Blackhawks fans eye Cup clincher at home, paying huge Game 6 ticket prices

ByDarren Rovell ESPN logo

Monday, June 15, 2015

Just getting into the United Center to potentially watch the Chicago Blackhawks win their first Stanley Cup on home ice since 1938 could cost more than $1,000.

And that's not even for a seat.

Less than an hour after the Blackhawks won Game 5 over theTampa Bay Lightningin Tampa on Saturday night, the resale price on StubHub for a standing room only seat in Chicago for Monday night's Game 6 was north of $1,000.

Those numbers have held through Sunday. As of 9 a.m. ET on Sunday, the cheapest ticket that comes with a seat for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals was $1,979.

Standing room only seats have a face value of $140. Upper goal section seats, that have a single-game face value of $285, are listed on StubHub for $2,445 each. Club level center tickets that have a face value of $650 are listed for $4,816 each, and the cheapest tickets right up against the glass, with a face value of $1,200, are listed at more than $10,000 apiece.

"Aside from when the Bears were in the Super Bowl against the Colts, these are numbers that are reminiscent of the Michael Jordan days," said Max Waisvisz, partner in Chicago-based brokerage Gold Coast Tickets.

Waisvisz said he remembered selling lower-level seats in between the baskets for the 1997 NBA Finals, the last title the Bulls clinched in Chicago.

"There are people calling who have never spent a dollar on hockey in Chicago and they just want to be there," Waisvisz said. "That's what really drives the price up."

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in Detroit in 1961, in Philadelphia in 2010 and in Boston in 2013.

In 1938, the Blackhawks came into the playoffs 11 games under .500 and were such underdogs against the Toronto Maple Leafs that NHL president Frank Calder sent the Stanley Cup immediately to Toronto and didn't have it in Chicago when the team won the series three games to one.

The Blackhawks are trying to become the first team to win three Stanley Cups within a six-year period since the Detroit Red Wings accomplished that feat from 1997-2002.