If you wanted to see the Avalanche’s game against Columbus Monday night, and wanted to buy a seat in the lower bowl, all you had to do was spend six dollars, plus a smaller convenience fee, and you were in.

On Saturday, I took my 9-year-old son to the Avs game. Total cost for two tickets: $8, plus a convenience fee of $5. So, $13 for two tickets got us in to see real NHL hockey between the Avs and Vancouver Canucks.

I’ve spent more than that at Starbucks on more than a few occasions.

Tickets were going for as low as $1 for Monday’s game with Columbus. All of the deals described here could be had on Stubhub.com, the online ticket retailer that has turned into something of a godsend for people looking for a deal to a game.

This isn’t much of a deal, of course, for the Avalanche and the NHL players who split all hockey-related revenues 50-50 with the owners.

Don’t spent that $6.50 you got from me and my kid on Saturday all at one place, players. Is this an alarming sign for an NHL team that supposedly is part of a league back on the upswing as far as revenues go? Probably not. Not really anyway. Well …

The Avs are a last-place team, with only a few games to go. Tickets can be had, in other words. A dollar may be a pitiful amount for the best hockey players in the world to split up with their rich owners. But it’s better than nothing, which is what the Avs got from the thousands of still-empty seats at Monday’s game, bargains notwithstanding.

Just think: you can get three hours of entertainment from some of the best athletes in the world for less than a grande latte at Starbucks. As long as the Avs don’t ever wind up paying people to go to the games, taking in a dollar is still better than nothing.

The Avalanche’s next home game is Friday against another non-playoff team, Edmonton.

Good seats are still available.