For the first time in a long time, Sabres playoff tickets to go on sale
As the Buffalo Sabres close in on breaking a 14-year postseason drought, the team will be sending out information about playoff ticket sales for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to season ticket holders on Monday morning.
It has been a long time since the Buffalo Sabres rolled out playoff ticket sales.
But that will happen this week as Buffalo closes in on breaking a 14-year postseason drought, and the team believes those tickets will be gobbled up quickly by what has, again, become an enthusiastic fanbase.
The Sabres will send out information about playoff ticket sales for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to season ticket holders on Monday morning. At that point, season ticket holders will be able to begin opting in to purchase seats.
They are also giving fans a final chance to purchase 2026-27 season tickets and receive early access to playoff tickets.
Buffalo Sabres season ticket holders will soon have a chance to buy first-round playoff tickets. The team has not played a postseason game since 2011.
Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
Full- and half-season ticket holders and corporate partners will have guaranteed access to playoff seats and will get first dibs at those tickets. Season ticket holders will be able to purchase their seats and up to two additional tickets per account for each home playoff game.
Next up will be any partial-plan ticket holders for the Sabres, but they are not guaranteed playoff seats.
Any remaining inventory will go on sale to the general public on a date to be determined. That will take at least a few weeks.
But the Sabres don’t believe much will be left for the first round by that time.
“We expect any tickets that get released to the general public will be extremely limited, just based on the unprecedented demand for tickets, at this point,” said Jake Vernon, chief commercial officer for the Sabres.
“The only way to have guaranteed access to playoff tickets is through a season ticket membership,” he added.
The season ticket base is relatively small, at approximately 9,000 for the 19,070-seat KeyBank Center. But an additional 1,500-plus season tickets have been sold for next season, and those fans will also have early access to postseason tickets.
That number continues to climb as the Sabres begin offering early playoff ticket access to these fans, ahead of general public sales.
Regular-season tickets have been selling at a feverish pace. The last 11 home games have been sold out, and the Sabres have had a packed house for 17 games this season at KeyBank Center.
“The whole regular season has given us a sneak peek into what that demand is going to look like,” Vernon said. “We see single game tickets moving at an aggressive clip, and that will only carry through for the playoffs.”
Ticket prices will increase from the regular season to the playoffs, based on the average cost for playoff tickets across the league, Vernon said.
The price for an average season ticket holder will be less than $100 per game in the first round of the playoffs. The team is still working out how it will price tickets for the general public, Vernon said.
Even though the Sabres have not officially clinched a playoff spot, this is a necessary step the team needed to take as part of the timeline for teams on the verge of making the postseason. Heading into Sunday's game in Anaheim, Calif., the Sabres are in first place in the Atlantic Division and 10 points clear of the final Eastern Conference postseason spot with 12 games remaining. The playoffs will start on April 18.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we want to make sure we’re prepared because it would be a big moment, particularly for our season ticket members,” said Pete Guelli, president of business operations for the Sabres.
“Many of our fans have been doing this for a number of years, and they finally have this opportunity, and we want to make sure season ticket members benefit from it, first,” he added.
Playoff ticket priority has been a selling point for the team in acquiring season ticket members for next season. It has also been built on the success the Sabres have enjoyed in the regular season, including a remarkable stretch of going 32-6-2 over the past 40 games. A generation of Sabres fans has not experienced the Sabres making a deep push into the playoffs, and older fans have been yearning for this moment for 15 years.
“That type of buzz in the marketplace is helping,” Vernon said. “Nothing has been decided, but the way the team has played has put us in a position, now, to be preparing for home playoff games. The fanbase throughout this season has been incredible and, obviously, that excitement and energy the town feels is awesome.”
The playoffs will also bring additional fan activations and activities, and that could include bringing back the popular postseason Party in the Plaza outside KeyBank Center.
However, the team has not committed to any specific plans and said it will announce that type of information when the time is appropriate.