NC gives Ticketmaster deadline to answer for Caniacs' Stanley Cup Final ticket queue problems

Days after fans said they struggled to get tickets for the Carolina Hurricanes' first appearance in a Stanley Cup Final since 2006, the North Carolina Attorney General's Office now wants answers from Ticketmaster.

According to a release from the State Attorney General's Office on Thursday, several season ticket holders filed complaints to their office, with claims that technical issues with Ticketmaster's online queue system prevented them from being able to buy tickets to the Stanley Cup Final games at Lenovo Center.

"Season ticket holders did everything right. They had the codes, they showed up on time, and the system left them in line for hours and without tickets," the State Attorney General's Office said.

The attorney general's office said some fans, who were on the website as soon as the sale window opened for season ticket holders, experienced technical errors that pushed them to the back of the queue system. Some reportedly waited in line for hours, only to find resale tickets available when they reached the front.

Some fans told WRAL News on Saturday that most resale tickets they saw were starting around $1,000.

The State Attorney General's Office sent the following questions to Ticketmaster on Thursday, adding that the company has a week to respond:

• How many reports of techinical failures did it receive during the Hurricanes presale?
• What did it do to investigate those failures, and what did it find?
• Whether it compensated any affected season ticket holders?
• How many season ticket holders were eligible to buy, how many tickets were available, and how many actually went to season ticket holders?
• Why many season ticket holders couldn't by primary-market tickets?
• How does it monitor the sale for bots, and what it did when it suspected them?

WRAL reached out to Ticketmaster on Sunday on how ticket prices are set, if bots were detected during the Canes' sale and what the process behind "verified resale" looks like.

The massive ticket marketplace company deferred us back to the Carolina Hurricanes' team management regarding ticket prices, and provided the following response:

"The verified resale tickets you see on our site are listed and priced by individuals. We authenticate every listing on our site so fans know they’re getting a real ticket.  Other resale sites often allow speculative listings where sellers don’t actually possess the tickets they’re selling. We believe this practice should be banned because it is fundamentally misleading to consumers.

Carolina Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork told WRAL on Sunday the team sets a limit of four tickets per purchaser for each game, "and diligently monitor the sales process to ensure that tickets are securely purchased by fans."

Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky told WRAL on Monday that demand is high for the Canes first appearance in the Cup final in 20 years.

"There's a lot of demand right now, and it's part of how the business works," he said. "When people all want to come to games, the games get more expensive. When nobody was in the building, you could get in for $5 or $10 bucks. That's not how it is now. I think we still have very competitive prices compared to most teams. We have an affordable market, comparatively. But when you get to the Final, there's a lot of people that want to come to games and that's just how the market works." 

The North Carolina Attorney General's Office said fans who had problems buying Stanley Cup Final tickets can file a complaint on their website. They also issued a scam alert warning fans to be careful with resale scams that leave people out thousands of dollars and no legitimate tickets to the game.

WRAL reporters Eric Miller and Bailey Stamos contributed to this story.