In an atmosphere that could rival any Game 7, the United States and Canada are set for a rematch to crown the winner of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday.
The championship game — scheduled for 8 p.m. ET at TD Garden in Boston — will conclude the four-nation, best-on-best tournament the NHL is staging this year in lieu of its All-Star Game. With the finalists determined after Canada beat Finland 5-3 on Monday and the U.S. secured its spot with a 3-1 win over Canada on Saturday, there is plenty of hype, both among star players and eager fans, heading into the battle between the North American foes.
That buildup has only skyrocketed the demand for snagging one of TD Garden’s 17,850 seats in the days ahead of the final.
Ticket prices for the finale have climbed substantially throughout the tournament, two ticket resellers said Tuesday. That’s after the Saturday game between the U.S. and Canada featured pregame boos as the U.S. national anthem played at Bell Centre in Montreal, followed by three on-ice fights in the first nine seconds of action.
According to one of the resellers, TickPick, the cheapest single ticket available on the site before the tournament began on Feb. 12 was $237 (listed at the all-in price, meaning without added fees). That cheapest single ticket price jumped to $1,222 as of Tuesday afternoon — a 415 percent increase. For comparison, that price was only slightly less than the cheapest single ticket on the site for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise, Fla., two days before puck drop, listed at $1,235, per TickPick.
Additionally, the upcoming 4 Nations final would also rank in the top 10 most expensive NHL games on record for TickPick based on average purchase price, with those records dating back to 2011, the company said.
As of Tuesday evening, the cheapest single tickets were listed at $1,043 (without fees) on TickPick, $791 ($1,071 with fees) on StubHub, and $945 ($1,129 with fees) on Ticketmaster.
According to StubHub, the average price of tickets sold on their site has also seen a significant jump — from $464 for the first USA-Canada game to $766 for the championship, as of Tuesday evening. The average price of tickets on StubHub for the full tournament is as follows:
- Championship — USA vs. Canada (Feb. 20 in Boston): $766
- USA vs. Canada (Feb. 15 in Montreal): $464
- Sweden vs. USA (Feb. 17 in Boston): $293
- Canada vs. Finland (Feb. 17 in Boston): $200
- Canada vs. Sweden (Feb. 12 in Montreal): $195
- Finland vs. Sweden (Feb. 15 in Montreal): $102
- USA vs. Finland (Feb. 13 in Montreal): $96
The company also noted that the 4 Nations championship is its best-selling NHL game of the season so far, outselling two games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers: Game 2 in Sunrise, Fla. by 22 percent and Game 3 in Edmonton by 16 percent. It’s also outselling the prior two games in the 4 Nations tournament (Sweden-USA and Canada-Finland) combined, by nearly 50 percent, according to StubHub, which did not provide specific sales figures.
“All eyes are on the USA-Canada showdown in the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship, a game that’s predicted to be emotional, heated and exciting,” Adam Budelli, a spokesperson for StubHub said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Fans from both countries are vying for a seat in TD Arena — it’s the best-selling NHL game of the season and has surpassed sales for the reigning NBA Champion Celtics home opener against the Knicks by nearly 50 percent.”
StubHub also said its ticket buyers for the 4 Nations final are coming from 28 countries, with a majority (66 percent) coming from the United States and 32 percent coming from Canada.
Not only is ticketing demand looking strong, but viewership for the tournament has outpaced expectations. The opening Canada-Sweden game had a North American audience of 4.1 million while the U.S. versus Finland matchup delivered a North American audience of 3.4 million — more than double the total viewership the league anticipated before the tournament, league sources told The Athletic’s Chris Johnston.
Then came the highly charged USA-Canada game Saturday, which averaged a whopping 4.4 million viewers, with viewership peaking at 5.2 million, per ESPN. It was the most-watched NHL game in the U.S. since Game 7 of last season’s Stanley Cup Final, which drew 7.67 million viewers.
The USA-Canada encore in the 4 Nations final will air in prime time on ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, Disney+, SN and TVAS.
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(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
