Arena takeover in progress against Leafs after players complained!

The Buffalo Sabres are trying something new after their own players complained that too many fans of the opposite teams, especially of the Toronto Maple Leafs, attended their games and purchased most of the tickets. The Buffalo News reports that the “6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs on Feb. 21 seems like it was a tipping point in the eyes of Sabres officials, both on the hockey and business sides.”

“Obviously last year, there were a handful of games where we saw the wrong color blue or the wrong color red coming into the building, depending on the jersey we were wearing,” Frank Batres-Landaeta, the team’s vice president of sales and service, told The Buffalo News. “It’s something that we’ve been talking about and discussing and trying to figure out: How do we get tickets in the hands of Buffalo fans?”

Therefore, the Sabres are undergoing an arena takeover and will provide fans with a hometown advantage and limit the presale for games, likely by ZIP code, in an attempt to cut down the number of visiting-team fans in the building.

Per the Toronto Star, the response from the Maple Leafs’ fanbase is almost bemusement.

“The Buffalo Sabres are going to try to do this? Good luck to them,” said author and podcaster Mike Wilson, once proclaimed the “Ultimate Leafs Fan”by ESPN. “It’s not going to keep Leaf fans away; it never will. You just can’t keep them away. It won’t stop them at all.”

Even one of Buffalo-based owner of ticket reseller VIP Tix does not believe it will stop Maple Leafs’ fans from attending the games in Buffalo.

“It’s not going to work,” said Nick Giammusso. “Season-ticket holders are used to selling their tickets to fans from southern Ontario. It’s a big payday. It ends up helping them pay their season-ticket bill to the Sabres.”

The Sabres, who last made the playoffs in 2011, are looking to become a true contender for the Stanley Cup and are clearly looking at all solutions possible to get there.

Including limiting the “wrong color blue” in their stands.

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