The New York Knicks are the priciest ticket around.
Are you hoping to see them host the Cleveland Cavaliers during the Eastern Conference finals? You’ll only have to open up your wallet and shake every penny loose.
As the Knicks pursue their first NBA Finals berth since 1999, prices for in-person attendance at Madison Square Garden have surged. For proof, try looking from the top corner of the arena in Game 1 on Tuesday, a nosebleeds view that would run you at least $570 before fees, according to Stubhub.
Should you want to sit more centrally — albeit still in the nosebleeds — you’re looking at over $700, and moving closer to the lower bowl and courtside as Game 1 approaches could run you over $13,000.
Although the city is excited to see its Knicks, one key New Yorker isn’t too enthused about the consumerism shift.
Before the playoffs, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani lamented the fast-rising prices of tickets and how he feels his constituents are “being pushed out of the very things that give them so much joy.” A few weeks ago, Mamdani teamed up with Gotham FC — the city’s NWSL team — to offer 1,000 tickets priced at $5.
“We have seen sports become more and more of a luxury commodity, and that is not what it always used to be,” Mamdani said in a mid-April press conference. “I am still confident and hopeful of a championship this year. I do wish, however, that all of these tickets were far more affordably priced.”
New York’s exorbitant prices loom even steeper when compared to prices in the other three cities that will be hosting NBA conference finals games. The lowest price available right now on StubHub for Game 3 of the East finals in Cleveland is $294, although premium courtside seats reach as high as $5,567.
Just before tipoff between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals in Oklahoma City, tickets were still as cheap as $177 for nosebleeds in the Paycom Center. The most expensive ticket leading up to tip-off cost $3,216.
In San Antonio, Game 3 between the Spurs and Thunder currently has tickets listed for as low as $311 for nosebleeds, while seats just under the basket at the Frost Bank Center are running for upwards of just over $8,000.
If the series is extended into potential elimination games, naturally, prices jump even higher due to raised stakes. A Game 5 in Oklahoma City would cost, at the lowest, $299, while the cheapest tickets to get into Madison Square Garden for a Game 5, if necessary, are $796.
“I think that there are many New Yorkers for whom the game is something that is celebrated across the entire city,” Mandami said. “When the Knicks do well, you feel it across this whole city. And it’s not just for those who can afford to go to the game.”
In 1999, the Knicks became the first-ever No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals, matching up with the Spurs in the earliest years of their Tim Duncan-led dynasty. According to reporting by The New York Times in 1999, the average season ticket price for the Knicks that year was $79 per game. This year, it was $815 per game, according to Stubhub. Also, according to the Times, a courtside seat to the NBA Finals in New York cost $2,700, while they ran for just $500 in San Antonio. The Spurs would end up winning the series in five games.
Should the fourth-seeded Cavaliers push New York to a winner-take-all Game 7, then StubHub currently has the cheapest single tickets listed at over $1,100, with several five-figure courtside seats still available.
Can the Knicks, who enter Game 1 against Cleveland on a seven-game win streak, remain as hot as their prices?
