Seems like the management did a great job of determining what the league would do when it came to pricing tickets for the playoffs. A list of avg cost and % increase for all playoff teams can be found at the bottom of the page. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessela...-one-nba-playoff-tickets-south-of-the-border/ Interesting that the article talks about the clippers when the stats show the raptors with the highest avg price, maybe I'm missing something? Edit: totally missed the south of the border part of the title... Holy shit though what was the raptors front office thinking? Also my understanding is that the quantity must be remaining available tickets, which means a sellout is imminent,
It was always about "being out of touch with fans" and by that logic all of the playoff teams except for Miami are out of touch with their fans. This article supports what I have said since day 1, it's not them being out of touch with fans, it's them being in touch with smart business.
Just because it's league wide doesn't mean it's right. People don't want to pay $400 per ticket for club level. It's completely ridiculous.
They've got their bean counters. Maximize their profits (or attempt to) by gouging as much as possible without losing a huge percentage of the fan base.
Chris's argument actually has a leg to stand on. Because his argument is that ticket prices are too high, not that the playoff ticket increase is too high.
I appreciate you posting this but more importantly you've been a great addition to the forum. It's nice to have you here!
I have agreed as well, just think you are never going to have everyone happy. I think the Blazers getting what the tickets are worth is better than scalpers buying up tickets at cheap prices.
Did you look at the statistics? Would you really expect teams not to put a premium on playoff tickets? Otherwise I would say 20% is very reasonable. Now if you want to talk exorbitant, look at the raptors. 240%....
For the premium games like Miami and the Lakers, the prices were similar. I am also not seeing where you are getting $400 for a Club seat. I see the top tickets at $319 and Club going from $214-$272.
They probably had tickets cheap to begin with since they were not expected to be that good this year. I doubt there will be many empty seats up there.
Well the Raptors are clearly trying to pull a Cleveland Indians to drive away all their fans so they can relocate.
Right, and that's the whole point. The Beatles didn't charge the same for their first concert as they did their final tour. Demand/popularity are directly correlated to ticket prices, which is exactly why there ARE premiums. Which is the main reason why Toronto increased their prices by 240% (even though that is a lot in my opinion, but I don't know about the demographics there, so I assume the management knew what they were doing). Which is why I made the comparison to gas prices, while basketball is an infinite resource the two are similar in the fact that the more people who are driving, the more those will have to pay to do it. Edit: in Miami's case I'm fairly sure they didn't have a premium because they are able to charge fans enough to turn a good profit all season long. Their avg ticket cost is still $60 more than the blazers. And if it were up to me as a fan I'd rather have cheaper season tickets, and higher playoff tickets.
No one ever tries to actively drive their fans away, they just make poor business decisions, which I won't argue that Toronto might be doing. The bottom line is that it is basically like a World Series of poker match... The more chips on the table, the higher the ante.