High-priced Olympic hockey tickets in high demand

VANCOUVER – As Hilary Knight scrolled down her Facebook page weeks before the Olympics, she just cringed. The posts were different, but the motive was the same.

“Hey, I haven’t talked to you in a couple years …” an old post read.

An obvious prelude to a ticket request for the Vancouver Games. Like everybody except for the U.S. ice hockey player’s parents, that person was denied, told to try their luck with ticket resale Web sites, such as StubHub and eBay. Even Grandma got the cold shoulder.

The U.S. Olympic Committee offered two tickets to each American athlete for their events in Vancouver, meaning Knight’s parents, for instance, had guaranteed seats for every game she played, including the gold-medal game Thursday against Canada. Anybody else wanting to watch in person was forced to buy from scalpers or stomach marked-up tickets on the Internet.

Tickets for Sunday’s men’s gold-medal game (face value is $350 to $775) start at $2,942 apiece at www.stubhub.com, with a seat on the glass costing $7,144. On www.ebay.com, two lower-bowl tickets 15 rows up on the corner are $15,777. For Saturday’s men’s bronze-medal game, eBay has a lower-bowl pair at $860, while an 18-person suite runs for $35,500.

Knight’s grandmother, Diane Olney, didn’t travel to Vancouver, unwilling to spend $350 to $999 – the rate on eBay for a single for Thursday’s game. The inflated prices frustrated Knight, who called her grandmother “my motivation the last couple years.”

Goaltender Ryan Miller turned away several family members who live in Saskatchewan, despite a $31.25 million contract that he inked with the Buffalo Sabres in 2008. The price of the tickets isn’t an issue. With practices and team meetings on top of games, he doesn’t have time to coordinate requests. “They understand completely, though,” Miller said.

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