Should Teams Be Allowed to Prevent Ticket Sales to Opposing Teams’ Fans?

In the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes tried to prevent New York Rangers fans from buying tickets to home Hurricanes games. The Canes did this by only accepting billing addresses in North Carolina, South Carolina and southern Virginia. Anyone living outside those areas was unable to buy tickets directly from Ticketmaster. 

Most NHL fans, regardless of team loyalty, could probably sympathize with the Canes. 

Put nicely, Rangers fans are known for vocal support of their team and showing up at road games, especially during the playoffs. Ranger fans frequently start “Let’s go Rangers” chants at away arenas, audible even on TV, usually starting during the National Anthem.

Anecdotally, several Rangers fans have informed me that their home arena, Madison Square Garden, is “too expensive” and “too dirty” to attend games. They instead prefer to grace other hockey towns with their presence. 

Oh, goodie. 

But this is certainly not the first time a home team tried to discourage away team fans from taking over the arena. In fact, the Hurricanes previously tried preventing Rangers fans from attending games in Raleigh, NC in 2022. Throughout the years, the Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lighting and Ottawa Senators have all tried preventing rival team fans from attending their home games, too.

Perhaps they all got some ideas from when Capitals owner Ted Leonsis prevented Penguins fans from buying playoff tickets to home Capitals games in 2001.

In 2001, Leonsis’s team deterred Pens fans from attending home Capitals playoff games through a software program preventing ticket sales to Pittsburgh area codes. In Leonsis’s own words, “Pretty cool, isn’t it? I got a lot of emails from Pittsburgh saying I was mean-spirited and unfair. I don’t care. I’m going to keep doing it.”

Even though Pittsburgh fans thought the software programs “stinks”, they also admitted that Pens-Caps games in Washington often sounded like Penguins home games. After the software program, there were guesstimates of fewer than 500 Penguins fans in attendance. Sounds like it worked pretty well. 

NHL teams trying to discourage rival fans from attending home games by preventing ticket sales raises an interesting question. Should teams even be allowed to do such a thing? 

From a fan’s perspective, home teams should absolutely discourage away fans from attending. I know many Capitals fans and season ticket holders who would appreciate seeing fewer opposing fans at home games. The worst of them can be troublesome, taunt home team fans, suck the positive energy out of the arena, and frequently lack hockey etiquette (Yes, the same sport that loves a good bench brawl still has some rules of etiquette).

It’s just simply not as fun to go to a hockey game that is crawling with opposing fans, no matter what color jersey you wear.  Even if you’re a home fan who lives farther away, keep in mind restrictions don’t impact resales. And, you can always have a local friend get tickets for you.

While efforts to restrict opposing fans in the NHL have only led to complaints about an “overdone playoff gimmick,” things got uglier in the NFL.

In 2008, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tried preventing anyone outside Florida from buying tickets to a playoff game against the New York Giants. That time, there were threats of legal action. Then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo strong-armed Ticketmaster into lifting the residency restrictions, citing concerns about legal issues and consumer fraud to circumvent the bans. 

Interestingly, in 2014, the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks tried to restrict playoff tickets to prevent opposing fans, and the case actually went to court. The court ruled in favor of the restrictions, upholding that all pro sports teams were allowed to enforce ticket restrictions in the future. So take that, opposing fans. 

Surprisingly, no one seems to have asked NHL players or coaches directly what they think about restricting ticket sales to locals. But, what we can gather is that the excitement and cheers from home fans provide a lot of energy to the home team. Capitals’ Head Coach Spencer Carbery has said, “this year playing in Washington, coaching this team, there’s been some games that I was caught off guard by the energy in the building and our fan base.”  

Without over-analyzing anyone’s words, I guess that most players and coaches enjoy lively home fan attendance with minimal opposing fans. The home-ice advantage is supposed to go beyond last-change rules and shootout order choices.

At the end of day, one thing we can agree on is the importance of providing fans (and teams) the most fun atmosphere possible for a hockey game. Usually it helps to sit next to a like-minded fan who will eagerly encourage some healthy competition on the ice. So if Leonsis wants to reinstate his anti-Penguins ticket program anytime soon, I’m sure a lot of Caps fans would be thrilled.