So how much is a ticket to see the Tampa Bay Lightning battle for the Cup?

Sue Carlton, Tampa Bay Times
·2 min read

After she moved to Florida 17 years ago, Doreen Dunn switched her allegiance from the New York Rangers to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I almost got disowned from the New York side of the family,” said Dunn, who works as a contractor for IBM.

A true fan, she’ll drive up from Sarasota with a friend to see them play, or go it alone if no one else wants to. Now, the team that has her heart is back in the Stanley Cup Finals.

“I want to go, I can’t afford to go,” said Dunn, 60. “Over $600 for nosebleed tickets?”

The sold-out championship, with its deeply dedicated fan base, is the white hot ticket at the moment. And fans scrolling resale sites in hopes of watching the Lightning bring home the Cup again — live — might find themselves in sticker shock.

The average price to get in to Monday night’s Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens was $621 as of Monday afternoon, according to Kyle Zorn, marketing strategist with the secondary ticket sale site TickPick. The cheapest was $388.

Those numbers go up as the best-of-seven series moves forward. For Game 2, the average purchase price was $712, with the cheapest ticket at $386.

As for Game 7, should the series go all the way?

That would be $2,000 a ticket on average, with the least expensive option at $1,035.

“Demand is strong,” Zorn said. “Tampa Bay was one of our strongest teams this year.”

The Lightning organization does not control secondary ticket sales.

Diehard fans might be tempted toward other avenues for getting in. And while scalping tickets is not illegal in Florida, authorities suggest fans should be leery.

“The biggest risk is counterfeit tickets,” said Grayson Kamm, spokesperson for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren. “Somebody can print off 100 copies of a ticket, and only the first one is going to get somebody in the door.” And a bad-faith seller who melts into the crowd is difficult to apprehend and prosecute.

The Better Business Bureau has suggested dealing only with trusted sites for online purchases and using a credit card instead of a debit card, wire transfer or cash.