Please help if you know hockey!
TL;DR: Naive UK wife wants to buy ice hockey tickets for Canadian husband for surprise birthday trip and is lost. Entirely.
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Hello I am at a loss here and would absolutely love your help please!!
I met someone called Patrick in 2018 with a Canadian accent who played ice hockey. We met in the UK, so this was a niche. 2 weeks ago I married Patrick and he turns 30 in two weeks. Now for the last 8 years all I’ve heard about is Colorado Avalanche. His family moved back from Canada for him to go to university in the UK, where we met!
Side note: I asked why he supported Avalanche. The answer: Apparently there was a goalkeeper called Patrick Roy. As he was a kid and they shared the same name and he wanted to be a goalkeeper the choice was done.
Anyway, that’s the context. This man has made my dreams come true every day for the last 8 years. For his birthday I’m taking him to Nashville in March to watch Avalanche play. (2nd March 2027). I want to make his dreams come true. I bought the pricey plane tickets without realising that the site that is selling the tickets apparently doesn’t have the tickets yet? The whole reason I booked Nashville is for him to finally see their game live rather than him staying up in the UK at all hours of the morning to watch games. As to the place, it’s somewhere he hasn’t been and I thought it would be fun!
So my ask is this. Please help me make sense of the ticketing. UK sporting tickets seem to be wildly different. Is there a certain end you sit at for who you support? Do I have to sign up to be a member of something to buy tickets? I see there’s a presale, do you think this game will sell out and I won’t have a chance? Is there a best place to sit for viewing? I want to buy him great tickets so that he can wear one of the about 10 jerseys he has for the team (2 are the exact same?). The amount of Avs merch we have in our UK home is wild, signed photos on the wall, hats, gym gear, goalkeeper helmet, keychain, the lot. Anyway besides the point, the person I would ask is him but I can’t ask him so please help me!
How should I go about this?
Thank you so much in advance. Even if I get one person reply I’d be so incredibly grateful. I can return them favour with any London dos/ donts/ recommendations!