THN On The 'Q': World Juniors Resale Ticket Market Raises Concern

Will MacLaren and Jamie Tozer say the world juniors resale tickets are wild, with people looking to delete posts of tickets in nonexistent sections.

While last summer’s World Junior Championship in Edmonton struggled to fill seats, the upcoming tournament in Moncton, N.B., and Halifax, N.S., has the opposite issue.

Most of the games at the world juniors are sold out, including all of the Team Canada matchups. That’s led people to head to the resale ticket market for a chance to see future NHL stars in action. However, The Hockey News On The ‘Q’ Podcast hosts Jamie Tozer and Will MacLaren said reselling sites aren’t as prevalent in Atlantic Canada.

A private Facebook buy and sell group for world juniors tickets now has more than 3,400 members. Jamie Tozer said during Tuesday's recording that there were concerns about some scammers among the large group of trusted sellers on the resale market.

“There’s people on there selling seats for sections in the arena that don’t exist, so yeah, this is pretty wild,” Tozer said.

The buy and sell group administrators created a lengthy list of trusted sellers while other ticket buyers are vouching for sellers after doing their due diligence. The administrators are also kept busy deleting scam posts quickly, ensuring users can have a simpler and safer time buying tickets.

There are verified resale tickets on Ticketmaster, although some ticket pairs for Team Canada's pre-tournament game on Dec. 18 are selling for upwards of $350 to $400 per pair including fees, whereas regular single tickets on the website are going for around $60. The buy and sell group also has pairs during Canada's preliminary games going for similar prices as of Friday. 

The podcast hosts discussed the situation on Wednesday's episode of the THN On The 'Q' Podcast and whether it's time to start taking advantage of third-party reselling sites in the region.