TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Lightning fans looking to see their team in Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final better be ready to pay some serious cash to get into Amalie Arena.
“We are diehard fans and so it’s worth the whole experience and the price. It’s priceless," said Jennifer Henry.
“For last year for Game 5 when they won, I ended up playing close to $2,000 with the fees and stuff to get down low," said Michelle Pappargeris. “I was eight rows back from where the Cup was."
Season ticket holders get a chance to buy seats early through pre-sales. Then tickets go on sale for everyone tomorrow but don’t expect to find many that aren’t already being re-sold for way more than face value.
“I was trying to buy the pre-sale tickets and it’s tough to get them. It’s going to be bad this year. But it’s a testament to them being so successful," said Pappargeris.
As of Friday evening, the lowest price for resale tickets, nearly at the top of the arena, was $898 on Ticketmaster.com. If you're curious, the most expensive resale tickets on Ticketmaster was $10,000 for Row B of Section 118.
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Similar pricing of roughly $800 to just get into the arena was on StubHub while some tickets for Game 3 could be found for as low as $431 on SeatGeek. But again, those are for tickets in the proverbial nose-bleed section.
People are also buying up tickets for a possible Game 6 at Amalie Arena with the hope that might be the game where the Bolts hoist the Stanley Cup again.
The cheapest tickets for that one are more than $900.
“Over the years as the Lightning has continued to put a good product on the ice we’ve seen an increase in the face value of the tickets also. It’s getting to be more expensive. But we are paying to see great hockey," said Brandon Pittman who runs Choice Tickets of Tampa Bay.
If you can’t get a ticket to be inside, tickets are available for the watch parties, but those are in demand too.
