My problems with the ticket situation.

[Jro]

* Why were leafs fans given tickets for a sabres home game?
The Sabres and the NHL both know this event was going to have no problem selling out. So why pander to leafs fans? Does the sabres and the nhl owe Toronto anything? Why do we get less, so they can get more?

* Why were Blue Jays fans even in the equation?
Why does a canadian baseball team get dibs on a american hockey game? This makes no sense at all.

* Why were you able to purchase blocks of 50 seats at a time.
Not only did the NHL pander to leafs and blue jays fans. They pandered to scalpers. 50 tickets at a time? Who do you think is buying 50 seats at a time?

[bduff54]

jays/leafs? what is that about. i never heard about that, who gave them dibs on tix and why?

[dilbert]

Correct on all three accounts.

Pittsburgh fans I can see.

But the others? Hello! Mr. Bettman!

[dilbert]

jays/leafs? what is that about. i never heard about that, who gave them dibs on tix and why?


I would guess Bettman because he is a douchebag.

[grint]

blame the brokers for #3...the system is totally fixed for that douchebag industry

[bduff54]

that is so silly, the only people that should be able to buy tickets are sabres and pens fans.

Leaf fans? silly

[pigpen65]

that is so silly, the only people that should be able to buy tickets are sabres and pens fans.

Leaf fans? silly

Why not just make the Leaves the opponent? Doesn't make any sens to me either, accept that maybe they were actually worried about the seats selling...???

[anEinherjer]

Yep, but can't blame Buffalo for this one. It's an "NHL" production, which means they can **** with us all they want.

Oh well, it'll still ****ing kick ass. Nothing better than getting drunk early on sunday morning in January, and since it don't look like da Bills are gonna get us there this year....... :D

[jlpubarch]

They probably had to appease the Toronto market, who undoubtedly wanted to host the game, but got shafted by Bettman in exchange for some ticket concessions.

My old man is going to score some extra from his season tickets (hopefully) so RWS her I come!

[BanditsRock11]

The NHL being a joke and ****ing something up big time?? No way!!!

[bduff54]

they want crosby because he is the best player in the world and the future of the league.

Putting toronto on would make no sense, only established hockey fans would watch and nothing would be gained.

[Jro]

I can't believe i couldn't get tickets for this thing. Im so depressed :)

[pigpen65]

Putting toronto on would make no sense, only established hockey fans would watch and nothing would be gained.

definitely no argument here, but if the NHL wants to pander to the Leaves, might as well have included them in the game. Maybe have them host their own.

[bduff54]

but why did they pander to them? i still don't really get it, i know lots of leaf fans and i don't know many that are too pumped about going to see this. its new years day and it will be on TV.

[Jro]

im not sure either duff. the NHL must have thought it was a good idea. Which is was not. not at all.

[LaxBandit]

* Why were leafs fans given tickets for a sabres home game?
The Sabres and the NHL both know this event was going to have no problem selling out. So why pander to leafs fans? Does the sabres and the nhl owe Toronto anything? Why do we get less, so they can get more?

* Why were Blue Jays fans even in the equation?
Why does a canadian baseball team get dibs on a american hockey game? This makes no sense at all.

* Why were you able to purchase blocks of 50 seats at a time.
Not only did the NHL pander to leafs and blue jays fans. They pandered to scalpers. 50 tickets at a time? Who do you think is buying 50 seats at a time?

Question #1 and #2: Rumor has it that in exchange for help finiancing the game, Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment (aka MLSE-runs the Leafs) and Rogers Cable (Blue Jays) were given amount of tickets for their season ticket holders to purchase. Looks like this was top secret (until it hit today) as theres no mention on either teams website or the leafs forum on the Hockey Future website about it.

Question #3: Tickets should have been limited to at least six tickets per purchase - was going to be scalpermania regardless but this will make it even worse.

LB...

[Bay Side]

Gonna pay out the ass on ebay!!!!!

