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Tampa Bay Lightning Ticket Policies: Getting To The Truth Of The Matter

By Tasha St. Pierre

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The Tampa Bay Lightning’s ticket policies for the post season have opposing team’s fans in an uproar, but can we all separate the facts from the fiction?

When the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that there would be certain stipulations in place during the post season that would tighten the reins on who would be able to purchase tickets to the Lightning’s home games at Amalie Arena and what they would be able to wear once inside, the internet seemed to break.

Each time the Tampa Bay Lightning would advance to another round, the fans of the next team  on the list would make it seem as if these policies are a personal vendetta against them and how we here in the Bolts Nation are apparently “scared” of the opposing team’s fans taking over the arena.

Unfortunately, this is only half their fault. The other half of the responsibility for this lies in the hands of the multiple media outlets who are choosing to report only the facts they feel will get them headlines and not the fact that there are plenty of ways for opposing teams’ fans to get what they desire.

Earlier today, things escalated to a whole new level as the Tampa Bay Lightning prepare to take the ice against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Blackhawks fans have crossed a line that should never be crossed by likening the Tampa Bay Lightning to Nazi Germany and even defacing the Lightning logo to look like a swastika made out of lightning bolts.

Before things get any worse, which we can’t imagine how things could get much worse than being referred to as a regime that brought about the holocaust, let’s take a look at some of the facts so that we can erase the fiction from our memory.

People are saying that the Tampa Bay Lightning are preventing fans from anywhere outside the Sunshine State from purchasing tickets for any of the Lightning home games at the Amalie Arena. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you are attempting to purchase your tickets from Ticketmaster, then you are correct…you cannot purchase tickets to a Lightning post season home game if the address associated with the purchasing credit card has an address outside of the State of Florida. At the same time, it’s not like the Lightning is being shady about the policy. It is one of the first things you see when you visit the ticketing site, right there in black and white.

The next question that comes to mind is whether or not any of the people who are so disenfranchised by this policy ever searched for an alternate method of purchasing said tickets? It is a little known fact that even if you are an out-of-state fan, or even the fan of an opposing team, that you are more than free to contact the Tampa Bay Lightning Box Office directly and they will hook you up straight away.

As you can tell, there were been plenty of Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, and even New York Rangers fans inside the Amalie Arena cheering their hearts out for their team. Heck, one of the Detroit Red Wings fans even tried to burn the place down. Thankfully, their plan didn’t get very far, but still.

This brings us to the Chicago Blackhawks fans. Unfortunately, even if the ticket policies set forth from the team would have prevented you from purchasing tickets to the home games because you live in Chicago here is something you seem to fail to realize…the tickets to these games were already sold out before you even knew you were going to the Finals.

The tickets went on sale to the General Public 7 hours before the puck dropped in Game 7 the Western Conference Finals. We don’t know about you, but we don’t know many people who buy tickets to a game prior to knowing whether or not they are in the finals, which really makes all of this a moot point.

At the end of the day, we can understand why fans of the Chicago Blackhawks are frustrated. If we, as Tampa Bay Lightning fans, decided to travel all the way to Chicago to witness the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals and we were unable to buy tickets we would be disappointed as well. Just make sure that you are mad for the right reasons and not ones that really don’t apply anyway.

There is some good news for Chicago Blackhawks fans. There are still plenty of legitimate ways you can go about acquiring a ticket to the game should you still desire to do so.

Not only are there plenty of tickets available for resale in Ticketmaster’s Ticket Exchange program, but there are always secondary markets like eBay, StubHub, Craigslist, and many other methods not managed by Ticketmaster or the Lightning organization. Yes, you are going to pay a little more for the privilege, but getting the opportunity to see your team play for the Stanley Cup is pretty priceless, is it not?

When all is said and done, it would be incredibly disappointing if an amazing matchup like this one were to be overshadowed by some petty dispute like this one that has led to all sorts of unnecessary drama and name calling.

How about we shift our focus to something more important like how amazing the Stanley Cup Finals are going to be as the best of the East and the best of the West battle it out for Lord Stanley’s Cup?

Next: BBTB Round Table: Highs and Lows of the Eastern Conference Finals

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