Whether an NHL expansion team in Seattle becomes a reality may very well depend on the city showing its support with season-ticket deposits on Thursday.
Unfortunately for Seattle’s NHL bid, Ticketmaster’s website — surprise — is making things more difficult than they need to be.
Beginning Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, fans who want to attend potential future NHL games in Seattle could place deposits for season ticket seat priority. The deposit amounts were $500 for season tickets or $1,000 for club season tickets.
The fervor surrounding Seattle’s NHL expansion bid has trickled all the way down from partners Jerry Bruckheimer, David Bonderman and Tim Leiweke to Seattle residents to even Pearl Jam. And fans put their money where their mouths were on Thursday, turning up in droves to place their deposits and receive a priority number that reserves their place in line to buy season tickets in the coming weeks.
But not before Ticketmaster did what it does best and went completely haywire when tickets went on sale beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Even being on the inside didn’t help; ESPN NHL Senior Writer Greg Wyshynski had to sit through a spinning wheel along with the rest of the Internet:
But patient fans who were able to fight their way through Ticketmaster’s website were rewarded with a purchase screen, and, in turn, they potentially helped reward Seattle an NHL team with their enthusiasm.
According to TSN’s Farhan Lalji, Seattle reached 10,000 season ticket deposits in merely 12 minutes:
That probably explains why Ticketmaster crashed.
It’s interesting that Seattle has already sold 25,000 season ticket deposits, because KeyArena, where the prospective team would play, currently only has a capacity of 15,177 for hockey games. But the bid’s partners plan to renovate the area for the cool cost of $660 million, and clearly adding more seating is a crucial element of that plan.
So what happens if the NHL doesn’t approve Seattle’s expansion bid and you’ve shelled out $500 for season tickets for a team that doesn’t exist?
“At the time season ticket seats are selected, you can request and receive a refund of your deposit if you do not want to purchase season tickets,” NHL Seattle’s website states. “In addition, if the NHL does not grant us an NHL franchise for Seattle, your deposit will be refunded to you.”
If all goes well, fans who placed deposits today could be sitting down in their season-ticket seat for a Seattle hockey game by the 2020-21 season.