Blues fans from Illinois and Missouri can’t buy tickets to game three against the Dallas Stars

If you were planning on taking a quick trip to Dallas, Texas to support your St. Louis Blues in the playoffs, you may want someone with a Texas billing address to buy your tickets. Why? People outside of the Dallas Stars viewing area are being blocked from purchasing tickets to the game.

The Stars aren’t the first NHL team to do this. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights, Boston Bruins, and other teams have done regionally-specific ticket purchasing in the past. Even the Blues, who couldn’t block purchasing by state for the Blackhawks, got into the act with some fancy ticket package requirements six years ago.

If you live in one of the following states and are a Blues fan, you might be called on to help a fellow fan out: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

These policies, while keeping a flood of opposition fans out, limit ticket sales and make life harder for out of town fans of the home team. What if someone wanted to travel from outside the five states selected by the Stars to see the game, and they’re a Stars fan? Do you tell them no, you can’t come? You’re limiting ticket purchases to a game because you’re concerned probably 100 people at most in the arena are going to be cheering against your team and potentially may be on TV?

Dallas is a little bit of a transplant town, sure, but I don’t think that they run the risk of having out of town fans overwhelm their own on TV. Just sell the seats, make the money, and let the Blues fans buy your beer and food before they go off to pay the hotel tax at their hotel.