Extra 10,000 Whiteout Street Party tickets to be released Sunday

After analyzing Saturday's numbers, organizers are releasing an extra 10,000 Whiteout Street Party tickets through Ticketmaster at noon Sunday for Monday's party.

About 15,000 people showed up to Saturday's Whiteout Street Party Saturday, several thousand less than organizers were expecting for the first game of the Round 3 Winnipeg Jets versus Vegas Golden Knights NHL playoff series.

"The amount of additional tickets for Monday to be released is based on the ratio of tickets redeemed versus those issued at Saturday's street [party]," tweeted hosts Economic Development Winnipeg.

"The capacity for the street party will remain at 27,000."

Tickets will be limited to four per account, they added.

Anticipating larger crowds going into Round 3, organizers decided to issue free tickets through Ticketmaster for those wishing to attend.

True North said it decided to make them ticket-only, in collaboration with Economic Development Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Police Service, so fans don't wind up getting turned away.

"We needed to find a way to make sure that people don't get disappointed and we needed to make sure that we could keep everybody safe and make sure that we could manage the crowds that we know want to be there tomorrow," president of Economic Development Winnipeg Dayna Spiring said at a news conference Friday.

"This is the best way we could come up with to do that."

The move was panned by many on social media, who pointed out requiring people to have a Ticketmaster account and online access to get ticketsprevented some from being able to attend.

Tickets sold out within half an hour, and it appeared that scalpers immediately posted the free tickets online in exchange for cash.

True North spokesperson Rob Woznysaid they expected the drop in fan numbers as "fans get used to the new ticketing policy" but said they expect a larger crowd Monday with the release of extra tickets and the nice weather forecast.

He confirmed staff were handing out extra tickets from people who downloaded but didn't end up needing them, and that staff also printed about 1,000 extra.

"What we found last night was many fans who had unused tickets donated them back at the entry gates for others to get into the street party," Wozny said in an email.

The Jets beat the Knights 4-2 Saturday. The next game is Monday night at 7 p.m. at Bell MTS Place.