Getty

A recent study showed that NHL tickets are becoming increasingly hard to come by, but not for the reasons most fans believe.

Hockey fans relish seeing their favorite stars on home ice. There’s nothing like getting NHL tickets, especially to high-profile matchups like the Stanley Cup playoffs.

However, those tickets are becoming increasingly hard to come by. It’s not that there’s a shortage of them. It’s that affording them isn’t quite so easy.

A recent study by Rhiannon O’Donohoe of casino.org illustrated just how pricey it can be to get NHL tickets for top playoff teams like the Carolina Hurricanes or Colorado Avalanche.

According to the data, tickets to the Stanley Cup Final are the fourth-most sought-after among the major North American sports.

The ranking drops when including international events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Where things get interesting is in how much it costs to obtain tickets to these events.

While the FIFA World Cup currently dominates the desires of sports fans in North America, the pricing situation is another story. The data surveyed the willingness of fans to pay for tickets to events like the FIFA World Cup. Soccer fans are ready to pony up $1,739 per ticket. But that only accounts for about 12% of the actual cost of a ticket.

What about NHL tickets?

Well, it turns out the tickets to the Stanley Cup Final are the fourth-hardest to attain. Only the FIFA World Cup, the tennis Grand Slam, and golf’s The Masters are more expensive than NHL tickets to the Cup Final.

The data states that hockey fans are willing to pay a maximum of $785 on NHL tickets, which only accounts for about 16% of their total cost.

Moreover, some tickets to the Stanley Cup account for roughly 8% of hockey fans’ total annual income. Yikes!

Economics Behind Ticket Pricing

The fact of the matter is that the economics behind the pricing of NHL tickets depends largely on arena capacity and running expenses. NHL arenas have significantly less capacity than NFL or MLB stadiums.

As such, fewer fans per home game means higher prices to keep the lights on. Despite the substantial income obtained through TV deals, the NHL continues to hike ticket prices across the board.

For example, Toronto Maple Leafs season ticket holders saw a more than $2,000 increase ahead of the 2025-26 season for the most affordable areas at Scotiabank Arena. Leafs fans had to pay about $344 for NHL tickets per individual, on average.

The more expensive areas saw increases, bringing the total cost of season tickets to $28,240. That’s a pretty steep price to pay for regular-season games. The costs, as reported by The Athletic, showed that Maple Leafs NHL tickets for playoff games started at about $2,000 per seat.

It’s no wonder why the Maple Leafs organization has lamented the loss of playoff revenue this season. By missing the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, the organization likely missed out on millions of dollars in additional revenue across the board.

Considering how much the league is looking to attract new fans to the game, it’s a shame that large swaths of fans are priced out of their respective markets. That’s a trend that won’t likely change anytime soon.