As a person that looks at American sports from across the pond, I look at your regular ticket prices and wince. I see a £100 ticket (about $143.50 at the time of writing this) for a sports event and immediately say “nope”. But your sports are apparently so high class and of premium quality that your sports teams have the audacity to ask for the equivalent of a months wages for a game.
Now sure, resale is all the rage, places like Stubhub make a living because arenas and stadiums across the country charge astronomical prices. But if you’re expecting a good deal for Game 7 of the NBA Finals, think again. According to the Washington Post a man bought courtside seats to Game 7 for $99,000. Mental right? But that’s understandable because it’s courtside. But just for regular tickets that a regular Joe such as yourself would usually buy are currently going for a record high of just below $50,000.
That’s exactly what one fan was willing to pay to see history on Sunday night,according to online ticket resale website StubHub, which says the $49,500 per ticket cost is the highest in the company’s 16-year existence.
StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp told ESPN the previous record price was $37,000 for Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals in Los Angeles between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Papp said he can’t reveal who bought the dream seats but the person is “well known.”
So in a space of eight years the price for a 2016 NBA Finals game is just under $20K more than the record price of a 08 NBA Finals game. Let’s go back to the article so we can truly put this into perspective.
To put this in perspective, $49,500 is just around $4,000 shy of the 2014 annual median American income. Whoever this fortunate person is will witness a historic moment.
Are you willing to literally spend your family’s annual income to be in the building for this game?
I love sports, I especially love basketball don’t get me wrong, but hell no.
