The WHL playoffs are right around the corner and there’s a buzz around the Saskatoon Blades.
Saskatoon has been one of the top teams in the league all season and many fans are hoping for a deep run in the playoffs.
The team launched sales of its playoff passes three weeks ago for the 2023 WHL playoffs, giving fans access to every playoff game for only $100.
On Wednesday, the team had to stop selling them after an overwhelming request for the passes.
“This year it was very high demand and all of a sudden we were at a point where it was like, ‘We need to start shutting this down.’ Our inventory was running out in the lower bowl,” said Jordy Jones, the Blades’ manager of brands and promotions.
The lower bowl at SaskTel Centre seats around 5,000 people and Jones said the team likes to keep an additional 1,000 seats for single-game tickets for the playoffs.
“When we made the decision to put a deadline on it, we had over probably 500 inquiries still to go through. So we’re going to honour everybody that was in the queue for that day,” Jones said.
He didn’t have any final numbers of how many tickets the Blades sold yet because they were still going through inquiries and were unsure of how many tickets people wanted.
“If the team does what we think they can do, it’s going to be a very good deal for whoever buys those,” Jones added.
Single-game playoff tickets will go on sale once the Blades know who they’ll play in the first round.
More hot tickets
If you aren’t able to make it to the game, you can still get in on the action in some way.
The 50/50 during Sunday’s game against the Regina Pats was one of the biggest in franchise history.
It is expected to be another large jackpot on Friday when the Pats come back to town.
So far this season, only one jackpot hasn’t yet been claimed.
Jones says it’s rare that a 50/50 goes unclaimed and people have some time to pick up their prize; it doesn’t have to be the same night as the game.
“People actually have a year to claim it. So we have to wait for that. Normally it gets claimed in that time,” Jones said.
Plus you don’t even have to at the arena in order to purchase 50/50 tickets, you can buy them online from home.
Sunday’s 50/50 jackpot was $115,080.