The Vegas Golden Knights’ attendance drop has a new layer to it, and Elliotte Friedman believes the explanation starts with the team’s ticketing decisions.
On The FAN Hockey Show, the Sportsnet insider said Vegas’ crackdown on ticket brokers has played a role in the smaller crowds at T-Mobile Arena this season. RinkyReport shared his comments on X on October 18.
“So Vegas had a situation where the brokers were reselling tickets and a lot of people felt that they were getting a better price through the secondary market than they were through the main market,” Friedman said. “And Vegas has decided they're going to crack down on it.”
He added: “And that's one of the reasons their attendance is down.”
The change comes after a pair of noticeably thin crowds for a team that had been packing the building for years. Vegas announced 15,977 fans for its October 8 matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs, leaving 1,390 seats empty at T-Mobile Arena and snapping a streak of 420 straight regular-season and playoff sellouts that dated back to the franchise’s first season in 2017-18.
The numbers were below capacity again two nights later against the Los Angeles Kings, when the team announced 16,768 fans. SinBin.vegas reported, citing sources, that fewer than 13,000 people were actually in the building for the Toronto game.
The Golden Knights have also been open about changing their ticket strategy. Team president of business operations John Penhollow told The Athletic that the club has sharply cut back on the number of tickets it sells directly to brokers this season. In earlier years, those tickets were counted in attendance even when the seats went unfilled.
“Doing this right now is atypical because we have such a great product on the ice, and we've been successful, but it wasn't built in the right way,” Penhollow said.
He also called the move “a quarter-step backward to make three steps forward.” Penhollow said season-ticket sales were down from last season, though he did not say by how much.
Vegas has lowered prices, moved on from its previous reseller and begun working with a new one on a smaller scale. The team has also put limits on how low that reseller can list tickets, while adding half-season and 10-game plans and removing the old requirement that season-ticket holders buy playoff tickets.
Even with the attendance questions hanging over the club, the on-ice results have been strong. The Golden Knights are 5-1-0 through six games in Ryan Craig’s first season as head coach, including a 4-3 shootout win over Toronto after falling behind 3-0 in the first period and a 2-1 overtime victory over Los Angeles.
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