Stanley Cup trumps Olympic gold, say players
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman attends a press conference before Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final hockey playoff in Vancouver, British Columbia June 1, 2011. Reuters

The upcoming Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday night between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins has skyrocketed what may be the highest hockey ticket prices ever. The Stanley Cup has become the oldest sports trophy in North America and the highest ice hockey honor in the world.

StubHub, the world's largest online ticket reseller spokesperson Joellen Ferrer said, This is, by far, the highest Stanley Cup finals ticket we've seen in our (10-year) company history.

As of Tuesday afternoon the most expensive ticket bought for the Canucks-Bruins game was US$6,500. And that person bought two of those in Row 12 in the blue-chip Club level. Ticket seller StubHub had some 420 tickets available from US$1,600 to $12,413, although the number and price is expected to fluctuate more. For those with deep pockets and champagne and caviar tastes, StubHub had two suites for US$164,710 and US$205,888 apiece.
The average price for a Game 7 ticket changing hands Tuesday on StubHub was US$2,975, compared to US$2,413 on Monday.

More than 20 per cent of ticket buyers on StubHub are Canadian.
Especially Hockey tickets are much pricier for all the teams in Canada, mostly because of the high demand coupled with the low inventory - fans just don't want to sell their tickets, said Ferrer.

During the regular season, the Boston Bruins had the largest number of resale tickets on the open market, according to StubHub data. Vancouver was at the other extreme with the second-smallest volume of resale seats available on the online reseller's inventory.

The exceptional willingness of Canadian hockey fans to invest in their passion extends beyond purchasing extortionately priced tickets.

Shawn Brookes, director of operations for FanXchange, a Toronto-based online ticket site, says his two-year-old service hasn't seen hockey ticket prices this high.

It's been off the wall for us. The prices for (Stanley Cup final) tickets are exceeding the Vancouver Olympics, which is pretty mindboggling.

.Attendance at Friday's Game 5 was a sellout 18,860.

Last year, when the Stanley Cup was contested by two U.S. teams, resale ticket prices were a comparative steal: $720 on average for games in Chicago and $575 on average in Philadelphia, according StubHub data.

The gold standard remains the Super Bowl, Ferrer said, with premium seats at US$15,000 and an average price tag of US$3,500.

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