Expect more empty seats for next Oilers homestand

The Oilers endured their first regulation loss of the season Thursday, a classic case of a sleepy home game after a team returns from a long road trip.

The atmosphere inside Rogers Place was just as silent, with an announced attendance of 16,167. That’s the second-lowest total the Oilers have pulled in for a home game since the team moved into its new digs. Rogers Place has a listed capacity of 18,347.

But, outside of the Oct. 24 home sellout when the Toronto Maple Leafs come to town, there are still plenty of tickets on offer for the upcoming homestand. What used to be the hottest ticket in town is quickly becoming a discretionary expense.

There are more than 840 tickets listed as unsold — that’s outside of the resale market — for the Oct, 20 home date against the Minnesota Wild. And, for that game, the Oilers offered discounted tickets to Edmonton Minor Soccer Association players and their families. It’s an annual promotion for EMSA to have a night out at Rogers Place; but, in previous years, those occurred at Edmonton Oil Kings’ junior games, not at the NHL level.

And the resale market for that game is seeing tickets going for well below face value. Tickets in the second deck are going for less than $55 on Ticketmaster’s resale site, and as low as $60 on StubHub. Outside of loge, box and Sportsnet Lounge seats, the cheapest face-value seats in the second level at priced at $91.75 and range up to almost $250 per ticket for close to the glass near centre ice.

If you want to see the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes roll into town, there are almost 1,400 tickets available, and then there are resale tickets going for as low as $61. The Oct. 28 Battle of Alberta with the Calgary Flames? More than, 1,100 tickets available, and second-deck resale tickets available in the $61-$70 range.

Edmonton is not the only Canadian NHL city with tickets to spare. According to early season-ticket counts from Kalshi, the Ottawa Senators are selling just 80 per cent of their seats, even though the team reduced the capacity of its arena for this season by about 900 seats. The Calgary Flames, in the final days of the Saddledome, are selling 90 per cent of their tickets. The Winnipeg Jets, despite a hot start to the season, have been selling at 93 per cent.

Near the end of September, Postmedia spoke to Oilers fans about why they were giving up their season tickets. That led to a groundswell of more comments from fans about why they decided to quit or reduce the number of games they’re attending, no matter how well the Oilers do under new head coach Mike Babcock.

“I had Oilers season tickets for about four years, the price increases were crazy each season,” said Shannon Stenson.

“You couldn’t sell most games, if you couldn’t go, without taking a loss. I didn’t even want to make a profit, just get my money back. I never wanted my seats to be empty on game days.”

Stenson’s example mirrors what we are hearing from former season-ticket holders. Even though NHL teams explicitly warn potential season-ticket buyers that they should not be trying to turn over tickets for financial return, or to think of them as an investment, the truth is almost all season-ticket holders unload seats during the season. For some, it’s the games they can’t attend, and then there are those who try to make a profit of a few games, which helps finance the cost of a season ticket.

But as face-value ticket prices continued to rise, the StubHub and Ticetmaster resale markets didn’t keep up. Buyers of resale tickets now better understand
how to wait out the market, and wait for prices to drop in the hours ahead of faceoff. So, those season-ticket holders are now selling those tickets at losses. And they have realized they’re better off giving up the season tickets and playing the resale game, as it has become a buyers’ market.

As well, the Oilers raised prices for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, and required season-seat holders to reserve their spots for a potential run to the Stanley Cup Final. When the Oilers lasted just one round instead of four, the remaining balance was applied to this season’s tickets.

“Lots of my friends who were season-tickets holders did not renew over these last couple years because of the crazy prices,” said Oilers fan Chris Curtola, who has recognized that it’s way easier to go the resale route than to pay full price at the ticket market.

And he shows just how SeatGeek, StubHub, Facebook Marketplace and Ticketmaster’s resales have changed the way we see big events. Tickets are always available, for everything.

“I also find that it’s a bit delusional out there now when it’s announced as sold out, because it really isn’t,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to get tickets last minute, as in an hour before the game, for some substantially lower ticket prices. There’s a lot of season-ticket holders who think that they can sell their tickets for a profit, and kind of cover their costs. This used to be the case years ago, but with how high the ticket prices are now, if you’ve got a $400 ticket and you’re trying to sell it for $500, they’re just not any buyers anymore.

“Also, I’m usually getting tickets for the upper level for sometimes $40 to $50. And even in the Stanley Cup Finals game one last year, I got in for only $300 the day of the game.”

But there are other Oiler fans who say ticket prices aren’t the problem; there is a very real faction out there who take issue with the signing of winger Alex Formenton, one of five former members of the Canadian junior national team who were accused of sexually assaulting a woman, “E.M.” in a London, Ont. hotel room back in 2018. All five were found not guilty. Formenton, Vegas goalie Carter Hart and St. Louis Blues’ forward Dillon Dube are all now back in the NHL.

All five players were found to have broken Hockey Canada’s code of conduct. Formenton has since been reinstated.

“This year we didn’t buy them for two reasons,” said Stan Matthews. “And that’s the hiring of Mike Babcock and especially Alex Formenton. We refuse to support an organization who makes signings like that.”

A fan who only wanted to be identified as “Dale,” said he is still going to games, but he refuses to buy and food or drinks inside Rogers Place because of the high prices. (This year, the team introduced a value menu, with items capped at $10 each).

And he’s got to find new people to accompany him, because his girlfriend will no longer enter the arena on Oilers’ game nights due to the Formenton signing.

ssandor@postmedia.com

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