Cheapest Readily Available Ticket to NHL Games in Prague: € 160

[12ozPapa]

Tage Thompson is a zero whose name should never occur in the same sentence with Gretzky's, and you know squat about European hockey.



Exactly. In a country with incomparably higher incomes.



You mean business sense. Hate to break it to you, but here in Europe we still like to look at sports primarily from the perspective of sports, not business. If your main goal in life is to make loads of money, do business – don't meddle in sports.

I'm an NHL fan, but I'm saying: keep it on your shores, no need to bring it over here as an overpriced circus for the select rich and crowds of foreign tourists.

I mean, it doesn’t matter how YOU look at it. The NHL is a business, albeit a poorly run one, but a business nonetheless.

 

[Coffee]

You stay at home and let others go to the game. Even easier solution.

Shark Finn, always tells it like it is and never sugar coats things no matter who the poster is

 

[Czechboy]

No one is forcing you to go to the circus.

It's no different in North America if a NHL team comes to a City that just has a Junior club or AHL team.

Heck, it's no different in Edmonton. If I want to spend big bucks I have the Oilers. If I want to go to hockey and pay less then there are other options as well.

Nobody is forcing hockey fans to go to the NHL game in Prague. It's an event that is there and they will sell tickets based on what they can get for them, just like every other form of entertainment.

Pretty much all of this.

Leafs tickets are how much?

Now do the Marlies...

Extraliga is not on the NHL level. This is a special attraction like Taylor Swift or pearl jam coming to town.

 

[Faterson]

This is a special attraction like Taylor Swift or pearl jam coming to town.

Once again, mentioning Pearl Jam and Buffalo Sabres in the same breath is blasphemy. The Sabres are something like your local bar band.

(The comparison to musical acts is patently wrong. There's only one Pearl Jam and only so many concerts they can give in any given year. But there are over 1000 regular season NHL games every year. It's a non-unique event – humdrum regular season games between two non-playoff teams from last season. Price them accordingly, or keep them in America.)

 

[Mattilaus]

Everybody wants the cap to keep going up, but then they complain when ticket prices increase. The NHL is still largely driven by gate revenue due to bad TV deals. Want the cap to keep increasing so your team can afford their young stars? Well.....

 

[Aladyyn]

Once again, mentioning Pearl Jam and Buffalo Sabres in the same breath is blasphemy. The Sabres are something like your local bar band.

(The comparison to musical acts is patently wrong. There's only one Pearl Jam and only so many concerts they can give in any given year. But there are over 1000 regular season NHL games every year. It's a non-unique event – humdrum regular season games between two non-playoff teams from last season. Price them accordingly, or keep them in America.)

Don't go then.

 

[Czechboy]

Once again, mentioning Pearl Jam and Buffalo Sabres in the same breath is blasphemy. The Sabres are something like your local bar band.

(The comparison to musical acts is patently wrong. There's only one Pearl Jam and only so many concerts they can give in any given year. But there are over 1000 regular season NHL games every year. It's a non-unique event – humdrum regular season games between two non-playoff teams from last season. Price them accordingly, or keep them in America.)

It is a unique event in Prague.
The other 998 games are played in north America.

 

[Kamaya Painters]

And the NHL still has to cover the cost of salaries, travel expenses, arenas fees, etc. Doesnt matter what the local average salary is. The NHL still has to make money for this to be worth it. Cost is in line for that.

They should think a bit about the local people if the idea is to bring the NHL to a country where it isn't available every week. The NHL doesn't care about its fans, it cares about their money. There'll be people who'll pay these prices to see a pointless regular season game and it'll probably be plenty of people (because it's easy to fly into Prague from other cities in Europe) there but it's not the way to grow the game. The NHL isn't about growing the game though. They just pretend they do and like all capitalists take out huge chunks of money for themselves.

Don't go then.

He's right and even if he doesn't go someone else will because of how easy it's to get to Prague from other European cities. The game should be for everyone, not for a selected few.

This is why the atmosphere sucks at these games.

 

[Chainshot]

It is a unique event in Prague.
The other 998 games are played in north America.

My eldest will be going. He was going to be in Prague with his bestie to see his bestie's GF and so he's taking them to their first ever NHL game there. It's going to be a high bar to get over for usual NA games for them now too.

 

[Czechboy]

My eldest will be going. He was going to be in Prague with his bestie to see his bestie's GF and so he's taking them to their first ever NHL game there. It's going to be a high bar to get over for usual NA games for them now too.

