The Buffalo Sabres will start to limit initial ticket sales to keep away fans from taking over their arena.
The change comes after ‘several' Sabres players expressed how ‘embarrassed and disgusted' they were with the amount of away fans invading the building, especially against Toronto.
It's reported that the final straw with the players was watching the amount of hats on the ice for former Sabres captain Ryan O'Reilly's hat trick in Buffalo on February 21st.
Most observers report the crowds of approximately 80% Leafs fans when Toronto comes to town.
Away fans won't be banned completely, but they won't be able to purchase any tickets until after rounds of sales go to solely Buffalo ZIP Code residents. This also does not address the secondary market which dominates sports tickets, such as StubHub
«Official plans have yet to be released, but it's clear where this is targeted: It's about reducing the number of Canadian fans in the building for visits by Toronto and Montreal, the number of Pennsylvania fans in the house when Pittsburgh is here. Same for the number of downstate fans coming to see the New York Rangers, or Michigan fans following the Detroit Red Wings.
«Obviously last year, there were a handful of games where we saw the wrong color blue or the wrong color red coming into the building, depending on the jersey we were wearing,» Frank Batres-Landaeta, the team's vice president of sales and service, told The Buffalo News
«We want to make sure that we're providing that home-ice advantage to our players,» Baetres-Landaeta said.
