A ‘no brainer’ for Ontario father to take son to Florida for first-ever Leafs game

An image of Paul Valenti and his son, Hugo, in Florida.

It was a “no brainer” for Paul Valenti to fly out to Florida with his soon-to-be four-year-old son, Hugo, to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the first away game in their series against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Friday night’s Game 3 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla. will be Hugo’s first-ever Leafs game, who is a fan of team captain Auston Matthews.

“(Hugo’s) been asking me for the last month or so, ‘When are we going to go to a hockey game?’ I just couldn’t justify going in Toronto, but here, I could make it make sense,” Valenti told CTV News Toronto in an interview on Friday.

The Bradford, Ont. dad said he looked into tickets as soon as the Leafs clinched the series win against the Ottawa Senators in Game 6.

All together, the two flight tickets and their seats to Friday’s game came out to a total of about $1,400, Valenti says. They’re not paying for accommodations as Valenti says they’re staying with family close to West Palm Beach, which is northeast of Sunrise. Valenti says it’ll take them about 40 minutes to drive to the arena as opposed an hour-and-a-half commute to the Scotiabank Arena.

“So, for another 500 bucks, I’m getting four, five days in the sun as opposed to one night in traffic in downtown Toronto,” Valenti said, noting it was a bit of a “no brainer” to make this call.

They’re sitting in one of the sections in the upper bowl right by centre ice, right in the second row, which Valenti says cost $150 per ticket. As of 2:50 p.m., the cheapest resale tickets in the 300-level for Game 3 are currently up for $96 each.

Should the Florida-Toronto series push to Game 5, comparable tickets in Toronto in row 2 of Section 322—which is just off the centre line—would cost $752 per ticket on the resale market.

Valenti said he had considered going to Sunday’s game, but instead they’re going to fly back home to make it in time for Mother’s Day.

Though Valenti says Hugo has occasionally been cheering for the Panthers, the father-and-son duo are going to sport their Leafs jerseys and hats to tonight’s game to support the Toronto team with Valenti’s cousin (who also flew in from Toronto).

“We’ll see how the game goes,” Valenti said. “He’ll chant, ‘Go Leafs go.’”

Puck drops at 7 p.m. EST for Friday night’s game.