Team Canada’s match up against the Americans at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship is one of the hottest tickets in town.
The two rivals are set to face off Wednesday night in Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre in the tournament’s semifinal round.
On ticket resale site Stubhub, tickets to the game are going for between about $800 to a whooping $6,333 each — with estimated taxes and fees included.
That pales in comparison to a single ticket for the gold medal game on Thursday, which is listed at over $63,000. That ticket is in row E of section 9, and has an “unrestricted view” according to the site.
Other tickets to the gold medal game start at around $1,000.
Tickets to the other semifinal game between Czechia and Sweden are selling between $59 and nearly $3,000 on Stubhub.
Meanwhile, a Facebook group created to buy and sell tickets to the event has had a flurry of activity in recent days. However, there are also many warnings of scams and price gouging on the page.
Truro resident Jordis Eldershaw, living about an hour outside of Halifax, was hoping to snag last-minute tickets to Wednesday’s game, but it hasn’t been working out as planned.
“I feel terrible,” she said.
“I’m on a couple of group chats for the tickets and it’s almost all scammers.”
She said the red flags she looks out for are when Facebook profiles were recently made, when there’s only one profile photo and nothing to prove the person is real.
Eldershaw said it would mean a lot to her to go, as big events like the world juniors don’t happen often this close to home.
“The prices are honestly outrageous.”
“Not all fans are rich. I know it’s hard to say that, but like honestly, some of the best fans don’t have that kind of money.”
The excitement of Canada’s win over Slovakia on Monday night, when Connor Bedard slid the puck home in an overtime goal, pushed Eldershaw to hunt down a ticket.
“Just seeing how intense it was and everything, and seeing the crowd, it just like made you want to go to it even more,” she said.
“Knowing that you don’t have that chance, it sucks, it really does.”
Canada punched its ticket to the semifinals after a thrilling overtime goal Monday night from Connor Bedard, the 17-year-old phenom of the team.
The U.S.-Canada semifinal game is listed as a sellout on Ticket Atlantic.