I've actually reached the age where I have no interest in parking, driving, paying 12 bucks a beer etc. I prefer the games at home and arguing with the fine posters on HF.lol

However, I may be able to see Czechs vs Kazakhistan in Ottawa this year at the U20's! Something tells me those tickets will be cheap.. I may be the only fan in attendance.lol

 

[Chainshot]

I've actually reached the age where I have no interest in parking, driving, paying 12 bucks a beer etc. I prefer the games at home and arguing with the fine posters on HF.lol

However, I may be able to see Czechs vs Kazakhistan in Ottawa this year at the U20's! Something tells me those tickets will be cheap.. I may be the only fan in attendance.lol

I don't think they will be driving, but I do understand. When I had seasons, I luckily worked a few blocks from the arena and on days when I was WFH, I could take the light rail downtown easily (it was how I got to work too).

I'm excited for him to be going. We talked about it in the spring and I'm impressed that he's pulled it together. I on the other hand will continue to be struggling to pay my bills which means less time to argue with the fine posters on HF.

 

[ViD]

ITT: I learned communists are to blame for overpriced NHL tickets in Europe

 

[DaveG]

NHL is not thinking about merch or center ice. They are looking at X dollars going out and Y dollars coming in. Merch is going to be bought regardless if tickets were 25 Euros or 250 Euros. There is a finite amount of tickets available. The NHL is pricing them to where they can make the most money and still sell out.

I mean, not wrong on why the ticket prices are where they are, but they're most certainly banking on merch. They're likely banking on Prague being a major destination for NA fans and rich types that are fans of the league which... not wrong.

 

[joestevens29]

I've actually reached the age where I have no interest in parking, driving, paying 12 bucks a beer etc. I prefer the games at home and arguing with the fine posters on HF.lol

However, I may be able to see Czechs vs Kazakhistan in Ottawa this year at the U20's! Something tells me those tickets will be cheap.. I may be the only fan in attendance.lol

Don’t spend big bucks buy nose bleeds and pick your spot after

 

[Satans Hockey]

Season ticket wise I personally don't mind missing out on 1 home game, there really are too many. I wish they would take the pre-season games and play them all at the AHL arenas. I hate paying for those games.

 

[Satans Hockey]

Well, I checked the prices immediately after I received the promotional email from the NHL, and the lowest price corresponded to € 160.

You're correct, though. After digging through the ticket portal, I found this:

View attachment 907460

If you can see that extremely small number of dark-red seats behind both goals, practically on the roof, those were apparently available for € 80. The handful of dark-green rows below them went for € 120, and the pink ones were € 140. Only the yellow ones for € 160 were available when I checked the site. Those are now gone, too, with the cheapest tickets available right now at around € 280.

(Will try and modify the thread title if permitted by the software.)

Looking at this chart my seats are actually the same price as they would be for the 2 games vs the Rangers since the Devils use variable pricing and those are the two most expensive games.

 

[Faterson]

Here's a valid comparable for you all:

In a couple of weeks from now, Manchester City will be visiting my city to play a Champions League game. It's the world's wealthiest football club: its roster is worth over $ 1 billion (!). Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews would be poor relatives on that team. Both the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils are absolute midgets compared to Manchester City. You can't get a better opponent than this.

And the ticket prices here? Double-digits in euros for most seats, so that regular football fans could afford them. Sold out immediately, and it would have sold out at higher prices, too, but that's just not how things are done here in Europe. It's an outrage that the NHL charges triple-digit prices in euros for some humdrum regular season games.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Here's a valid comparable for you all:

In a couple of weeks from now, Manchester City will be visiting my city to play a Champions League game. It's the world's wealthiest football club: its roster is worth over $ 1 billion (!). Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews would be poor relatives on that team. Both the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils are absolute midgets compared to Manchester City. You can't get a better opponent than this.

And the ticket prices here? Double-digits in euros for most seats, so that regular football fans could afford them. Sold out immediately, and it would have sold out at higher prices, too, but that's just not how things are done here in Europe. It's an outrage that the NHL charges triple-digit prices in euros for some humdrum regular season games.

Is hockey more popular in Prague than soccer is in Bratislava? Genuinely curious.

I'm guessing Prague has a larger population of wealthy folks? It's like 3x the size and their hockey arena seats 5k less than Bratislava's stadium.

