Avalanche jack up playoff ticket prices, gouge fans after title

As the prices of eggs, health insurance and just about everything else gets jacked up due to corporate greed, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is following suit with Colorado Avalanche playoff tickets.

Following their Stanley Cup Championship, the cost of 2023 postseason Avs tickets are up as much as 271% for some. This comes on the heels of regular-season ticket prices jumping 42% from this year’s cost to next season.

Colorado hockey fans and Avalanche season ticket holders took to social media to voice their complaints and share KSE’s price gouging.

I hope all the AVS season ticket holders enjoyed there playoff pricing last year. #GoAvsGo

This is a crazy increase.

2022 vs 2023 pic.twitter.com/zdAnjUI3BP

— Enrique (@itsLianLoL) February 1, 2023

In the seat chart map provided, it shows the cheapest ticket for season ticket holders headed to the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is now more expensive ($45) than the price to get in the door at last summer’s Stanley Cup Final ($36.) The most expensive seats for the Stanley Cup Final, right along the glass, went up from $605 to $1,589. Of course this is the lowered price for season ticket holders and not the high-priced secondary market which was running near $1,500 to get in the door last summer.

“For our tickets in the last row of the building they will go up $1200 if the Avs play every possible home game,” @MDygs2 said on Twitter. “I paid almost for my whole playoffs last year for what one finals ticket will cost this year.”

As the Comcast-Altitude TV carrier dispute—which impacts 92% of folks in the Denver area—bleeds into a fifth year, hockey’s best team and its sister franchises have become increasingly harder to watch on television and a lot more expensive to attended in person. The typical beer costs about $15 before tip and tax at a Nuggets game which is second-most expensive in the NBA this season. Meanwhile the carrier dispute and ticket price increases impacts the Rapids and Mammoth as well since KSE are the primary owners. KSE’s monopoly-like control on Denver’s sports scene—owning four the six major teams—means potential patrons are left with few options.

In 2018, potential World Series tickets for Rockies season ticket holders were offered at $280 a pop, just 12 rows behind the dugout. A comparable seat for this coming Avs playoff run will set you back over $500 a ticket.

One Avs fan got a 10-game plan for this season to save his wallet down the line when it came to postseason tickets but the team’s convoluted system squeezed him.

Apparently I wouldn’t get access to Avs pre-sale playoff tickets unless I renew my 10 game plan, which I will not be doing. Seems backwards since I was a member this year

— Mark (@swimtoshorey) January 26, 2023

Also on Thursday. Forbes evaluated the KSE-owned Rapids at $350 million, which ranks 28th in their league, but is still up from $190 million from just three years ago. Going off the latest Forbes evaluations for the top three teams in KSE’s Denver empire, the Avs, Nuggets and ‘Pids are worth a combined $3.14 billion. Add that huge figure to the other KSE-owned teams (L.A. Rams and Arsenal) and the superpower sports group comes in around the worth of $11.4 billion.

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