light rail to the arena and began monitoring secondary market prices while sitting outside the venue at 10 a.m.

Caldwell is a Denver Broncos season ticket holder who attends two or three Broncos home games a season and sells his other game tickets to friends who are also Broncos supporters.

So he knows Denver.

He just doesn’t know when he will click his cell phone button to score two tickets for Saturday’s Game 2.

But he’s committed to getting through the turnstile because there’s no other sport that has a wider gap between watching the game in person and seeing it on TV than hockey.

“Once people see a game in person,” Caldwell told LVSportsBiz.com, “they’re coming again.”

Reader reaction, noting the original ticket prices were high:

Even local Denver residents were trying to figure out the rise and fall of the Game 2 ticket prices.

One ticket-hungry fan was checking ticket reseller sites and observed wryly, “They’re starting at $750, It’s like they know exactly how much I won’t pay.”

The Brooklyn’s bar across the street from Ball Arena saw more activity for Wednesday’s Game 1, but like many restaurants across the country the watering hole needs workers.

“I’m struggling to find staff to work Stanley Cup Final games and they’re in the finals once every 20 years,” said Jasmine Nunez, front-of-the-house manager at Brooklyn’s.

The customers are returning, she said. “It’s definitely nice to have business and see the customers again.”

Asked whether business spiked for Game 1 Wednesday, Nunez schooled a reporter, “It’s kind of a dumb question.”

Sportsmediawatch reported that the Game 1 matchup between the Bolts and Avs Wednesday drew 4.2 million viewers.

As a point of comparison to the NBA, the Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp reported, “The NBA Finals averaged 12.4 million viewers for six games on ABC and ESPN2, bouncing back from two COVID-influenced championship rounds the last two years, but not at the level seen in years before the pandemic.”

This was from Sportsmediawatch: “Wednesday’s Lightning-Avalanche Stanley Cup Final Game 1 averaged a 2.2 rating and 4.2 million viewers on ABC, up 175% in ratings and 161% in viewership from Canadiens-Lightning on NBCSN last year (0.8, 1.61M) but down 24% and 20% respectively from Blues-Bruins on NBC on Memorial Day 2019, the previous year the postseason was conducted as normal (2.9, 5.25M). The game’s 6 share matched 2019.”

The Avalanche mobile street hockey crew set up shop next to the arena this afternoon.

It’s all about growing the sport.

The Denver Nuggets have been out of the NBA playoffs for a while, so the ice crew at Ball Arena has been able to keep the ice surface in solid playing condition.

After all, they have all day to get the ice ready for Colorado Avalanche hockey games.

It glitters like glass.

The crew, however, knows that the teams’ warmups with 40 big guys who are terrific skaters can create skate marks in the ice surface.

So, the crew’s goal is to get the surface better and better as the game goes on after the warmups.

Workers try to keep the ice temperature at 21 degrees during the game while keeping the arena’s indoor temperature at 60 degrees. But maintaining that 60-degree mark can be a challenge in mid-June in Denver when temperatures outside can approach 100 degrees.