By Matt Robinson, Vancouver Sun February 3, 2015 8:23 PM
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Vancouver Canucks Ronalds Kenins, 41, battles the Winnipeg Jets Jim Slater, 19, at Rogers Arena on February 3, 2015.
Photograph by: Mark van Manen , PNG
Resale tickets to the Vancouver Canucks’ Tuesday game against the Winnipeg Jets dropped below USD $25 apiece Tuesday, as the team continues to struggle to fill seats.
Tickets were selling at nearly half their face value at StubHub through the day as sellers battled one another to unload their unwanted seats.
The prices dropped so low that paired front row upper level tickets could be had for $71.25 US — about $88 Cdn. That’s about $25 cheaper than a front row balcony ticket to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, playing at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre a few doors away.
The Canucks scrambled to move tickets in advance of the game, offering 50 per cent discounts to students and seat upgrades before the game.
For a sense of just how low prices went on Stubhub, you could get into Rogers Arena Tuesday for less money than the price of a ticket into Gila River Arena when the Canucks play the Arizona Coyotes on March 5.
The cheapest asking prices were half that of tickets to Toronto FC’s March 7 match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, and they were cheaper than seats to any single 2015 Whitecaps home game listed that day.
Thousands of season ticket and mini pack holders owned them for several years for the main purpose of off-loading most of the tickets for profit. So, as soon as market prices dip below face, an avalanche of ticket holders stop buying their packages and the Canucks are left with tons of inventory to sell.
I don’t think we can have a conversation about demand for Canucks tickets without noting that they’re the third-most-expensive in the league. Bring prices down to league average and then we can get a better idea of where demand is.