The line of fans trying to buy tickets to the final day of the Polar Bear Plate midget/junior 'C' championship stretches out the doors of the arena and all the way to Simon Alaittuq School in Rankin on Feb. 7. - photo courtesy of Noel Kaludjak |
Fans fleeced in Rankin
Frustrated fans pay up to $100 for passes to Polar Bear Plate
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
RANKIN INLET
Enforcing a capacity of 503 people at the arena got off to a bit of a rocky start in Rankin Inlet earlier this month.
Lineups for tickets to the Polar Bear Plate (PBP) midget/junior 'C' hockey championships were long on Feb. 6 and almost unbelievable on Feb. 7.
Playoff Sunday saw the lineup stretch across the parking lot, reaching all the way to Simon Alaittuq School.
Hundreds of fans on both mornings stood in the line for about 90 minutes, only to leave disappointed when the words "sold out" ended the chatter of those still hoping to make it to the ticket table.
The enforcement also saw the practice of scalping tickets come to Rankin, with reports during the weekend of scalpers getting as much as $50 and more for the $5 tickets.
Kyle Tattuinee was trying to secure passes for his family and walked away both mornings empty handed.
Tattuinee said if the rule had been enforced years ago, the community wouldn't have had the mess it witnessed during the PBP weekend.
He said the hamlet and other groups that sponsor hockey tournaments need to figure out a better way to ensure everyone has a fair chance at landing tickets.
"The tickets were supposed to go on sale at 11 a.m. but I underestimated the number of people trying to get a pass on Saturday and didn't go to the arena until about 11:30 a.m.," said Tattuinee.
"The passes were gone within five minutes, so I made a point of going a lot earlier on Sunday.
"I got to the arena at 10:20 Sunday morning and found myself outside the door with about 110 people or so ahead of me in the line.
"There were still more than 20 people ahead of me when they announced all the passes were sold."
Tattuinee said his immediate family was fortunate because a couple of family members allowed them to borrow their passes to see a game or two at least.
He said with so many people wanting to see the games, but unable to get passes, it was only a matter of time before scalping began.
"There were a lot of passes scalped on the weekend.
"I heard of some selling for as high as $100, but, as disappointed as my family was, I wasn't going to pay a hundred bucks for a pass."
Tattuinee said the Sunday lineup still reached outside the building when the final ticket was sold.
He said there were at least 50 vehicles parked outside the arena when he arrived at 10:20 a.m.
"As mad as I was over not getting tickets, I still had to look at the other side of the coin during all this.
"Safety should come first, especially if there's going to be little kids at an event.
"But, you can't help but wonder why they'd start to enforce it now when they didn't the first 20 years or whatever the arena was open.
"It was a lose-lose situation for the fans, but a win for the safety aspect I guess."
Rankin recreation co-ordinator David Clark said he received a number of calls from angry fans who couldn't get a pass during the weekend.
He said despite that, things went as smoothly as he could have expected.
"We had to hire two extra guys for security doing it this way, so they could monitor the halls and both the front and back doors," said Clark.
"The biggest hurdle, and we learned a lot from it the first time, was the actual selling of the passes.
"There were things we did wrong, and there are things we can definitely improve upon, like selling the passes at a certain time and dealing with the lineups better, but it was a good first crack.
"We tried to do our best and, for the most part, it went pretty good."
Clark said it was unfortunate so many people stood in line only to leave without a day pass.
He said each person was allowed to purchase up to five passes so entire families wouldn't have to stand in the line to get passes for everyone.
"Some people were upset we were selling them that way, but, if you're buying for your family, why should you have to bring all your kids to stand in the line?
"We trusted people to buy passes for their families but, if they sold them, there's not a lot I can do about it.
"I was disappointed to hear about the people taking advantage of the situation and scalping passes.
"We sell the tickets at a reasonable price so everyone can see the games, but the hockey's good enough that people are going to buy any pass that becomes available in this community."
Clark said there were just as many people doing the right thing, and sharing their passes during the day, as there were scalping the passes.
He said the group running the Avataq Cup in March kept a close eye on how things went with the passes during the PBP.
"I'm looking at possibly getting a scanning system similar to what they use at junior games in the south.
"We're going to sell the passes game-by-game during the junior 'C' Challenge Cup at the end of this month, so we'll see how it goes then."