[Losman4life7]

i ordered 8 through the sabres form i got in the mail.. i hope i can get all 8..

[Sabres244]

what a joke

[Mouldsie]

bad gameday, bad ticket date/time, bad ticket distribution
<3 NHL mgt

[Sabres244]

Question #1 and #2: Rumor has it that in exchange for help finiancing the game, Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment (aka MLSE-runs the Leafs) and Rogers Cable (Blue Jays) were given amount of tickets for their season ticket holders to purchase. Looks like this was top secret (until it hit today) as theres no mention on either teams website or the leafs forum on the Hockey Future website about it.



Then Toronto should have been in the game, instead they **** the decent fans of Buffalo

[bduff54]

well if the leafs helped pay for it then it is fair i guess. But why would the leafs want to promote a game between a division rival?

[No Excuses]

I was at that site 20 mins early and still got no tickets.
The whole ordeal was a joke.
No matter what I asked for they were sold out!
I only needed 2.

Buffalo fans should have had some priority, even for a day!

[smashingt2312]

I just find it weird i was on at right at 10, i got tickets, and some others at the same time didnt, this is just awful for everyone who couldnt tickets. It should of been sabres/pens fans, didnt the nhl watch how many people turned out to the games here last year, no need to let jays/leafs fans get them.

Just another blunder in the bettman reign.

[anEinherjer]

well if the leafs helped pay for it then it is fair i guess. But why would the leafs want to promote a game between a division rival?

Because it's great for hockey overall? That game will play large in the national media for one day - maybe even larger than most playoff games. It will be great.

Or, if you are a pessimistic ****, it will be horrible and everyone will laugh at the NHL - either way. :)

[Jro]

I don't understand why the leafs would need to help pay for the event. And i don't buy the line the the NHL will lose money on this event.

If the average ticket price is 60 bucks. (conservative?) X 74,000 thats over 4 million on ticket sales alone. Not to mention that they pimped this game out to every sponser that would jump on it. "AMP Energy Winter Classic"

I don't see a need for Toronto Jays or Leafs to be involved. Why did they need Rodgers money?

[buffalofan19]

A couple things to consider:

The seats weren't "reserved" for Jays and Leafs fans, they were just given a promotional discount on tickets. This is an example on a smaller scale, but UB football season ticketholders were given a discount on the International Bowl in Toronto back in January (not that it mattered, the game didn't even sell out).

The second thing is The Blue Jays, and Maple Leafs are both clients of Ticketmaster (the Sabres are tickets.com). So it was probably Ticketmaster that had a say in the promotion, not just the NHL. Ticketmaster also happens to be the broker for Bills tickets, which is why they were the ticket seller, so they call all the shots when all is said and done (Notice you haven't heard a word from/about tickets.com, who is the Sabres' normal ticket provider).

[Snarf]

i ordered 8 through the sabres form i got in the mail.. i hope i can get all 8..

You probably will do better then me, I tried to call in my order today but the phones were down at the arena all day.

[Southside]

Its actually quite simple--yet still aggravating.

The Verb on the curb is that this game was a train coming down the tracks since last spring.
The NHL "head shed" was concerned that without Buffalo's two "ahem" top guys--Danny-its-not-about-the-dollar-Briere, and Chris-Always-wanted-to-be-a-rag-Drury, that nearly 80,000 tickets would be a disaster.
So they stacked the deck and catered to where the early money was: Tonto and other corporations that put up the money.

Can you imagine how embarrasing this would;ve been had the tickets sold like snow shovels in Tampa Bay?

Just wait, my friends, if the Sabres get a slow groove going, or Crosby et al... gets hurt--or worse cant find the net early on, those tickets will be easier to get than Sabres medallions.
Patience here folks....we;ve been down this road before.
The Band Wagon folks will give us their seats in no time....they always do....

IMHO
Southside

[billspwn]

*Why didn't I get any?
I didn't get any. No, seriously. It sucks.

