The Hockey News

If you want to see the World Cup of Hockey in person next fall, it’s going to cost you a minimum of almost a hundred bucks a game. And if you’re a real high roller and have an extra $7,000 lying around, you can get the best seats in the house for every game of the tournament. Tickets for the NHL-NHL Players’ Association cashapalooza went on sale Wednesday to Toronto Maple Leafs season ticket holders - with seats to the general hoi polloi being available in the near future - and ticket prices per game range from $96.65 for the cheapest to $426.06 for the most expensive. And that is based on a 17-game tournament, which will happen if the final goes three games.

Since the organizers expect all the ticket packages will sell out, there’s almost no chance there will be single-game seats available to the public, so step right up and max out your credit cards, because this ain’t going to be cheap. And get your tickets right away before the sell out, which of course will give organizers almost a full year to hold onto that money and gain the interest on millions of dollars in ticket sales. A ticket package for the cheapest seats in the house will set you back $1,643, but don’t worry it’s in Canadian funds and the HST is included. That works out to $96.65 a game. The price jumps to $2,293 for green and blue seats, which is $134.88 per game. Red seats cost $3,193 for the event, or $187.82 per game.



For $4,093, or $240.76 per game, you can get a gold seat or club seat at the side of the arena or a platinum seat at the end of the rink. A gold seat at the end of the rink will run you $3,843, or $226.05 per game. A platinum seat at the side of the rink goes for $4,543, or $267.24 per game and the platinum seats along the rail, where you can just smell the old Toronto money, will set back the corporate crowd $426.06 per game. The tournament runs Sept. 17 through Oct. 1 in Toronto and will feature teams from Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, an all-star team of European players from countries not represented and a North American team made up of players 23 and under. So, is it a money grab or a good deal? Well, a hundred bucks a game could turn out to be a bargain if the Czechs, the pan-Europeans and the under-23 teams can ice competitive rosters. At the very least, it won’t be like the World Junior Championship when Canada spends the first part of the tournament walloping countries such as France and Djibouti by 16-0 scores.