TORONTO – Ryan Van Horne has had season tickets for the Toronto Raptors for 12 years but for the primary time, he’s considering ending his streak.
That’s because Ontario laws that got here into effect last month capped the value of resale tickets at face value, plus the price of some taxes and repair fees.
The move makes it harder for seat holders, like Van Horne and a pal he shares his subscription with, to offset their costs by selling tickets to games they’ll’t attend.
“I’ve told my friend I don’t know if I’ll proceed with it,” said Van Horne, who pays his share of just about $5,000 a 12 months for 2 aisle seats within the eighth row of Scotiabank Arena’s 300 level.
“Not that this was a for-profit thing, however the break-even makes absolutely no sense to me now.”
Van Horne’s dilemma offers a window into the complications fans and a few of Canada’s most lucrative sporting franchises face as recent laws reshapes the playing field for ticket resales.
Up until recently, season seat holders have been capable of off-load tickets for any price the market can pay. While some turned that flexibility into full-out businesses, profiting off their ability to snag seats to the most popular matches after which flip them for even extra cash, many say they subscribed purely for his or her love of the sport. They are saying they resell tickets only due to how demanding a team’s game schedule will be and the way expensive seats have develop into.
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“Whether it’s the time or money, or each, they’ll’t afford to go to all these games,” said Paul Beirne, a sports business consultant who has held senior positions at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and was once president of the Canadian Premier League.
Baseball seasons, for instance, now stretch beyond 160 games, so it’s comprehensible that the typical person often can’t make it to the 80 or so hosted at home.
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Others bought their season seats years ago, but the value has grown so steeply that the one way they’ll afford to proceed is by selling among the tickets.
Some tickets sell below face value, but anything over the unique price helps chip away at resale service fees and covers among the subscription.
The brand new cap will force season seat holders to let their tickets go for not more than face value or consider riskier, unprotected sales on social media platforms or outside venues.
Asked in regards to the predicament, a spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Stephen Crawford said in an email that the province is making it “easier and cheaper for families to attend concert events, cultural events and sporting events.”
Giulia Paikin also said the brand new laws applies “equally” to all resale platforms. The province is running a public consultation on the policy until May 10.
Sho Kalache, a season ticket holder with the Toronto Tempo women’s basketball team, felt the brunt of the laws almost immediately.
When a friend offered Kalache access to her box for a game and work commitments cropped up conflicting with others, she listed her seats for some matches. They were taken down days before the team’s inaugural game, when the platform she listed them on removed seats on an interim basis to bring their systems into compliance with the brand new laws.
“I wasn’t attempting to earn money. I just wanted to interrupt even on those that I can’t go to,” Kalache said.
She’s resorting to gifting away tickets through her wife’s real estate business but isn’t pleased with that alternative since it’s time consuming and she will be able to’t guarantee they’ll go to a fan.
“It’s somewhat frustrating because the convenience of off-loading tickets is gone,” Kalache said.
Many leagues and platforms are still figuring out the way to allow season seat holders to post tickets while complying with the laws.
Raptors, Leafs and Toronto FC owner MLSE and the Toronto Blue Jays said last week that they’re working with the federal government and may have an update soon.
Beirne called the laws “a blunt force” that can “penalize normal behaviour.”
“They decide to charge more for some games and charge less for other games because that’s the character. Some games are more attractive than others,” he said.
“But should you cap every part the identical, you risk making season tickets less flexible, less attractive, and that ultimately hurts the teams and the fans.”
Van Horne, who not only renewed his Raptors seats but in addition bought a season of tickets to the Tempo before the laws was mentioned by the federal government, worked out that his Raptors seats cost him about $100 per game.
Typically, he and his friend each laid claim to the games they wanted after which offered the rest to family and friends to “get well my costs and somewhat more.”
Attending all of them is unthinkable. He lives outside town now and has family obligations.
“Unless people have a very good network, a bunch of half a dozen friends and so they’re splitting this all … they could be asking themselves, is all this extra burden now price it?” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press