Frequently Asked Questions
The waiting period for Leaf Season Tickets is approximately 20 years and has over 4,000 names on the list. The entire Scotiabank Arena is now licensed for the right to purchase Leaf season tickets, the only legitimate way to get season tickets without using a ticket broker or other “after market” seller is to purchase a Personal Seat License, (PSL) or to have your Uncle Charlie agree to provide you with your Toronto Maple Leaf tickets. However since most of us dont have an Uncle Charlie, purchasing a PSL means you can pick the type of seat you want with your own budget in mind.
Please note the following: We don’t recommend to anyone to use a bank loan or line of credit to purchase a seat license as an investment. You should only purchase a seat license because you or your company has too much cash sitting around and you don’t know what else to do with it.
The number one reason is estate planning, as 40 and 50++ years of being a season ticket holder means you must start planning your estate, and that is the number one reason people sell their rights or license. I have had many people tell me about their kids or grandkids are not interesting in having the rights passed down to them, so best to make a profit and give the profit to their kids either through the estate or give a “living gift now”.
The number two reason? Company cannot make use of the tickets any longer and wish to sell their rights. This is the same as the company cannot afford to give away these expensive tickets.
The number three reason? Cost of the tickets is out of hand for the value I am getting.
While all the above reasons is why companies or people wish to sell their rights, but honestly the number one reason is “estate planning” by far.
A seat license can be under a company name, which means you get to write off the license as an asset over a 3 to 5 year period, (please consult with your CA to confirm) in addition you can write off on the HST portion of the purchase of a seat license. You may also choose as a business to write off the annual season ticket purchase for entertaining or client care purposes.
As an individual sitting on a pile of cash and have no need to invest in other items, such as your own RSP’s, your mortgage is paid off, your kids education funds are taken care of, then yes it’s a possible reasonable investment. It is not recommend that anyone purchase a seat license as a personal investment unless you have taken care of the above mentioned items first.
A long story, but in order to save time over phone conversation this is how Team Licenses got involved. Lange Transportation & Storage (www.langeshow.com) was purchasing season tickets through a long time friend, who owned 4 gold seats at the Scotiabank Arena, and had agreed to paid him $10 over face value for each ticket, and then shared them among a couple other business owners. One day my friend (and a business owner) that owned the season tickets came into the office and explained he wished to sell his seat license as he could use the cash for other purposes. He offered a few days to do some research on the value of the license, and then we purchased the Personal Seat License for $120,000. Then we approached the other business men that I shared the season tickets with and explained that since $120,000 was invested on those season ticket rights, a charge of $30 would be added per ticket. A breakdown of $30 x 4 (the number of tickets per game) x 45 (the number of home games) for a total of $5,400. Note that the invoice cost of the season tickets are approximately $10 below face value, which comes to a more accurate margin of $40 per ticket x 4 x 45 = $7,200 per year on my $120,000 investment. Compared to a bank that was only offering 2% interest on money in the bank, this was a great investment. Please note, the purchase was under a company name and shown as an asset, as well the purchase of the season tickets was shown as a normal business transaction and not entertainment purposes. The sale of the season tickets as a proper recorded credit on the balance sheet as well. The above was not done to avoid, or defer taxes; in fact I had to pay corporate taxes on the profit made on the season tickets which reduces the return on the investment. Then other clients wanted to purchase season tickets, which required Team Licenses to purchase other seat licenses, including Platinum’s,more Gold seats, Air Canada Clubs, Reds, Greens and Purples. Team Licenses had extra cash flow that wasn’t serving other purposes, and that was the start of the ticket exchange service, Lange Ticket Exchange, which many may recognize as www.etorontotickets.com.
When asked to assist someone in selling their license, it is posted on this web site with an initial posting fee of $50. Upon further agreement with the seller there is a fee of at least 5% plus HST from the sale of the seat license. If a license is posted at $50,000 plus HST and sells, then $47,500 plus HST will go to the seller and $2,500 plus HST to Team Licenses/ eTorontoTickets. This is the reason Team Licenses continues to act on behalf of buyers and sellers is there is a charge for our services. On some occasions a seller requires the license sell immediately due to urgent cash flow requirements, and Toronto Maple Leaf Licenses as a company may choose to purchase the seat license outright if the price is right. Please note when you purchase a seat license, MLSE requires that you cannot re-sell them for a one year period. So when Team Licenses purchases a seat license it is understood that the seat license must be held for a one year period.
