The New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time since boy bands were dominating the pop charts, and ticket prices are blowing the roof off the World’s Most Famous Arena.
On Monday night, the Knicks will host the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the Finals at Madison Square Garden, 27 years after their last appearance in the NBA’s championship round, which ended with a Game 5 loss to the same team in the same building. New York leads the current series 1-0, and its 12-game playoff winning streak has electrified the city and sent both ticket demand ticket prices soaring.
The average ticket price for Game 3 is now more than $5,000, and the cheapest price for a ticket on StubHub is $9,078, while the most expensive — hold on to your orange-and-blue-bleeding hearts, Knicks fans — is a skyscraper-sized $133,620. Not surprisingly, that is now the most expensive NBA Finals game on record. Second-most expensive? That would be Game 4 of this year’s Finals, where ticket prices on the secondary market are going for an average of nearly $5,000, a price that will surely jump if the Knicks have a chance to clinch their franchise’s first title since 1973.
In a sign of how much times have changed, in 1999 courtside seats for the Finals were going for about $2,700. Of course, you can’t really put a price on rubbing elbows with Ben Stiller, or having to hold Spike Lee back from jawing at Victor Wembanyama.
Given those projected costs, it’s little wonder, then, that many New York fans are choosing to fly to San Antonio instead, where the cost of tickets to Game 2 on Friday night can be had for as little as $600 on StubHub.
Other Ways To Watch
Fans who want to experience the fellowship of watching the game with their fellow diehards without paying the equivalent of college tuition can join one of the many watch parties around the Big Apple. New York City had planned to ban watch parties outside MSG after fans got a little out of control following the Knicks’ Eastern Conference-title clinching win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland in late May, but backed off that stance in time for a party to take place during Game 1, which the Knicks rallied to win.
The skyrocketing ticket prices have taken some of the spotlight off other cost concerns for sporting events in the Tri State Area, namely the train tickets to and from MetLife Stadium in northern New Jersey during the World Cup, which have led to legal action.
Of course, even if Knicks fans can’t get into MSG to see a game this month, there could be one last opportunity to cheer on Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony-Towns and the rest of New York’s newest heroes: during a championship parade up the Canyon of Heroes. Three more wins would make it happen, and best of all: that experience is free of charge.
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