Adam Proteau discusses the ticket prices for the Stanley Cup final, why the Panthers still appear to be favorites over the Oilers and the Stanley Pup event supporting adoption.
Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla., hosts Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup final as well as Games 5 and 7 if necessary. And resale tickets reflect the huge demand.Welcome again to Screen Shots, an ongoing THN.com feature in which your humble correspondent tackles a few hockey topics and breaks them down into a few paragraphs apiece.
On to business, we go:
If you’re fortunate to have Stanley Cup final games played in your city this spring, you’re going to have to spend a small fortune to attend those games.
As per re-sale site Gametime, the cheapest tickets of the final come in Games 1 and 2 in Florida, around $300. Game 5 in Florida is around $500 for starters.
Interestingly, the Panthers’ lowest-cost tickets in their first three games against the Oilers all were cheaper than Edmonton’s ticket prices for Games 3 and 4, which start at more than $670 and $900, respectively. We can understand why the Oilers figured they could capitalize on the hype and charge more for games in Edmonton, but that’s still a whole lot of money for a 60-minute sports game.
At the high end of the cost spectrum, the Oilers’ top-priced tickets are more than $6,000 in Games 3 and 4 and more than $10,000 in Game 6. In Florida, it's more than $7,000 in Game 1 and around $5,000 in Game 2. Then after Game 5, where high-end tickets are more than $7,600, the highest-priced ticket in Game 7 is about $14,000.
Earlier in the week, all the high-end tickets in Florida were even more expensive than any of the Oilers ones despite having cheaper low-end tickets, which just goes to show how actively prices are changing as we get closer to the final.
And that's just on one site. On StubHub, some tickets for any game past Game 2 easily surpass $10,000 and even crack $20,000.
In any case, hockey fans who gladly pay for nosebleed seats in the regular season have basically been priced out of the market in both Florida and Edmonton. That’s just the reality of the business at the moment.
There have been some notable celebrities making bets on the Cup final. Most notably, rapper Drake put in a $500,000 bet on Edmonton to win the Cup.
But Drake is in the minority of pundits when it comes to the Oilers and the Cup. By and large, the Panthers are the favorites on the betting front, but that’s not a slight to Edmonton. Instead, it’s an acknowledgment of what Florida has done in their first three playoff series this year.
It’s true the Oilers have the two best players in the series in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but Florida’s victories over Tampa Bay, Boston and the New York Rangers were methodical and businesslike, preventing other teams' top players from doing much of anything.
The L.A. Kings feebly fell apart against the Oilers in the first round, and while things got tougher against injury-depleted Vancouver and Dallas, the Oilers didn’t pull apart their opponents the way the Panthers did. The Panthers have only lost five times through three rounds while only trailing in a series for one game. Meanwhile, Edmonton's lost six times and has trailed on four occasions.
It’s clear the Panthers are the closer team to a perfect team, and that’s why people are choosing them to beat Edmonton. You can have two very good teams squaring off, and one of them will have to be the second best. That’s how we see the Oilers in this series.
But hey, let’s allow the games to play out before completely counting out Edmonton. It should be a fun series, but ultimately, we think the Panthers have that little bit more talent to put them over the top.
Finally, kudos to the NHL for its partnership with Petco Love and animal rescue organizations to put on the first “Stanley Pup” event.
Broadcast on NHL Network and ESPN+ in the United States on Friday at 8 p.m. ET and on Sportsnet in Canada on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET, the event will feature rescued dogs representing all 32 NHL markets, and viewers will get the opportunity to adopt the pets they see on the screen.
This writer supports all animal rescue initiatives, and this partnership gives the NHL very good publicity for a worthy cause. The hockey community doesn’t agree on every subject, but here’s hoping we choose to put the animals first and find homes for them while supporting much-needed shelter services.
This event is a fun way to do good things, and if this became an annual event, the league would benefit with even better PR. Pets are worth every bit of affection we can give them, and the “Stanley Pup” is a great project that deserves your time and attention.
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