Maple Leafs fans received significant sticker shock when their season ticket renewals and playoff ticket packages went out recently.
While Leafs season ticket holders have become accustomed to increases above inflation every year, the 2025-26 ticket packages were raised by more than 20 percent in some sections over this season’s prices.
Multiple fans reached out to The Athletic to complain about the increases and shared their ticket renewal information.
One section with the largest increases was near the top of the building, in the purple section, where two season tickets went from $8,522 this season to $10,396 for next year.
Fans were also invoiced at the same time for playoff tickets and asked to pay for all four rounds — and four games in each round; ticket holders’ accounts will be credited for playoff games that don’t happen — up front. A playoff ticket package in that same upper bowl section is priced at $14,360 for two tickets, nearly double the cost of the 41-game regular season package. That represents a nearly 13 percent increase year over year.
Season tickets in some of the gold sections in the lower bowl, meanwhile, are being raised more than $2,000 to $28,240 for a pair of tickets, or $344 per ticket per game. Playoff tickets in those seats are priced at $36,152, with Rounds 1 through 4 going from $5,184 for four games to $6,224, $9,886, and $14,848.
That equates to nearly $2,000 a seat for home games for the Stanley Cup final.
“I was at their last win in 1967, sitting the corner reds with my dad,” said Danny Russell, a longtime season ticket holder in Scotiabank Arena’s golds section whose family has had season tickets for 84 years. “As a retired teacher, there is no way I can afford $3,712 (for two tickets) to see a final game — if they ever get that far.
“It is sad that the game has become so corporate and no longer can real fans afford to go every game. No longer do you just ‘give’ your tickets to someone and say, ‘Take your kid to a game.’ Doubly sad.”
When reached for a statement on the increases, a Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment spokesperson explained that Scotiabank Arena has more than 30 sections and each is priced differently every season, depending on “historical data and market factors.”
The average increase for Leafs season tickets across the arena is 9 percent, MLSE said, with more affordable upper bowl sections appearing to be hit with larger year-over-year increases than those in the lower bowl.
According to MLSE, the seats that have a 20 percent increase or higher were “determined to be historically underpriced as it relates to value of these tickets and market demand and this season’s increase in this area represents a market correction.”
“Each year, the organization uses a range of factors and market trends to determine its member ticket pricing strategy, which includes historical data, demand and team performance,” MLSE senior vice-president of communications Dave Haggith said in a statement. “On occasion, as part of the pricing analysis, some individual sections that make up the venue pricing map are identified to be underpriced relative to market value and corrections can occur.
“Season seat membership provides a number of valuable benefits for ticket holders, including a significant discount on single-game ticket pricing, which has contributed to a historical team renewal average of 99 percent, among the highest in the league.”
Some fans who spoke to The Athletic, however, indicated they were contemplating giving up their tickets, as it has become increasingly difficult to resell games they aren’t able to attend for their face value.
Other long-time season ticket holders said they would keep their tickets thanks to finding ways to have them supported by corporate buyers, but expressed frustration with the direction the organization has continued to go with pricing, with some dealing with roughly 9 percent price increases for many years in a row.
“I grew up in a family that always had Leafs season tickets, and it was such a cool thing and an affordable thing to own and manage,” said Mike Clelland, whose family has passed down two season tickets beginning with his grandparents at Maple Leaf Gardens. “Over the years, it has eroded through constant pricing increases that those feelings are long gone.
“While I still am able to make it work with the right people in my life (to buy the tickets), I could easily see a situation where a change would lead to a crossroads of not being able to continue owning tickets. The cost is enormous. … It’s disappointing that the tickets seem aimed more at corporations and business (clients) versus passionate fans.”
Others expressed similar frustrations publicly on social media, connecting the price increases to the declining atmosphere in the rink.
You realize partly why Scotiabank Arena is not the loudest rink in the NHL when you see the Leaf playoff tkt prices & the cost for regular season tkts for next season. Slowly but surely MLSE is driving the real fans, who love cheering on the team,out of the rink. #Leafs #LTL1917
— LadiesTalkinLeafs (@LTL1917) March 13, 2025
Several of the ticket holders who contacted The Athletic over the past few days said the fan experience in the arena was significantly worse than other markets, calling the in-arena entertainment “stale” and the crowd “bland” due to “real fans not being in the building.”
Those who had owned tickets going back to before the move to Scotiabank Arena in 1999 said the crowds were significantly worse than those at Maple Leaf Gardens.
While the Leafs continue average more than 18,800 fans per game this season, the franchise’s sellout streak ended in 2015 and there have been lower attendance figures at some games since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the league in 2020.
The Leafs currently have more than 12,000 people on a waitlist for season tickets.
(Photo of Scotiabank Arena before the 2024 playoffs: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
