The Ottawa Senators came up with a plan to limit a flood of Toronto Maple Leafs fans from attending the Canadian Tire Centre for Games 3, 4 and potentially 6 of their first-round series.
When the Maple Leafs visit the Senators, the crowd often features a lot of blue and white competing with Ottawa’s red and black.
The Senators organization took a step-by-step approach to selling tickets for the Battle of Ontario and limiting Leafs fans. Their strategy to maximize Sens fans is through season ticket holders and newsletter followers.
Season ticket holders were able to purchase up to four tickets – two for them and two extra for other Sens fans. The Senators have an additional 902 season ticket holders from five weeks ago, team president Cyril Leeder told the Ottawa Citizen. The team also opened single-game ticket sales to subscribers to its newsletter on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET for two hours.
That didn’t leave many single-game tickets available for the general public when sales opened at noon.
“You won’t see much blue,” team owner Michael Andlauer told reporters at a Senators flag-raising ceremony at city hall on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time that other teams have tried to limit Leafs fans from their rink. When Toronto faced the Florida Panthers in the second round of the 2023 playoffs, the Panthers restricted ticket access to purchasers with a U.S.-based credit card billing address.
The Senators and Maple Leafs faced off in the playoffs four times between 2000 and 2004. In 2004, the Leafs defeated the Sens in seven games.
The Senators organization will not only hope to push out the blue-and-white noise but also win the latest edition of the Battle of Ontario. Game 1 takes place Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in Toronto.
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