As the New York Knicks prepare to compete in the N.B.A. finals for the first time since 1999, the cost to witness the games at the team’s home court, Madison Square Garden, has caught many fans off guard.
When ticket presales began on Tuesday, Knicks fans flooded social media to report that for the Chase presale, tickets ranged from just under $2,000 to more than $6,000. On resale sites, some tickets were being sold for more than $85,000. It was not clear on Wednesday how much tickets would cost once the general sale opens.
Chase did not respond to a request for comment. Ticketmaster referred inquiries to the Knicks.
“This is a historic moment at MSG and the organization spared no expense to get to this point for our fans,” a spokesman for MSG Sports, the group that owns the Knicks, said in a statement. “We understand our ticket prices are high, but the real issue are the brokers who jack-up prices as soon as tickets are available, and we are taking every possible measure to limit this unfair activity.”
The uproar over the cost of finals tickets joins a growing trend in the New York area this summer: the rarefied experience of watching live sports.
On the same day the Knicks presale began, the presale also opened for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in Queens. A grounds pass, which grants access to the concessions area outside Arthur Ashe Stadium as well as Louis Armstrong Stadium and the surrounding outdoor courts, was listed for $350.
Tickets to this summer’s World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which will host multiple games including the final, are so expensive that Mayor Zohran Mamdani stepped in to make 1,000 tickets available for $50 each via a lottery. On Wednesday, Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, and Jennifer Davenport, the attorney general of New Jersey, announced an investigation into FIFA’s ticket sales.
In an interview with PIX 11 on Tuesday, Mr. Mamdani said that he believed that “sports should not become a luxury commodity,” but agreed that had become the case for the World Cup and the N.B.A. finals. When asked if he would gather face-value tickets to the finals to distribute to everyday New Yorkers, like he did for the World Cup, Mr. Mamdani said he would look into it.
“We’re going to look at everything that we can do,” Mr. Mamdani said. “I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, but this is something that I am very passionate about.”
Christian Bueno, 30, grew up in the LeFrak City housing complex in Queens as an avid Knicks fan. When he was a teenager, he signed up for a summer job picking up trash around the complex so that he could save up money to buy Knicks tickets. Even when the Knicks were playing poorly, he said, tickets would still cost around $100.
“It’s kind of tough, because the Knicks have always been expensive for me, growing up in New York,” he said, adding that when he looked at finals tickets, he saw a $1,200 ticket for a seat in the nosebleeds. “I think true fans are completely priced out at this point.”
The Knicks will either be playing against the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals. Mr. Bueno, who now lives in Houston, said that if the Knicks play the Spurs, he would consider attending a game in San Antonio, because he thought tickets there might be cheaper. Other fans on social media took that idea a step further, pointing out that the price of certain seats for the finals at Madison Square Garden could buy a house in Oklahoma City.
Fernando Rodas, 45, lives in Chelsea, and he became a Knicks fan when he was 10 years old and living in Jamaica, Queens. He said that taking his family of four to a regular season Knicks game usually costs almost $1,000 — so it tends to be his Father’s Day, Christmas and birthday gifts rolled into one. But if he wanted to bring the family to the finals, he said, he could only find tickets for $2,700 each.
“I would rather take them to Disney World for a couple of days than one night at the Garden,” he said.
But how would his 10-year-old self feel, if he knew the Knicks would make it back to the finals, but he would not be going in person? The sticker shock of almost $10,000 would scare off even that Knicks-crazed child, he laughed.
“He would get it,” he said.
Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times.
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