With numerous requests from season ticket holders asking us to sell their seat license, Team Licenses wants to be sure the seller is truly interested in selling their license. Toronto Maple Leaf Licenses has found by for a very reasonable $50 administration fee, the sellers will truly consider whether or not to sell. Therefore time in posting the license information isn’t wasted. In some cases we also discovered the seller was acting on behalf of other family members and may not have had permission to do so. The $50 is to ensure the seller is really a seller.
Yes, in two ways. If the seat license has already been purchased by the season ticket holder, then the legal dept of MLSE will actually do the seat transfer from the original seat holder to the new buyer. Presently the fee from MLSE is $500 plus 13% HST. We recommend the buyer pay the fee, so that if something is done wrong by MLSE legal dept. than the buyer will have better standing from a legal point if you paid for the service. If the seat license has NOT been paid for by the season ticket holder, then MLSE will require the original seat license will still have to be paid for, remember the example I gave in FAQ number three, when I paid the seat holder $120,000 for his license, in actual fact $80,000 of that went to MLSE to pay for the original seat license, so the original season ticket holder actually took in $40,000 after he paid the $80,000 to MLSE. For all prices quoted for seat licenses, will have assumed the original seat license has been paid. If not, part of the buyer’s money will be made payable to MLSE and part to the original season ticket holder. For those that are fully paid the original license seat holder will get all of the funds.
Remember the seller sets the prices for the sale of the license, but the answer is simple, in fact, I was told this in my grade 9th economics class some 35 years ago and its still true. Supply + demand = Price So if you have lots of supply and little demand it will equal into a low price, if on the other hand you have limited supply and lots of demand the prices go up very quickly. You will notice I have lots of Air Canada Club seats on our website, but not as much demand because of the fact you are required to pay for Leaf season tickets & Raptor season tickets & club fees comes to a much higher overall annual commitment for the club seats. So if you and or your company can handle the annual commitment for the tickets, then you don’t have to pay a lot for the license, which is great value for the buyer. But if you only want the best gold or platinum seats or the very best 1st row greens, or purples, in the centre ice area, there is very limited supply of those and lots of demand, and the prices are much higher for those licenses. Sub-question to question #7., Can I separate the raptor season tickets from the package? NOOOOOOO,, hence why the price of the Air Canada Club licenses are less money to purchase, you are obligated to take the Leaf Season Tickets, the Raptor Season Tickets, and pay for the club fees. You will not under any condition be allowed to separate the two teams from the license and the annual costs related to purchasing the license.
First you will learn quickly that if you let all your circle of friends, family, workmates know that you have access to leafs and or raptor tickets you will normally have a bigger problem, who gets the big games?! But bottom line, if you want to sell your unwanted tickets you can use a service like www.eTorontoTickets.com where you can either sell the tickets outright, or post them on their website at no charge to you.
Yes we do, and to be added to the waiting list send me the following details, Your full name, your daytime phone number and cell number, the type of license your looking for, i.e. your want golds in the centre ice area, or you want anything in the upper bowl, and send the email to management@etorontotickets.com. As new inventory comes in that may meet your expectations we will send it off to you. We promise never to provide your name and information to any other parties for any reason.
I never know when I will get a phone call or email from a season ticket holder or Personal Seat License holder offering to sell their license or rights to their seats. However rule of thumb is a) I get the call when the annual invoice comes out in March each year, asking the owner of the seats to make their payment for their season tickets b) I also get the calls in late August when the actual season tickets come in, and the owner says what am I doing with all these tickets again c) I also get calls during the year, but not as many asking for advice or suggestions about their value of the license, and perhaps looking to sell the license. Bottom line, I dont know when the next available license will come in.
License is good for as long as the ACC is in existence. MLSE will not comment that should the Leafs relocate in 50 years would the license be honoured at the new location, assume that the license will not be honoured, but your get first right of refusal at the new building in 40 or 50 or 60 years… , but no guarantee that will happen. But if you look at the history of when MLSE moved from the Maple Leaf Gardens, season ticket holders were given first option on relocating to the ACC based on the years of holding the season tickets, and where your previous seats were located. So if you were in greys at the Gardens, you got first option on purples at the ACC.
You have a number of choices, a) purchase a pair of tickets for a leaf game, go down early i.e. 1 hour before the game and go and test drive them during the warm up of the event or the worse that will happen is someone is sitting in those seats, then go either one row up or down to see the action and if your going to be happy with those seats. b) you can try to request to see the seats during the daytime while the building is in hockey mode or basketball mode, but unless you see them seats in the sport mode of what your purchasing, it will not be realistic, also many times MLSE staff will not be available so its not the most recommended method to see the seats. But we can try to get in into the building during the day, but again not recommended.
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