Remember when the media warned about the terrible financial loss, and negative economic impact North Carolina would sustain after the NBA decided to pull their All-Star game from Charlotte due the state’s HB2 law?
Well, it appears the NBA may have taken a big financial hit as well. According to Fox Business, “As of Friday morning, the cheapest available seat for Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center cost $184, according to data compiled by TicketIQ, a resale market ticket aggregator. That number is a 71% decrease from last year in Toronto, when the cheapest ticket on the Friday before the game cost $644. The plunge may not be over — the price of the cheapest seat in 2014, when New Orleans last hosted the All-Star Game, fell 39% between Friday and tip-off on Sunday.”
In other words, the NBA has taken a massive financial hit this weekend. And, that’s not all, according to Fox Business, “Last August, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that New Orleans had been granted hosting rights for the 2017 All-Star Weekend. Overall, tickets to the All-Star Game this year are selling for an average of $1,007 on TicketIQ, a significant drop from last year, when the average resale price for the Toronto game stood at more than $2,000.
“Tickets to this year’s NBA All-Star Saturday Night, which consists of fan-favorite events like the Slam Dunk contests and the Three-Point Contest, are also significantly less expensive than last year. The cheapest available ticket costs $157, compared to $362 on the Friday before the game in 2016.”
Much of the drop undoubtedly has to do with the NBA’s very odd decision to move the game to New Orleans, making this the third time in the last ten years, leading to some obvious All-Star game fatigue.
Still, having a league which concerns itself more with moral sermonizing than it does with basketball take a hit in the wallet like this, the same year they tried to leverage their league against the will of the people, is not such a bad thing.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.