Ticketmaster and Hurricanes Face Backlash as Fans Stunned by Sky-High Stanley Cup Final Resale Ticket Prices
Tickets for the Carolina Hurricanes’ home games in the Stanley Cup Final sold out within hours on Saturday after going on sale to the general public at 3 p.m. at Lenovo Center. The rapid sellout left only resale tickets available, with the lowest prices on Ticketmaster starting at about $1,000 and some fans seeing much higher listings.
The demand was intense. One Raleigh resident, Doreen Graham, said she was more than 38,000 people back in the online queue before finally gaining access to the ticket page, where she found resale prices around $1,400. Because of the cost, she said she planned to attend a watch party instead of going to the game.
Questions have been raised about the ticket-buying process and whether the sale was affected by bots or other issues. WRAL contacted the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office about possible complaints, but the office had not responded by Sunday night. WRAL also asked Ticketmaster about how prices are set, whether bots were detected during the Hurricanes’ sale and how verified resale works.
Ticketmaster said the verified resale tickets listed on its site are posted and priced by individuals, and that each listing is authenticated so buyers receive real tickets. The company also said it continues to invest heavily in anti-bot and account protection measures, including blocking billions of bots each month, stopping fake account creation attempts, freezing suspicious accounts and canceling tickets that violate its terms of use.
Carolina Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork said the team limits purchases to four tickets per buyer for each game and monitors sales to make sure tickets are bought by real fans. Despite those efforts, the first public sale still disappeared almost immediately, underscoring the huge demand for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final appearance in this run.
The Hurricanes will begin the final on the road in Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights hold home-ice advantage for Games 3 and 4. If the series goes the distance, a Game 7 could be played back at Lenovo Center on Wednesday, June 17.
For fans not traveling to Nevada, the Hurricanes said they will host watch parties at Lenovo Center for the team’s road games during the series. WRAL also noted that it is providing early guidance for fans considering a trip to Las Vegas as Carolina faces the Golden Knights for the championship.
Carolina reached the Stanley Cup Final after finishing as the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a 53-22-7 record and 113 points. The Golden Knights were the West’s No. 2 seed after winning the Pacific Division with a 39-26-17 record and 95 points. The Hurricanes advanced by sweeping the Ottawa Senators in the first round, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round and then beating the Montreal Canadiens in five games to win the Eastern Conference title.
