How much do we love the Oilers? Tickets have become a divorce issue
By baggedmilk
6 years agoEvery now and then someone sends me a story that really inspires me. Today, that story is about a couple that literally needed a judge to settle their Oilers ticket dispute in their divorce proceedings.
One thing that I love about my job is when random people hit me up on Twitter with links for hilarious Oilers stories. When I read the article at CBC and found out that a judge had to rule over a pair of season tickets in a divorce settlement I was instantly hooked. It’s not that I think divorce is necessarily funny, it can be a nightmare from top to bottom for everyone involved, but when an actual judge needs to sort out who gets the Oilers tickets I can’t help but be intrigued.
An Alberta judge has refereed a dispute over a pair of Edmonton Oilers season tickets.According to court documents Beverly and Donald McLeod, both avid National Hockey League fans, separated in 2015 after 35 years of marriage.Last year he agreed to pay her $15,000 per month in spousal support — but what to do about the rights to the Oilers season tickets, which are in his name, that they shared for 11 years?Beverly McLeod filed an interim matrimonial property application seeking a court order for them to share the tickets for the 2017-2018 season, including the playoffs.Donald McLeod questioned whether the tickets, which are a hot commodity in Edmonton, should be considered matrimonial property.
What’s not to love about this story? Ol’ Donald had already agreed to sending over a big piece of cake for spousal support, but, from his side of the table, trying to take his Oilers tickets crosses the damned line. But I have to admit that I understand Beverly’s side of this argument too.
She likely sat through her fair share of horrible Oilers games during the Decade of Darkness and now that Edmonton is on the way up she doesn’t want to walk away from that now. She’s been through multiple rebuilds and now that the end of the rainbow is in sight she’s not going to tuck and roll off the bandwagon. Besides, there’s a waiting list for tickets at Rogers Place and she’s been going for years, I can understand why she’d want her half of those games.
So what happened?
Justice Ritu Khullar of Court of Queen’s Bench granted Beverly McLeod’s request — but the McLeods won’t have to sit together at the games.“The parties shall share equally in the Edmonton Oilers 2017-2018 season tickets, including playoff games, if applicable,” reads her ruling.
Donald’s not gonna like that, but at least he doesn’t have to sit with her, right? The judge felt that Bev deserved her own taste of them sweet, sweet tickets and I can understand that. What I want to know how they’re going to split them up. Who gets the Battles of Alberta? Who gets to see Sid? Is there some kind of ticket draft? Did you have to get some kind of health/damage insurance just in case a fist fight broke out?
“The parties shall alternate choices for game tickets with the defendant choosing first the game for which he wants tickets, the plaintiff choosing second for her game, and the parties alternating choices thereafter until all regular season tickets have been assigned.“In the event there are playoff tickets, the plaintiff shall choose her game first, the defendant second, and alternating thereafter.”
I wish I could get a camera in the room to see how this ticket draft plays out. Man, that would be good. Maybe Don and Bev are big enough people to split the tickets civilly, but, in my head, the way this plays out sees a lot more yelling and maybe even a couple rounds of jousting. These two are passionate Oilers fans, and there are plenty of games on the schedule worth fighting over and things could get hairy here. What about playoff tickets? That’s a thing now.
Evidence entered in court said before last hockey season, the tickets were used by the couple, their family and friends.“Ms. McLeod loves going to the games. The tickets were an asset used for family enjoyment.”Last season Donald McLeod gave Beverly McLeod one-third of the regular season tickets and decided which tickets she would receive. She only received one set of playoff tickets.
See, there’s the problem. Don got too greedy with the tickets last season and Bev had the leverage she needed to make a move. I bet he was giving her Minnesota Wild games on a Tuesday night or something like that, and that kind of cheapery won’t fly for long. There are only so many times you can sit through a mid-week game against the Coyotes before you’re tempted to punch yourself in the face, and it clearly drove Bev to action. Frankly, Donald needed to pony up some of the good games or else he should have seen this coming. Rookie move, imo. Easy field-goal for Bev on this one.
He refused to give her any tickets for the upcoming season.Khullar said the amount of money Donald McLeod is paying Beverly McLeod in spousal support is irrelevant — the Oilers tickets fall squarely within the definition of household goods under the law.“These tickets have been owned for 11 years, were clearly acquired during the marriage, and fall within the definition of household goods,” says the ruling.“As such, the Oilers season tickets are property that may be divided by the court.”
This court proceeding has made me realize that there’s a lesson here for all of us. I think Kanye might have been right about prenups. All the best, Don and Bev, I hope you guys can make it through this without ripping each other apart. Remember, seeing 50% of Connor is better than seeing no Connor at all.
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