Steve Nadeau, a Manhattan bartender, makes $140,000 a year, and said that’s not enough to go to a Knicks game. Neither, he said, is it enough for his friend, a lawyer who was hoping to take his son to the home opener on Oct. 20.
“They’re pricing out attorneys,” said Nadeau, a former ticket broker and 10-year resident of New York City.
The Knicks’ first championship in more than 50 years has increased the price of a casual night at Madison Square Garden. When tickets for the coming season went on sale in September, the cheapest resale listing for the home opener was about $1,400, according to Ticketdata, a site that tracks ticket prices. That cost, known as the “get-in price,” is more than six times the $215 that TicketIQ, a ticket resale website, lists for last year’s home opener. For many longtime fans, that means the Knicks are moving out of reach.
For holders of Chase’s Fan First card, a perks program for select customers, the cheapest early access ticket was $1,408 on Sept. 14. After general sales opened on Sept. 16, the price fell to about $1,360, and by the third day, it was about $1,250, according to Ticketdata.
Then came the criticism.
Madison Square Garden issued a statement on Sept. 17 that said the prices were a mistake and should not have been that high. The Garden paused sales and said it would lower prices. Sales resumed on Sept. 23, and according to Ticketdata, the cheapest listing was around $1,156 for the upper level.
Fans were not convinced. They quickly took their complaints online, posting comments and videos about the prices. On Sept. 18, Complex Sports, a news outlet, posted a carousel on Instagram about the ticket sales and received hundreds of comments. Many fans said “this wasn’t an error,” and that MSG “knew what they were doing.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani weighed in the same day. In an interview with NBC New York, he said he wouldn’t pay $2,000 for a seat, even for the home opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Kenny Rodriguez, a New York City police officer, has been a Knicks fan for 10 years.
“I understand prices are going to go up after winning a championship,” he said, “and the demand is obviously going to be higher, but I think some of the prices are a little too high for the average fan.”
Jaleel Beekharry, a schoolteacher who has been to several games, said the prices won’t change his loyalty, but they may change how he shows it.
“The tickets are currently unreasonable,” Beekharry said, “but that won’t stop fans from supporting and watching, in my opinion. It will just discourage them from attending games.”
Supply and demand is the main driver, said sports economist Lucia Dunn, a professor at Ohio State University. A championship boosts demand while the number of seats stays about the same, she said, and in a free market, that pushes prices up.
“Ticket prices increase after a big win because it creates more interest among fans,” Dunn said. More people are hoping to see a winning team play, and venues hope they’re willing to pay more to do so.
The Knicks, one of the NBA’s oldest franchises, have played in New York since 1946. In the 80 years since, the city has changed around them but the team has stayed a constant for generations of fans.
“Fans will always support, even if it’s from their couch or local bar,” said Beekharry.