Maple Leafs Ticket Prices Explained

Maple Leafs Ticket Prices Explained

Maple Leafs Ticket Prices

As the 2014-15 NHL season wrapped up, the Toronto Maple Leafs again ended up with the most expensive tickets in the league, both in face value and in resale cost. The Maple Leafs were the only team in the NHL with a face value over $100 (between $113 and $122 for the average ticket), and fans spent an average of almost four times that much—about $373 across the season—for a ticket on the resale market. The end of the 2014-15 season also saw Toronto occupying an unfortunately familiar spot in the standings: second-to-last in both their division and the Eastern Conference. High ticket prices and poor performance seem like a recipe for low attendance, but as they have for many seasons, the Maple Leafs actually sold beyond their arena’s capacity in 2014-15, averaging 19,062 fans per game. So what exactly is driving Maple Leafs ticket prices so high—and what keeps fans coming back despite the cost?

A Storied Franchise With a Rough Recent History

The Maple Leafs do have a long and illustrious history, though in recent years it has certainly seemed like their best days are behind them. The team has won 13 Stanley Cup championships throughout its history, though its last win came in the 1966-67 NHL season. Since then, they have gotten no further than the Conference Finals. Through the 2003-04 NHL season, they at least remained perennial postseason contenders, despite their lack of a new championship. The decade from 2005-06 through 2014-15 was decidedly the worst in franchise history, however, with just a single postseason appearance in that span and more losing seasons than winning ones. The team’s performance, however, seems to have no impact on ticket prices. Whereas other teams with less-than-stellar records in the new millennium are practically giving tickets away, Maple Leafs fans storm the Air Canada Centre seemingly regardless of what happens on the ice.

How Toronto Stacks Up Against Other Canadian Teams

Hockey is Canada’s game, and it’s tempting to cite that as the cause of Toronto’s exorbitant ticket costs, but a comparison against Canada’s other teams shows this to be a weak argument at best. It is true that six of Canada’s seven NHL franchises had ticket face values above the NHL average; only the Ottawa Senators charged less than the league average in 2014-15. Comparisons could be drawn between the Maple Leafs and Canadian teams like the Edmonton Oilers or Winnipeg Jets, who also struggled in the standings during the first half of the 2010s. Tickets aren’t exactly cheap in either of those cities, but their face value averages $30 to $40 lower than tickets in Toronto. It’s more interesting to compare the Maple Leafs to the Montreal Canadiens. Only a die-hard Toronto fan would argue that the Maple Leafs are a more storied franchise—or more important to their city—than the Canadiens. Along with their history, the Canadiens bring regular success to the Bell Centre, reaching the Conference Finals as recently as the 2013-14 NHL season. Logically, you would expect Canadiens tickets to cost more, but the face value of a Canadiens ticket in 2014-15 was on average $40 less, and even resale tickets to the Bell Centre cost an average of just over $200. Granted, the Bell Centre is the largest arena in the NHL, with a hockey capacity of 21,288; more available tickets could drive prices down overall. The Air Canada Centre’s capacity isn’t much lower, though, at around 20,270 including standing room. There’s more at play here than simple supply and demand.

The Real Reason Behind the Sky-High Prices

The true cause of the Maple Leafs’ exorbitant ticket prices might be similar to a problem once faced by the Pittsburgh Penguins. After winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and opening the state-of-the-art Consol Energy Center in 2010, the Penguins became the hottest ticket in the city. The rise in corporate ticket sales prompted by these factors left fewer tickets available for fans elsewhere in the city, leading to an increase, especially in resale prices. The Maple Leafs reserve an extremely large percentage of seats for season ticket holders—around 90% of the arena’s official capacity. Since the waiting list for season tickets in Toronto is years long (and many of those season tickets are held by corporations rather than individuals), this creates an artificial scarcity that puts ticket prices well out of reach for the average fan. So long as fans keep filling the seats win or lose, the upward trend in Maple Leafs ticket prices will likely continue.