By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Tickets for all three Buffalo Sabres Eastern conference playoff finals sold out in just 12 minutes Wednesday morning.
Tickets went on sale at 9:00am. Director of Public Relations Michael Gilbert had encouraged fans not to come down to HSBC Arena and instead buy online. But about 50 Sabres fans still waited outside the Arena in downtown Buffalo. Some even camped out in the overnight hours, and all walked away with tickets.
Gilbert says they knew it would be a very quick sell because of the limited number of tickets. They started with about 4,000 tickets this week, but by Wednesday only 2,000 tickets where available to the general public for purchase.
"Season ticket holders had the ability to purchase additional tickets," Gilbert said. "We sold more season tickets (for next year) on Monday and Tuesday. After tallying that up, the number (of available tickets) was lower."
Fans were only allowed to buy up to four tickets at a time. But that didn't stop some fans from getting back in line. WBFO'S Eileen Buckley talked with Mark Lewis of Hamburg after he jumped back in line at the Arena box office.
"The only thing that was available were single seats," Lewis said. "They are gone!"
And fans were willing to pay a high price. Many fans spent $800 this morning just to make sure they had their playoff tickets in hand.