The Florida Panthers are restricting tickets to try and keep Toronto Maple Leaf fans out of games that take place in Florida. The team announced in a statement this week that anyone purchasing tickets without a valid U.S. credit card wouldn’t be permitted into the FLA Live Arena, where tickets for the games in Florida went on sale Monday morning at 11 A.M. eastern.

No doubt, Maple Leafs’ fans would have flooded in to purchase tickets. Not only is there a huge support group of fans outside the greater-Toronto area, but this is the first time the franchise has been to the second round of a playoff series in 20 years. It’s not entirely clear if the Panthers are trying to save tickets for their own home fans who might not jump on the website to buy as quickly as Leafs’ fans might, or if the organization simply wants to restrict the amount of support the Maple Leafs have in home games where there’s a risk it might sound more like a home game for Toronto than for Florida.

Either way, the tactic isn’t likely to work all that well.

Anyone buying tickets outside the United States will have their order canceled without notice and a refund given. It sounds harsh, but it’s not completely new territory as the Tampa Bay Lightning have done in the past. For the record, the Vegas Golden Knights are not doing this to Edmonton Oilers fans who will likely try to plan a trip to Vegas while catching Connor McDavid and the Oilers in Round 2.

Obviously, Toronto fans will still find a way to get in. Whether it’s via the resale market or a third-party broker site to purchase tickets, these fans aren’t shy about using their disposable income to support the team or the travel to get behind their organization. Not only that, but savvy Florida residents might purchase tickets with the sole purpose of reselling them to Maple Leafs’ fans at a marked-up price. The more the Panthers try to keep Toronto fans out, the more demand there will be from Toronto fans to get in, thus a higher demand for tickets and a bigger profit for scalpers.

This, of course, doesn’t even take into account the sheer number of Canadians who have winter homes in Florida and thereby, a U.S. credit card or form of payment to buy tickets with a U.S. address.

The idea might tick Toronto fans off and perhaps there was a way to do this via a pre-sale to Florida residents, but with the series starting right away, there was only so much time to sell out the building, which isn’t always easy to do in Florida.

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