Gone with the win: Hawks' victory erases chance at $45,000 profit

If the Chicago Blackhawks had lost Wednesday night, die-hard fan Steve Horvath of Glen Ellyn would have had to make the most difficult decision of his life: go to Game 7, or sell his tickets for a $45,000 profit.

After Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, when the Hawks were up 2-0, Horvath went on StubHub.com to shop for tickets to the remaining games and found single tickets selling for around $2,000.

Then he came across a 20-seat penthouse skybox for Game 7 priced at $20,400 - or roughly $1,000 per ticket. Confident he had enough friends who'd buy the other 19 tickets, he went for it.

"I had to call my credit card company to ask about the billing cycle, because there's no way I could have paid that bill," said Horvath, a 40-year-old commercial real estate broker who said business has been slow lately and he is getting married next July.

A week later, after the Philadelphia Flyers tied the series at 2-2, Horvath went online and saw the 20-seat skybox next to his selling for $65,000.

Horvath faced a big decision: keep his tickets and attend the once-in-a-lifetime game with 19 friends, or try to sell the tickets for a profit of $45,000 - possibly more - to help pay for his wedding.

The question weighed heavily on his mind all week, and when Game 6 went into overtime Wednesday night, Horvath was in full-blown agony.

"If there had been a Game 7, I honestly don't know what I would have done," he said Thursday. "I was going nuts when they won. I was so happy and so thrilled. Then, after I had that feeling of being thrilled, I thought, '$40,000!'"

A spokesman for StubHub.com said full refunds, including service fees and shipping costs, will be given to everyone who purchased tickets for Game 7, including Horvath.

Some ticket brokers charge small service fees, but many do not, including Deerfield-based Who Needs Two/TicketBroker.com.

Blackhawks season ticket holders who had Game 7 tickets say they were given the option of a refund or a credit toward next year's season tickets.

Zach Bambach, 24, of Sugar Grove, bought four standing-room tickets to Game 7 a month ago on Ticketmaster.com for $55 each. They were selling for more than $800 each on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Bambach hadn't thought much about getting a refund on his tickets. He spent a late night celebrating in Wrigleyville - an experience he describes as "a night I'll never forget" - then went back to Sugar Grove, and returned to Chicago for an 8 a.m. meeting.

"A big company like Ticketmaster? There'd be an uproar if they didn't refund everyone's tickets, right?" he said.

Like the Blackhawks players, Bambach didn't shave for the entire playoffs. However, he did shave when he got home from his postgame celebration at 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

"It didn't look good," he said. "My boss appreciated that I shaved."

Many Blackhawks fans said they wouldn't have sold their Game 7 tickets for all the money in the world, and a few say not being able to see the Hawks win the Stanley Cup in Chicago is a little bittersweet.

Season ticket holder Kurt Carlson, 44, of Gurnee, says he would have never sold his Game 7 tickets, even though at Game 5 the people in the row behind him paid $4,000 per ticket.

"They could have paid me $10,000 a ticket and I would have gone to Game 7," said Carlson, who just bought season tickets for the first time this year.

He's happy to accept the $165 credit rather than watch a nerve-racking Game 7 in person.

"Believe me, it's fine," Carlson said. "Honestly, watching the game (Wednesday) night, I thought, 'My heart can't take much more of this.' I thought, if I go to Game 7, I might need to bring a doctor with me because this is too much."

Season ticket holder Tom Presperin, of Naperville, agreed.

"I would have rather seen it on TV than gone to Game 7 and risk seeing them lose it in person. I couldn't take that," he said, laughing.

Mark Benson, of Oak Park, remembers receiving his playoff tickets in the mail and admiring the huge stack of beautiful, keepsake tickets.

"Now there's only one ticket left. How is that possible?" he said. "By last night, all I wanted to see was the Cup."

The only thing Benson is sad about is that the hockey season is over.

"There isn't another game to look forward to watching, whether I'm there or it's on TV. It's over. The record's going to be 0-0-0. Is there anyone who wants to keep playing so we can have a Round 5? What are the Wolves doing? Can we play them for a few days?" he said. "I guess I'll have to start paying attention to baseball - and that's going to be depressing."