Superstar Leafs forward calls out MLSE for the ticket prices in Toronto during post-game interview
It was an exciting night for the Leafs and their fans, watching new Leaf Ryan O'Reilly notch a hat-trick in a 6-3 win in Buffalo last night. It was the Leafs' only away game in Buffalo this season, but to those watching on TV, it could've easily passed as a home game in Toronto.
Leaf fans crowded the stands in Buffalo and could be heard through the broadcast, cheering and chanting for the Buds all game long. After an electric first period, the KeyBank Center was buzzing from the Leaf fans present, which didn't go unnoticed by the players.
In the same interview above, Mitch Marner also addressed something that Leafs fans know all too well: the lofty prices of tickets to watch a game in Scotiabank Arena.
Tickets to a Leafs home game being quite expensive is no new thing and has been like that for years. However, because of this, sometimes it's easier for fans to travel to away games and much more financially reasonable. Plus, they get a vacation out of it!
As someone who watched the Leafs play in Montreal at the end of January, I can attest to this. It was my first away game ever, and it was unreal. But, of course, it feels exciting to cheer for your team when it's not their home turf, and the experience is elevated. Financially speaking, I could've easily found a cheaper away game that wasn't an Original Six matchup against one of the Leafs' biggest rivals. Still, genuinely speaking, I wouldn't have paid much less to watch a game in Toronto. Three of us went, and our tickets were six rows from the glass on the Habs' end of the ice. A similar ticket for the Leafs home game against the Habs in April is currently over $250 more than what we each paid for that game in Montreal. That's also not to mention how our hotel for the entire weekend cost us each the average price of a mid-300 level ticket in Scotiabank Arena. On top of it all, it didn't feel like there was a single non-hockey fan in the Bell Centre that evening. It was so exhilarating.
Based on that experience and seeing the crowd in Buffalo, it's understandable why Leaf fans travel as well as they do. We're one of the most passionate sports fanbases, which goes well beyond games at Scotiabank Arena.
Over the years, travelling for Leafs games has become much more common, with games in Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo and Detroit being so easily accessible to fans in Ontario and for usually a fraction of the price. It's nice to see guys like Marner acknowledge the fanbase's commitment to travel, but it'd also be nice if travelling wasn't required for some fans who live near Toronto and could easily liven up home games if tickets weren't so expensive.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 22 | 1022 ANSWERS Superstar Leafs forward calls out MLSE for the ticket prices in Toronto during post-game interview If the price for just the ticket wasn't an issue, where would you rather watch a Leafs game in person? | ||
| Home | 918 | 89.8 % |
| Away | 104 | 10.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