Those factors, plus the fact that the NHL visiting to play games is probably more rare than major Champions league games, all likely contribute to a higher price for the hockey ticket.

 

[Faterson]

Is hockey more popular in Prague than soccer is in Bratislava?

Nope. Both countries are the same in this regard.

I'm guessing Prague has a larger population of wealthy folks?

Prague is larger and incomes in Czechia are higher than in Slovakia, but not radically higher. (They are radically higher in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and North America.)

the NHL visiting to play games is probably more rare than major Champions league games

Absolutely not! It's the first time in Champions League history that my team, Slovan, has qualified for it. We just got thrashed 5-1 in Glasgow last night, and we'll undoubtedly get thrashed by Manchester City in two weeks' time on home turf as well. It's gonna be the wealthiest football club against the poorest in this season's Champions League. Our roster is worth € 21 million, and theirs is € 1.27 billion. What can you do?

Sparta Prague, too, is playing in the Champions League this season for the first time in 19 years. The tickets for their games are actually a bit cheaper than for Slovan's games (or so I heard).

These are extremely rare and highly prestigious sporting events, yet still reasonably priced for regular sports fans. Not cheap by any means, but not overly expensive, unlike this absurd pair of NHL games in Prague.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Tage Thompson is a zero whose name should never occur in the same sentence with Gretzky's, and you know squat about European hockey.



Exactly. In a country with incomparably higher incomes.



You mean business sense. Hate to break it to you, but here in Europe we still like to look at sports primarily from the perspective of sports, not business. If your main goal in life is to make loads of money, do business – don't meddle in sports.

I'm an NHL fan, but I'm saying: keep it on your shores, no need to bring it over here as an overpriced circus for the select rich and crowds of foreign tourists.

1) Tage rules.
2) ..you don’t seem to get how American economic imperialism works. Which I’m honestly jealous of, but ya, telling a US business to keep their bullshit in their backyard.. too late, bud. I don’t disagree with your outrage, it’s just how it is- some yokel with more money and fewer shits to give will pay more, and that’s all the system cares about.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

sounds good to me. i hate these overseas games.

you think i want to watch my team play at 1pm and 10am?

You think I want to watch my team play every day at 1 am?

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Here's a valid comparable for you all:

In a couple of weeks from now, Manchester City will be visiting my city to play a Champions League game. It's the world's wealthiest football club: its roster is worth over $ 1 billion (!). Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews would be poor relatives on that team. Both the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils are absolute midgets compared to Manchester City. You can't get a better opponent than this.

And the ticket prices here? Double-digits in euros for most seats, so that regular football fans could afford them. Sold out immediately, and it would have sold out at higher prices, too, but that's just not how things are done here in Europe. It's an outrage that the NHL charges triple-digit prices in euros for some humdrum regular season games.

Not everywhere in Europe. I assure you those tickets in Barcelona would be three digits

Prices are insane for some of those games. The prices in Tampere are crazy.


I remember paying before COVID for the Tampa games in Stockholm around 120€ per each game and not bad seats either. That felt ok.

 

[HaNotsri]

Flight to prague+tickets+hotel was pretty close to what I'd pay to go to Buffalo so I decided to skip this one and go to the "real games" instead.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

ITT: I learned communists are to blame for overpriced NHL tickets in Europe

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

Here's a valid comparable for you all:

In a couple of weeks from now, Manchester City will be visiting my city to play a Champions League game. It's the world's wealthiest football club: its roster is worth over $ 1 billion (!). Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews would be poor relatives on that team. Both the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils are absolute midgets compared to Manchester City. You can't get a better opponent than this.

And the ticket prices here? Double-digits in euros for most seats, so that regular football fans could afford them. Sold out immediately, and it would have sold out at higher prices, too, but that's just not how things are done here in Europe. It's an outrage that the NHL charges triple-digit prices in euros for some humdrum regular season games.

To be fair, as a neutral fan I would much rather watch 2 bad NHL teams in a game that should at least be competitive vs. watching corrupt Man City absolutely destroy some nothing club that nobody has ever heard of.

The average attendance in that Slovak league seems to be <3k per game, so most likely this teams entire fanbase was able to get tickets and leave a bunch left over for Man City fans. Don't really see this as being similar to the NHL holding what is essentially a marketing showcase in Prague. Random small teams make Champions League every year.