Five days ago,
Rick Westhead of The Toronto Star broke news about a scandal within the Maple Leafs' parent company Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Citing "ticket irregularities," a senior executive resigned and five other employees were fired. Today,
Westhead defines those "irregularities" as MLSE employees allegedly pocketing money from the resale of personal seat licenses that cost as much as $30,000:
When the Air Canada Centre opened in 1999, MLSE charged $15,000 for personal-seat licenses for 1,500 platinum-level seats (along with a $2,500 annual fee). Buyers got the first chance to buy tickets to concerts; reserve seats at special restaurants; access a business centre at the Air Canada Centre, private washrooms and a coat check; and also the right to resell their licenses.
Yet within two years, MLSE executives realized they had missed an opportunity to make millions of dollars more by selling PSLs for other sections of the arena. They offered season-ticket holders in lower-priced sections a chance to buy PSLs for their season tickets, which in some cases had been in families for several generations but which were becoming harder to transfer. "MLSE had become very strict about the transfer of tickets," said a former MLSE executive. "It used to be that you only had to say you wanted to transfer seats to your cousin, and it wasn't a problem. But now the company's attitude is you have to prove you're a direct blood relative with a birth certificate."
How big can this scandal get? Both the police and the NHL Players Association would like to know the answer to that, too.
