Fewer than 100 Leafs playoff seats sold to public

TORONTO — Only 96 seats for the first Toronto Maple Leafs home playoff game were ever put on sale to the general public through the box office, a Toronto Star/ CBC investigation has found.

That’s only one half of one per cent of the 17,929 seats in the Air Canada Centre for Game 3 of the National Hockey League series next Monday against Boston.

For decades it’s been very difficult to get a Leafs ticket. This season, the team’s young talent has produced a highly anticipated playoff run, stirring up passions in this hockey-mad city and driving demand even higher.

So the Star and the CBC decided to figure out exactly how hard it is to get a ticket to a Leafs playoff game.

Like many stadiums, the majority of the seats in the ACC are held by seasons ticket holders. For the Leafs, that number is 90 per cent, according to team owner MLSE. Additional tickets are held back for players’ families and staff.

That doesn’t leave many face-value tickets for the rest of Leafs fans.

At playoff time, regular season ticket holders are given the option to purchase their seats through the playoffs. Then they have access to special pre-sales for additional playoff tickets.

Only 672 tickets were put on sale for Game 3 against the Bruins during two pre-sales on Monday and the public sale on Tuesday. After the season ticket holders got first dibs, 209 tickets remained for members of Leafs Nation. On Tuesday, only 96 tickets were left for the general public.

“We have worked to create additional access for fans by giving away 200 free tickets per game through the Ford Fan Deck and contests as well as one of the best fan viewing experiences in the league with Maple Leaf Square,” wrote MLSE spokesperson Dave Haggith in an email.

But for many Leafs fans, Tuesday’s general public sale only brought disappointment. They expressed their dismay on Twitter.

“@TicketmasterCA you friggin suck. I hate that I can never, and i mean never ever get through to (buy) online tickets,” wrote Twitter user @salcamaro. “Just spent 25 minutes ‘spinning’ around hoping to get #leafs tickets and ... nothing.”

“Is anybody else not finding any Leafs playoff tickets to buy??” wrote @torontoleafer.

Other than two pairs up in the rafters, all of the tickets made available to the general public on Tuesday were singles. Most were scattered throughout the lower bowl. They ranged in price from $175 to $754, with the average price being $506.77.

There were a few good tickets in the box office: A seventh row seat in the corner; a 12th row seat beside the net and a 14th row seat right over a faceoff circle. All three had a face value of more than $740.

Of course, if you’re willing to pay more, you can still get in. There are hundreds of tickets available on scalping websites, some priced at more than $2,000.

Before tickets even went on sale to the public, the online scalping market was already in full swing.

On Monday morning, more than 1,000 tickets were available for the playoff game on ticket resale sites like StubHub, SeatGeek and Ticket Partners.