[MLH]

The seats weren't "reserved" for Jays and Leafs fans, they were just given a promotional discount on tickets.

I don't think is true. I know someone who got tickets using 'Sundin' and they mentioned nothing about a discount. My guess is that they were concerned that Buffalo fans alone weren't going to be able to fill the stadium and they wanted to tap into the Canadian market just in case. Once they realized that Buffalo fans alone could fill it twice (~10:30 AM), they probably released almost all of the Toronto tickets into the general public pool. The password stealers probably were able to do so after the Buffalo tickets were sold out (~10:10 AM), but before they released them.

In the grand scheme of things, all of the complaining is nonsense. Toronto (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07261/818575-383.stm?cmpid=emptynetters.xml) fans bought 333 tickets (and I wouldn't be surprised if that was mostly Buffalo fans using the passwords). That's nothing. It's a pretty bizarre underestimation of the Buffalo market, but it worked out in the end.

The day is perfect. It's not like there's a day on the calendar that's conducive to great national NHL TV ratings. Perhaps college football fans surfing the networks for bowl games will check out the event for a while. Even if it's a typically rated NHL game in the States, it will garner good ratings in Canada and the attendance surge alone is a good reflection of the league's overall health.

I find it funny that people are saying that it was poorly thought out when they just sold 42,000 tickets in 25 minutes. That's an amazing success if anything.

There are probably 200,000 people that badly want to go to this game. Not everyone is going to be able to get their wish.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Rumor has it that in exchange for help finiancing the game, Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment (aka MLSE-runs the Leafs) and Rogers Cable (Blue Jays) were given amount of tickets for their season ticket holders to purchase.
Help finance the game? Huh?!!!

Isn't 70,000 tickets sold plus TV ad revenue enough to finance the cost of producing the game?

[buffalofan19]

Help finance the game? Huh?!!!

Isn't 70,000 tickets sold plus TV ad revenue enough to finance the cost of producing the game?

According to Bettman, no. He said that this event is really expensive, and that the main reason for the event is "to have some fun". He also said that the project will go well into the 7 figure range as far as costs go. You can watch the entire press conference on buffalobills.com

[Wojo1203]

i for one was FURIOUS when my buddy was gettin tixs for me at 10am, and said texted me no luck at like 10:20! Im still pissed at effin scalpers who wanna rape true fans, i give a big 2 EFF U's to you, and if ur even on this site, dont bother to reply to me...just know that half this board hates u, i could understand makin some money, but 300 dollars for seats that r 29...get a effin life u pieces of shit....on a side not my buddy got 10 tickets in the $90 section, so i have a ticket! Im stoked

[Billsman]

Its also kick a leafs fan ass day.... jk

[FamousAmos]

Figures...I knew it would be unlikely to get a ticket for myself, but it pisses me off that I wouldn't have had a chance in the first place if I had the means to buy a ticket.

I'm still gonna tailgate my as off and then head to a bar!!!

[Southside]

Its also kick a leafs fan ass day.... jk

Oh thats a great idea...Lets use our heads here. Had the Sabres been involved in something of this nature out of town and we didnt get a whack at it, or if it were any other teams in/near southern Ontario--you still would've had Sabres (and Hockey Fans) bitching.

For that matter, there are Bills STH's that feel slighted because they didnt get special treatment for this game (the Club Holders did, of course that Money talks).

If you really want parity with tickets, you have to do what the Ticket resellers did--lobby your elected officials to get the law changed. they did it last year and were successful. Why do you think that Scalping isnt illegal? Because they lobbied to change the law. Adn before you scoff at that notion-I will tell you from personal experience that Lobbying works on many occaisions.

My suggestion:

form a fan based organization. Collect signatures and find a sympathetic state legislator (Don't know who yours is? Thats sad then, but you can go HERE (http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdlookup.nsf/Public_search?OpenForm) for your New York Senate Rep and HERE (http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/) for your NY Assembly Rep. Both are searchable by Zip code).

