Maple Leafs Fans Pay Big for Slim Chance of Stanley Cup Glory

(Bloomberg) -- Toronto Maple Leafs followers have a reputation for being hopeless fanatics. Now there’s data to prove it.

Comparing ticket prices for various teams in the National Hockey League playoffs, which began this week, with the odds of those teams winning the Stanley Cup shows fans in Canada’s biggest city are paying the highest prices for a relative long shot.

According to Chicago-based online ticket seller Vivid Seats, long-suffering Leafs fans are forking out a median price of $475 per ticket for a chance to see their team hoist the Cup for the first time since 1967.

Before Thursday’s Game 1, bookmaker DraftKings put the odds of the “The Laughs” winning ice hockey’s ultimate prize at 18:1, meaning a wager of $1 would win $18 plus the original bet. Those odds narrowed to 13:1 after the Leafs began their playoff run with a 4-1 win in Boston against the Bruins.

“The passion that Canadian fans have for hockey certainly manifests in demand for playoff tickets,” said Stephen Spiewak at Vivid Seats.

A victory by the 102-year-old team would end the longest championship drought in professional hockey.

At the other end of the spectrum, fans in Tampa Bay can pick up tickets for $200 to watch the Lightning play the Columbus Blue Jackets.

A $1 wager on current favorites Tampa Bay would win you $2.60. But where’s the glory in that?

--With assistance from Eben Novy-Williams.

To contact the reporters on this story: David Scanlan in Toronto at dscanlan@bloomberg.net;Cedric Sam in New York at csam6@bloomberg.net;Erik Hertzberg in Ottawa at eschmitzhert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jacqueline Thorpe at jthorpe23@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier, Steven Frank

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