Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the Buffalo Sabres enjoy their best stretch of hockey in franchise history, more fans are looking for tickets for upcoming games. But it looks like you'll be paying a pretty penny, especially come playoff time.
There's very high demand especially for Saturday's game between the Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs, according to Nick Giammusso from VIPTIX.
"It's a Saturday night. They're playing against our rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. And you know demand's coming from both sides," said Giammusso in an interview with WBEN. "You know it's coming from Toronto fans, and it's coming from the Sabres now that they've been performing so well on the ice."
In fact, Giammusso says ticket prices are $125 and up for 300 level seats and lower level seats, with the premium lower seats closer to $300.
Could Leafs fans be selling tickets to Sabre fans at a high price? Giammusso says it's unlikely.
"It could be a first, but a lot of the Toronto fans don't have season tickets," he noted. "In days a few years ago, 10-or-more years ago, there were a lot of Southern Ontario Sabres Season Ticket holders, and there's not as many these days. But hopefully there will be more Toronto fans that will have Season Tickets, and that will be true."
Demand for Sabres tickets has been night and day from years past, says Giammusso.
"Buffalo fans are excited. It's a remarkable turnaround, as far as tickets go," he said. "You're used to seeing $5-to-$10 seats on game days, and now it's more like $75 per-ticket to sit in the 300 level, just to get in to KeyBank Center."
At this time, it's hard for Giammusso to gauge prices for playoff tickets.
"We're not sure on the availability, and we're not sure what prices are going to be, as the Buffalo Sabres are going to set that based on demand," Giammusso explained. "We know that there's huge demand for this team and for the playoffs. It's the fans are excited around here, and we can only expect that only tells us that prices are going to be up there for playoff hockey."
His guess for first-round tickets will start at around $125 each.