The Cost of Hockey Tickets for Four Nations Competition is Comparable to Super Bowl Ticket Prices
The upcoming hockey showdown between NHL players from two countries is making waves, marking the first title clash since the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Ticket prices for this Thursday evening match in Boston are on the rise, with the cheapest option hovering around a whopping $1,200, according to reseller TickPick. This price tag represents a staggering 450% increase from the initial price when the tournament was first announced.
Middle-ground tickets are priced between $2,000 and $4,000, matching the cost of some Super Bowl LIX tickets, which faced muted demand this year. Prices even fell to around $2,000 on the day of the NFL championship.
StubHub, another popular ticket reseller, revealed that the tournament finale is the best-selling NHL game of the season, even surpassing the dueling games from the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers.
The 4 Nations Face-Off is a fresh event from the NHL, replacing the traditional All-Star game with this thrilling exhibition. This is the first best-on-best tournament featuring NHL players since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, providing fans an exciting preview of the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics, where several NHL athletes will compete for the first time in over a decade.
Transporting audiences with sky-high TV ratings, the inaugural edition of this event has been a hit, with the US-Canada encounter attracting 10 million viewers across North America, as per the NHL. In the United States alone, ESPN pronounced the game as its "most-viewed non-Stanley Cup Final hockey telecast since 2019," amassing an impressive 4.4 million viewers.
Get ready for Thursday's final at 8 pm ET, broadcasting live on ESPN and streaming on ESPN+ and Disney+.
The escalated ticket prices can be attributed to several factors, such as the alluring appeal of the event and extensive market practices within the resale sector. Conversely, Super Bowl LIX faced its own set of influencers, including high demand and location-based considerations.
These high-demand situations often result in exorbitant expenses, with resale market dynamics playing a significant role. Both events have dealt with these challenges differently, with the NHL facing more scrutiny due to its more restrained size and regulatory limitations.
Despite the expensive ticket prices, many fans are still eager to attend the NHL showdown, with StubHub reporting that the tournament finale is their best-selling game of the season. The cheapest tickets on StubHub are hovering around $1.2 million, which is quite a hefty sum for an NHL game, even for a highly anticipated event like this one. Moreover, the escalated ticket prices have some critics questioning the affordability of attending professional sports events, especially during these times of financial uncertainty for many people.
