Planning Jets trip to Music City? You’ll be left singing the blues

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This article was published 23/04/2018 (2762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you thought that you might head down to Nashville to see your Jets take on the Predators and do some sightseeing, forget it.

The city with a TV series named after it and that’s home to the Grand Ole Opry doesn’t want throngs of Winnipeg Jets fans inside their Bridgestone Arena cheering on the opposing team.

After advancing to Round 2 of the NHL Western Conference playoffs, the Nashville Predators have imposed a “restricted sales area” for ticket sales.

“To better serve Nashville Predators fans, a restricted sales area has been implemented for this Nashville Predators game at the Bridgestone Arena,” the team said on its Predators-Ticketmaster Verified Fan web page. It’s intended to keep bots from buying up tickets during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs — and to prevent pesky opposing-team fans from showing up and stealing the home team’s thunder.

“Sales will be restricted to residents of the Nashville Predators television viewing area — Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia,” the Predators site said. “Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside the viewing area will be cancelled without notice and refunds given.”

Winnipeg Jets fan Riley Smith, who braved a snowstorm to see the Jets play the Wild in Minnesota, would have liked to have seen the Jets in Nashville — “I wish,” said Smith, who was aware of the Predators’ restricted ticket sales.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” he said of the policy. “They’re not the only ones… Tampa Bay did it.”

In an effort to keep fans of visiting teams out of their arena, the Tampa Bay Lightning restricted the sale of NHL playoff tickets to buyers whose credit card is tied to an address in the state of Florida.

The policy of restricting playoff ticket sales to Florida residents did more than create a home turf advantage — it put the media spotlight on a Florida city zealously backing a pro sports team. In a state with a transient population, Florida teams have been known for having lukewarm fan bases and TV blackouts, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported at the time.

“They realize with a Canadian team or a northern team with a passionate fan base, they don’t have as big and passionate a fan base,” Smith said in Winnipeg.

“People are going to sell their tickets to the people coming in (to see the visiting team),” he said. “In Nashville, it’s a little different.”

The Predators made it to the Stanley Cup final last season.

“They do have a passionate fan base,” said Smith, who understands the Tennessean hockey team wanting the solid cheering section wearing Predators jerseys.

“I get it — they want it to be all yellow,” Smith said. “We wouldn’t want Bell MTS Place filled with Nashville fans.”

Winnipeg’s True North Sports + Entertainment says it has taken measures to restrict individual tickets sales to the Jets’ broadcast area by offering a pre-sale opportunity to Winnipeg Jets mail subscribers and those who sign up for Jets Mail atnhl.com/jets/fans/jets-mail.

“Furthermore, we have been and will continue to implement mobile entry for individual tickets purchased on Ticketmaster for games at Bell MTS Place,” True North Sports + Entertainment said in a statement Monday.

“This should help ensure that tickets will be purchased by those in our broadcast area.”

Dates and times for the series have yet to be announced, but it’s expected to begin Thursday in Tennessee.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca