Thread: Season Ticket Holders: How's your experience been with reselling tickets?

I'm considering finally pulling the trigger on a season ticket. 10 packs and half season packages sold out already. I'd have to go for a full season package, but I live in San Diego. There's no way I can get to all the games.

I'm thinking of getting either 300 middle or maybe splurging for a 200 2x high.

I'm curious to know what kind of luck you guys and gals have had reselling your tickets. Do they usually sell? How big of a price hit do you take?

Apologies if this has been asked before. I tried to search but couldn't find anything.

I'll be following this thread since I'm also looking at season seats and live in SD.

I'm going to be honest with you and give you my own personal experience as a Season ticket Holder. First, I want to proudly say that I go to almost every game. The only times I have missed a game is if I got extremely sick or I got extra tickets and want to get rid of it. (With extra tickets, I'm still in the building!) I've been a season ticket holder in the die-hards since the 2008-2009 season. They were $11 bucks each with a face value of $26.50 a couple of years ago.

Granted, we were terrible and you absolutely couldn't even GIVE your tickets away for free. I had to completely eat it if I couldn't make it. There was a good ticket exchange program a few years back when you couldn't sell/give away your tickets, you could exchange it for tickets to another game of your choice. This way, you can plan really far ahead and beg your friends to take the ticket.

Fast forward to this season since I don't wanna bore you. My die-hards are now $12 bucks each with a face value of $39.00 each (I could be wrong). I had to burn tickets to about 4-5 games this season because no one wanted to buy them at my own price. (Many of my friends always said, "No thanks. I already got tickets and they were much cheaper on Stubhub/Ebay/etc.") On most nights, you'll see ticket prices on Stubhub starting as low as $5-10 dollars each. So if you sell it at that price, you're going to lose money regardless. With the Kings being a good team now, you actually can't really exchange your unused tickets for other games now. They limit the number of tickets you can exchange per account... rendering this cool feature to it being somewhat useless.

We have a ticket exchange forum here on LGK where we don't allow people to sell anything over face value. I would say that 90% of the ticket sellers here sell their tickets at THEIR price. I've seen fellow die-hards try to get rid of 2 tickets for $24 dollars. There are still some games in demand, like when the Red Wings, Canucks, any east coast team (minus tampa bay, florida, ottawa) that you can get face value for. Unfortunately though, by selling those, you're pretty much selling to non-kings fans.

Anyway, let me get to the point. I've had multiple discussions with fellow season seat neighbors these last few weeks. The Kings got about 4000+ new season ticket holders. All because they wanted Stanley Cup Final tickets. We know this is going to be even worse for our ticket re-sale if we can't make some games next season. The majority of these ticket holders likely will not care much for the regular season. They really just wanted a guarantee for Finals tickets. So I'm expecting tickets to be worthless next season. If we play teams like Columbus, Nashville, Colorado, etc.. I don't think they'll go for more than $5 bucks. =\

No matter how you look at it though... we're not a hockey market. Not now, not ever. (Unless we win like 3 more Cups in the next 10 years) That's why when the Kings told us they were going to increase ticket prices even more back in Feb/Mar, we were all outraged. They keep talking about "average ticket price" and all that junk, but the reality is... you cannot compare us to a Canadian market.

I was told this exact same thing happened when Staples Center had the All-Star Game back in 2002. The market for re-selling was terrible. Of course, I hope I'm wrong... but the fact is... This is a bandwagon city so we'll have to wait and see how the ticket sales will go now that we're the Stanley Cup Champions.

Good luck with your decision! Hope it works out for you.

5-10 dollars? I spend more in cheap vodka! I should've gone to more games!

Wow! Thanks for the detailed answer, TooCool. That's about what I was expecting, but hoping not to hear. I would be happy to make even the majority of my money back on any tickets I couldn't use. Since that's in doubt though, I'll have to think on this a bit more. Especially since it takes almost a full tank of gas to get me to Staples and back. (91 octane too, ugh...)

I'm soundly kicking myself in the tuckus for never getting a season ticket during the 11 years I lived in LA, even though in retrospect, I couldn't really afford one back then.

Even in my season seat group it's the same every year no one wants Phoenix, Columbus, Florida... I ate a few games this year but made them up w/ the ticket exchange through the Kings, although if there are really 4,000 more season seats that perk may gone like the Dodo bird. Canadien teams and the big one from the east you can get your money back and or sell them for the face value on the open market.

I have 2 die-hard seats (going up to $13 per ticket next year). I can't make a lot of games during the year due to work, scheduling, and some other issues. LGK is a big help, as I was able to sell a majority at face value here. For other games, I used ebay or stubhub and usually had luck.

