Nashville Predators won't allow people outside of region to buy playoff tickets

Winnipeg Jets fans will have to be creative if they want to fly down to Nashville to see a playoff game,thanks to a locals-only Ticketmaster policy.

The team has restricted ticketsales from outside their area.

In a statement on the Predators' dedicated Ticketmaster portal, they say "sales will be restricted to residents of the Nashville Predators television viewing area Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia."

The restriction only affectsthe 100 upper level seats the team puts out for each playoff game.

It does not include third-party sellers, which have several tickets for sale. Monday afternoon people could buy a ticket from one of these sites for under$200.

On the Predators' website, the team says the goal isn't to keep fans from buying, but to protect the tickets against bots.

Anyone who buys tickets with a credit card billing address outside the viewing area will get an automatic refund, with no notice the tickets are cancelled.

"Our top priorities are our season-ticket holders and sponsors," said Kevin Wilson, director of communications for the Predators.

"The extremely limited inventory we have after those groups are taken care of are sold through the Ticketmaster Verified Fan to better serve Nashville Predators fans in our viewing area and keep them out of the hands of scalpers."

Winnipeg Jets spokesperson Rob Wozny said the Jets took a slightly different tack to restrict ticket sales outside the broadcast area, by offering pre-sales to Winnipeg Jets email subscribers.

"Furthermore, we have been and will continue to implement mobile entry for individual tickets purchased on Ticketmaster for games at Bell MTS Place. This should help ensure that tickets will be purchased by those in our broadcast area," Wozny said in an email.

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