Bill comes due for Knicks fans

[heyelander]

Anybody else get a chuckle when the proponents of the free market solution when it comes to workers get their panties in a bunch when it applies to the things they want, too? Aww, the owners of your already luxury-priced basketball tix are testing the market to see what it will bear?

that was kind of my thoughts...

if they were pricing people out of the stadium I might be a bit more sympathetic... but not if they are pricing people out of the front three rows.

[Mithrandir]

Yes, I understand the fact the fact that prices will go up. But did you see the example, $330 ticket goes up to $900. To say that's excessive seems like an understatement to me.

$900 for top notch seats is expensive ? in NY? Maybe the seats were underpriced for too long.

[Judge Jude]

Knicks tickets this year are underpriced, by a LOT. These prices are much more in line with actual value as the market defines it.

The secondary market demonstrates that. Good luck trying to buy ANY Knicks seat for face value on stubhub these days. These long-suffering fans have had the option since the Carmelo Anthony trade of making a mint per game if they choose to. I've talked to the stubhub analysts, and they say prices on their market have more than doubled since he was acquired.

If the Knicks only raised prices 10 percent, they would be setting up a scenario where ticket brokers would invariably make sure to buy up all the tickets.

And why not? Those tickets not only would really be free, they'd be better than that - you could sell your tix for a profit for every single game, before the season ever started. Or you could roll the dice that the Knicks will win more than 50 games and get out of the first round of the playoffs. If they do, the market for those playoff tickets would be astronomical.

The Knicks have two choices - a huge markup that puts much of the added "demand" dollars in their pockets, or give most of it away to ticket brokers.

I covered about 100 Knicks playoff games in the 1990s, half of those at the Garden. Chicago is the one place in the country that had even a louder atmosphere (while the Bulls still played at Chicago Stadium, that is), but the vibe in NY - with all the celebrities everywhere you turned - was unique. If the Knicks climb back to contending status, it will be the same situation all over again.

They only have 20,000 seats. NY has 3 boroughs with 2 million+ people, and almost a million people in Bergen County, NJ and countless more in Long Island, Westchester... Even in a tough economy, there are more than enough people who want to be "part of the game" to make these prices work.

[BuckyBuckner]

I didn't see it in the article but I am watching the Rangers game right now and they said the tickets for their games will go up by 24%. The reason apparently for all the price increases is because they are spending about a billion dollars in renovations to Madison Square Garden.