Once you locate a sympathetic Senator, or a Representative--send a letter on your new organizations letterhead suggesting a bill to protect fans from savage scalpers, make sure you use sympathetic language ("protect families from absurd fees and charges as they patronize events in their communities" ..kind of thing).

Set a press conference aftter you get the ear of a senator or Assembly rep. and keep collecting signatures to demonstrate the numbers behind the bill.
Schedule lobby visits to state your case.....then wait for the vote.

Does it work? Yes, sometimes it does. But if you dont plan to seek a remedy to your plight, and this sounds like it might interfere with your soap operas..then quit your bitching. This is a tried and true formula. Its about numbers, visits to lawmakers and timely media attention/response.

Its not the other fans that are our enemy on this--its the laws that allow the scalpers to flourish. change that, gut the profit and they will go elsewhere.

If anyone is really serious about doing something about it, I would be more than happy to meet them for a cup of Coffee or a Genny Cream and show them the ropes.

Personally, my remedy was getting the season tickets--but that took me 40 years to pull off!

IMHO
Southside

[biggerred]

For arguments sakes lets assume scalpers have 20,000 tickets.

Just sit back and wait. The pool of people willing to pay 300+ for a ticket may be limited. The price of these tickets may drop dramatically once the hoopla dies down.

If weather is forecast in the single digits the week before the game these tickets will be easier to come by.

Just my take.

BIGGERRED

[Sabres Cutie]

i ordered 8 through the sabres form i got in the mail.. i hope i can get all 8..

Account services says that 4 is a reasonable request and more likely to get them.

STH put in requests for 50, 100 etc. So it wasn't JUST scalpers. It was STH asking around ahead of time their friends, co-workers, employees etc

[Southside]

You are missing the point--big time.

Take the profit out and the problem will disappear.

I dont personally know any season ticket holder that did 50 or 100 tickets.
Matter of fact--WBEN and WGR both made claims that the majority of the bulk purchases (and attempts) were made by NON-STH's.
Believe that if you want to.

Fact of the matter is, even if they did--it was perfectly legal. Go ahead though, make it a class issue if you want to. IT WONT CHANGE A THING.
You are still getting mad at the wrong people.

My guess is that a good many people--even ones posting on here--have scalped a ticket or two in their life. truth be told--I scalp my tonto tickets every year. Cant stand 'em. I look at as an off-set, a down payment on next years. So far though, I havent done much better than face value.

No matter how many folks play the martyr card, given the opportunity to see the game ANd make a fast buck--most would justify it to themselves--even if they didnt brag about it.

Get mad at the right people for the right reason--Get the profit out of it and so-called "fairness" will be the standard.

By the way--why is that we only care about "FAIR" when we, ourselves are shorted something? Nobody ever screams that its not fair that they dont have the best medical coverage, or right to collective bargaining, of the same size house as their neighbor --or the same size car?
Oh no, in those cases we would all hear about "working for what you want..or working for those things" ...but we SCREAM and RAIL about unfair...
Not everything that is wrong is illegal. I have given you all the solution--Get organized-get together and get 'er done.
Otherwise...you get what you deserver--and/or vote for.

How many of you called your local/state representatives when the new scalping law was being proposed last year?
Ah, yeah..thats what I thought..you didint know because you didnt care to.
It was on the front page (twice) of your local dailey paper. And its even easier here because we only have one paper-dailey.
So whose fault is it if you choose not to participate in the process?

300 times as many people vote for American Idol as vote for American President...stop rationalizing apathy...Get involved. If you cant get something as simple as caps for resale on tickets passed (the other side has-easily I might add) then how can you ever expect to change anything really important?
Sorry--I digress. Bitiching and compalining without any willingness to use the process to affect change just really P*SS*s me off.

Ill be quiet now..

IMHO
Southside