Out of 41 games, I probably went to about 15-20, and sold around 10-15. Only a few games went unused (weeknights or less popular teams as stated above). And like was posted above though, it's much easier to sell die-hard seats at face value when they're way below normal ticket prices. Also, I actually made a bit using ebay on some of the bigger name games that I couldn't make (i.e. Detroit or east coast/canadian teams). I was pleasantly surprised at the bidding that went on there.

I also fully expect after next year the die-hard seat prices will be gone (it is AEG), but who knows. It's a tough comparison for you though as I don't even think there are die-hard seats available for season purchases now anyway.

If you're looking to get a full season, be prepared to possibly shell out some cash. But I can tell with 100% certainty, it is absolutely wonderful when you know you're guaranteed tickets once playoff time rolls around.

Diehard seats are indeed sold out or this wouldn't even be a question for me. The next option is 300 level end for $30 per ticket. ($1290 total)

Originally Posted by TooCool

I'm going to be honest with you and give you my own personal experience as a Season ticket Holder. First, I want to proudly say that I go to almost every game. The only times I have missed a game is if I got extremely sick or I got extra tickets and want to get rid of it. (With extra tickets, I'm still in the building!) I've been a season ticket holder in the die-hards since the 2008-2009 season. They were $11 bucks each with a face value of $26.50 a couple of years ago.

Granted, we were terrible and you absolutely couldn't even GIVE your tickets away for free. I had to completely eat it if I couldn't make it. There was a good ticket exchange program a few years back when you couldn't sell/give away your tickets, you could exchange it for tickets to another game of your choice. This way, you can plan really far ahead and beg your friends to take the ticket.

Fast forward to this season since I don't wanna bore you. My die-hards are now $12 bucks each with a face value of $39.00 each (I could be wrong). I had to burn tickets to about 4-5 games this season because no one wanted to buy them at my own price. (Many of my friends always said, "No thanks. I already got tickets and they were much cheaper on Stubhub/Ebay/etc.") On most nights, you'll see ticket prices on Stubhub starting as low as $5-10 dollars each. So if you sell it at that price, you're going to lose money regardless. With the Kings being a good team now, you actually can't really exchange your unused tickets for other games now. They limit the number of tickets you can exchange per account... rendering this cool feature to it being somewhat useless.

We have a ticket exchange forum here on LGK where we don't allow people to sell anything over face value. I would say that 90% of the ticket sellers here sell their tickets at THEIR price. I've seen fellow die-hards try to get rid of 2 tickets for $24 dollars. There are still some games in demand, like when the Red Wings, Canucks, any east coast team (minus tampa bay, florida, ottawa) that you can get face value for. Unfortunately though, by selling those, you're pretty much selling to non-kings fans.

Anyway, let me get to the point. I've had multiple discussions with fellow season seat neighbors these last few weeks. The Kings got about 4000+ new season ticket holders. All because they wanted Stanley Cup Final tickets. We know this is going to be even worse for our ticket re-sale if we can't make some games next season. The majority of these ticket holders likely will not care much for the regular season. They really just wanted a guarantee for Finals tickets. So I'm expecting tickets to be worthless next season. If we play teams like Columbus, Nashville, Colorado, etc.. I don't think they'll go for more than $5 bucks. =\

No matter how you look at it though... we're not a hockey market. Not now, not ever. (Unless we win like 3 more Cups in the next 10 years) That's why when the Kings told us they were going to increase ticket prices even more back in Feb/Mar, we were all outraged. They keep talking about "average ticket price" and all that junk, but the reality is... you cannot compare us to a Canadian market.

I was told this exact same thing happened when Staples Center had the All-Star Game back in 2002. The market for re-selling was terrible. Of course, I hope I'm wrong... but the fact is... This is a bandwagon city so we'll have to wait and see how the ticket sales will go now that we're the Stanley Cup Champions.

Good luck with your decision! Hope it works out for you.

Having worked at a secondary ticket broker, let me tell you a little about how it works, and it might make more sense as to why a lot of games the tickets are cheaper.

When a broker buys a ticket, say $10 a ticket (using a round number for ease) for 40 games, he knows he wont get more than $10 for every game. Instead he's looking at total profit. So he will list the ticket for most games at say $15, and for big games (Saturdays, Chicago, NY, Boston, Ducks, Pittsburgh, any draw) at a considerable overprice.

Depending on the number of tickets that are left on the market, and how they are selling, the price will go up and down. For most crap games (crap by sales, not by quality of the game) the price will ultimately go less than face the day of the game.

So it all depends.