Monday night I was driving. I was on the edge of the range of the radio station broadcasting the Leafs-Bruins Stanley Cup playoff game. It was late in the third period. The signal faded momentarily just as play-by-play announcer Joe Bowen’s voice rose in intensity describing an up-ice pass from Mitch Marner to Patrick Marleau. And just before the radio signal dropped out completely I heard Bowen shout out his patented exclamation:
“Holy Mackinaw! What an enormous goal!” With that goal, the Leafs won the game, 4-2.
I’ve always preferred listening to hockey on the radio, almost more than watching it on television. It has something to do with growing up as I did in the 1950s and ’60s, weaned on Foster Hewitt’s voice on “Hockey Night in Canada” on radio, then eventually on national TV. I’ve always said that hockey enters our heads more vividly via our ears than via our eyes. It’s theatre of the mind. And particularly now, with the business side of hockey virtually removing NHL accessibility from the everyday Canadian, hockey via my imagination maybe about as close as we ever get to the real thing.
Last week, a Toronto Star/CBC investigation revealed that for the game I was listening to on the highway Monday night – Game 3 of the Leafs/Bruins playoff – there would only be 96 seats available of the total 17,929 at the Air Canada Centre. The rest, the investigation revealed, had disappeared into a black hole in the ticket sales business known as online resale. In other words, there actually were seats available – about 1,000 the Star/CBC report said – for Game 3.
But rather than sell them to non-season ticketholders, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) had sold them to online sites such as StubHub, SeatGeek and Ticket Partners, a.k.a. online scalpers who resell the tickets for many times the original price, some going as high as $2,000 a seat.
“Highway robbery,” one Leafs fan commented.
No. Not exactly. It turns out, that MLSE is gouging its fan base within the bounds of the law (scalping is not illegal in Ontario) and then it double-dips by gouging the gougers. Last month, CBC investigator reporter Dave Seglins revealed that MLSE recently sent out renewal notices to some of its Leafs and Raptors season ticket holders, a.k.a. “commercial resellers” (a.k.a. online scalpers), that to renew seats for the 2018-2019 season, they’d have to pay an additional 30 per cent over regular customers.
As an example, Seglins cited a pair of gold seats for all the Leafs home games. Regular cost? $21,556 for the two seats for 42 games. The reseller’s cost? $28,454. And where did the additional $6,898 go? Back to MLSE. Not that most of us would ever have that kind of discretionary cash to spend anyway. Nevertheless, the Leafs corporation would make profit on the original ticket sale and profit on the sale to the scalpers. And who pays for all that? The fan, of course.
I found out about all this – the hard way – last fall. I had relatives visiting from the West. I suggested that I’d try to land a couple of pre-season Leafs tickets. I timed my call for the day I knew that tickets went on sale for a Detroit-Toronto game. I called Ticketmaster, the supposed box office ticket seller. I happened to go online at the same time and clicked my way to the visual of the A.C.C. seating plan.
When I actually got through to a human voice at Ticketmaster, I was told they had no tickets. The person was right; as we spoke, online I watched as black dots began breaking out like measles all over the A.C.C. seating plan. The Ticketmaster person told me I’d have to go to an online seller.
“No,” I said, “I want to buy my tickets from you, Ticketmaster. Aren’t you the licensed sales agency for Leafs tickets?”
“Yes, but you have to go online,” the person said.
“I want to speak to your supervisor,” I demanded.
Long story short, I finally pushed and shoved my way on the phone to a P.R. person, who miraculously found me two Ticketmaster tickets. I won’t tell you what I paid for them, but the price was usurious.
When I was a kid, my father wrote for the Toronto Telegram newspaper, which was owned by the Bassetts, the same family that then owned the Leafs; for his loyalty every year Dad was entitled to one pair of tickets to see a Leafs home game at Maple Leaf Gardens. I couldn’t wait for that one night each year when Dad and I could go to a Leafs game, even if it was against the Boston Bruins (then the basement dwellers of the six-team NHL). It was heaven, even up there in the Greys!
But today that thrill is gone. From now on, thanks to greedy franchise owners, I’m left supporting my team listening on the radio, where the only price is the extent of my imagination.
Hi Ted,
Great piece! I know Don Cherry never questions his boss, but Bob McKeown has been known to do so. If he hasn’t talked about it already, I wonder if this poignant article was sent his way, it might be spur him to discuss the obvious unfair business practice.
Brian MacIsaac
As per usual…you have unlocked a flood of memories..My dad had season tickets right on the glass at the blue line just down from the penalty box, but the best games were on Sat. night leafs vs. whoever…(original 6)…My buddy’s dad would often give us tickets…As i remember it today, they were on the back wall and very close to the cat walk leading to the Gondola. We would see Foster and guests and often shouted hello to him…He always waved..I think the seats were green or grays but last row…Talk about smoke…and hard core fans!! Truly the best of times…Also I was a Tely carrier…30 papers during the week 58 on Sat… Take care Ted…See you around town…