The preseason game between the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers at Winnipeg’s IG Field on Aug. 22 is not making many fans north of the border.
It isn’t the teams that have some Canadian fans upset. The outlandish ticket prices for the game at the 33,000-seat venue are the problem.
Globalnews.ca reports the price for an upper-deck seat, at about the 20-yard line, is $192 with all taxes and fees. By comparison, fan Greg Payonk’s two Winnipeg Bombers season tickets cost $359 each for 11 CFL games (one potential playoff game, nine regular-season games and one pre-season game), which works out to $32 per game.
The seat map on Ticketmaster.ca shows plenty of availability. Click here to see.
Payonk did not bite during an exclusive three-day ticket window for Blue Bombers season ticketholders.
“I thought, pre-season. So you’re going to see a little bit of the quarterback, a little bit of the players, but mostly it’s going to be the rookies that are trying out,” Payonk said.
When asked if prices could be cut if a lot of tickets remain unsold closer to the game, promoter John Graham said: “It’s not in the plans. Those are the prices.”
Payonk, who has been to a few NFL games, wishes the cost had been closer to CFL prices.
“Maybe a little bit more because (the teams) are traveling, but certainly not two or three or four times or more what my seat was worth,” he said. “Had we never been to an NFL game, it may have been a different decision.”
