Saskatchewan

Regina Pats tickets reselling for hundreds online

Avid fans are pleading for tickets as online resellers jack up prices for championship playoff games.

Some resellers asking for prices up to five times face value

Approximately 120 people lined up for Regina Pats tickets Monday for games one and two against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Tickets sold out in minutes. (Kirk Fraser/CBC)

If you've got tickets for this weekend's Regina Pats playoff games, consider yourself lucky.

To judge by local resale sites, the WHL championship showdown is the hottest ticket in town.

The Regina Pats defeated the Lethbridge Hurricanes in game six of the eastern conference finals on Sunday night, advancing to the Western Hockey League finals. They will face the Seattle Thunderbirds in the first of a best-of-seven series for the Ed Chynoweth Cup on Friday night.

Tickets for games one and two in Regina went on sale Monday. According to the Regina Pats, tickets for game one sold out in two minutes while tickets for game two sold out in five minutes.

That left many avid fans out in the cold.

By Monday afternoon, single tickets for Friday and Saturday's playoff games were being offered online at resale sites, in some cases for prices up to five times face value.

One reseller on Usedregina is asking $200 for a single ticket. (usedregina.com)

People wanting tickets also started posting requests for tickets and complaining about scalpers.

"Got screwed out of tickets because of scalpers... just looking for 3 tickets for the family," reads one Kijiiji ad.

"We waited in line at the Brandt Centre for over 3 hours and the game sold out when we were next in line," wrote a couple of "students who haven't missed a regular season game" on Usedregina.

"Please if you are selling at a reasonable cost let me know what you have," pleads another Usedregina ad. "No high cost tickets wanted, don't need to feed the scalpers."

Friday and Saturday's games begin at 7 p.m. CST then the team is off to Seattle for games three, four and five.