The Knights want to keep the home-ice atmosphere boisterous throughout the playoffs.Getty Images
The Vegas Golden Knights are offering season-ticket holders a discount on playoff tickets if they opt into a program that prevents them from reselling the tickets on the secondary market.
The program, which the team is calling “Knights Vow,” would allow season-ticket holders to buy tickets for the playoffs that are priced about 20 to 25 percent more than they paid for seats during the regular season, in exchange for losing the ability to resell the tickets through StubHub, the team’s official secondary market provider.
For those who opt out of the program, the price of those tickets would be 40 to 60 percent higher than their regular-season ticket. For example, a seat that cost $100 for the regular season would cost season-ticket holders $125 for the playoffs if they agreed to “Knights Vow,” or $160 if they opt out. Golden Knights ticket holders receive their tickets electronically via FlashSeats.
Todd Pollock, Golden Knights vice president of ticketing and suites, said the goal is to provide incentives for being full-season ticket holders and to reward those who already are, while also maintain the atmosphere in an arena that has quickly become one of the NHL’s toughest places to play for road teams. “We wanted to make sure we secured the best home ice advantage,” Pollock said.
The Knights have approximately 14,000 ticket holders, which includes partial plans and full-season equivalents. The team would not disclose the exact number of full-season ticket holders who qualify for “Knights Vow.”
Pollock said that fewer than 10 percent of the ticket holders who fall under the “Knights Vow” program have opted out. Half and partial-season ticket holders will be able to transfer their tickets, but not resell them on the secondary market. However, those plan holders will be offered preferred pricing on their tickets, just not as large of a discount as offered to full-season holders who opt into “Knights Vow.”
Information regarding playoff tickets went out to ticket holders last week, and Pollock said the feedback has been positive — “there’s a sense of pride and excitement that we’re making sure that atmosphere is maintained, as well as a positive response that ticket prices are not as high as they may have expected.”
The Golden Knights, who became the first NHL expansion team to make the playoffs in its inaugural season since 1980, have quickly become one of the hottest tickets in the NHL, especially for out-of-state fans interested in the city as well. With three games yet to play at home last week, the team was averaging 18,025 fans per game, or 103.7 percent of the total capacity of T-Mobile Arena.
Pollock said that while he did not have an exact figure on how many tickets were being sold on average on the secondary market for regular-season games, availability has been scarce.
Prices for first-round games at T-Mobile Arena will range from $100 for standing-room-only seats to $395 for premium club seats. Pollock expects fewer than 1,000 tickets per game to be available to the general public. Prices for future rounds have not been set, but the “Knights Vow” program will continue through the entire playoffs.
The Knights say the “Knights Vow” concept is a first in sports but it’s not the first time a team has taken steps to try to pack the venue with fans of the home team. For example, the Nashville Predators have restricted playoff ticket sales to fans within nearby billing ZIP codes.
Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz said that in terms of average ticket price and overall gate revenue, the team is already ranked in the top tier across the NHL. While he’s proud of that fact, he said feedback he’s received from other teams and league executives has been even more important.
“What we’ve heard from other players, visiting fans or visiting NHL personal is that this is one of the liveliest environments in the NHL, and the description I hear most often is that regular-season games here feel like playoff games,” he said. “Our goal is to take that to another level come playoff time.”
