Nuggets’, Avs’ ticket holders in limbo amid postponed seasons

Martin Letain is a lifelong Colorado Avalanche fan.

The Canadian planned to attend his first game at Pepsi Center in mid-March when he purchased two tickets months in advance of puck drop against Vancouver.

Maybe the game date was a sign

— Friday the 13th.

“It was just really bad timing,” Letain said. “I had been dreaming of going to a game since 1996.”

The indefinite postponement of the NHL and NBA because of spread of coronavirus has left many ticket holders, like Letain, stuck in limbo and wondering what to do next.

Three verified online sports ticket marketplaces — Ticketmaster, StubHub and Vivid Seats — provided ticket policy information to The Denver Post with two overriding factors. Ticket refunds will be offered only if games are officially canceled, and should they be rescheduled following the pandemic, tickets already purchased will be honored.

However, Letain lives in

Manitoba, with a rigid work schedule that won’t allow for a last-minute vacation request if the NHL season resumes.

“The league could come back in two or three months, reschedule the game, and switch my ticket date to the new game — if there ever is one,” Letain said. “It would probably be better just to get a refund. If they reschedule that game, it will be the first one back (for the Avs). So, I might be stuck eating it.”

Avalanche and Nuggets seasonticket holders received emails shortly after their respective league suspensions that essentially told fans to wait out a fluid situation for more details.

Denver resident Allen Davis

attended all 33 Nuggets home games this year before the NBA suspended operations. On the league website, a letter from commissioner Adam Silver reads: “If games are not played or played in an empty arena, teams will work with fans on a credit for a future game or refund.”

“Hopefully, we all get to go use our tickets,” Davis said. “That obviously seems less and less likely every day. But we’ll wait on the NBA to make a decision.”

The sudden cancellation of games was especially tough to digest for folks like Glenn Fitzgibbons and his family in Palisade. Their annual spring break trip from the Western Slope to Pepsi Center for a Nuggets game, this time March 18 against the

Los Angeles Clippers, was foiled.

If NBA games finally return, though, the family is determined to watch their favorite team in person.

“We had discussed that if they play the games again that we’ll make it happen,” Fitzgibbons said. “But at the same time, if they don’t, we’ll know why.”