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Have You Seen the Ticket Prices for the Sixers Home Opener? Jesus
By Matt Schultz
Published:
LeBron James is a Sixer, and now fans who want to go to Sixers games will have to pay LeBron James prices. Here’s what we’re dealing with when the Cavaliers come to town for the home opener:
The cheapest ticket I see on this Gametime seating chart is $529. The most expensive one is $5,700. I knew the prices would jump with LeBron on the team, of course, but this is nuts. The numbers are too damn big. I’m having trouble really wrapping my head around them. I’m left with many questions:
Who the hell has this kind of money to spend in/around Philly? Do we have enough rich people who are interested in the Sixers to fill the building? Weren’t nosebleed tickets like $15 last season? According to this Forbes article, the average ticket price last year was $68 — is this the biggest year-to-year price jump ever? Will the whole season stay this expensive? Will any normal fans be able to get in the door for a game this year? Will home court advantage be pretty much lost because Xfinity Mobile Arena will be filled exclusively with wealthy non-ball-knowers who don’t really care about the team, the same way Warriors crowds fell off when they got good and rich Silicon Valley people started going to games/pricing out actual fans?
I do not know the answers to these questions. I also don’t really care all that much. I mean, I definitely feel for folks who love going down to games and bringing their kids and stuff. It’s a bummer to not get to do that anymore. I see that. But I think it’s a small price to pay to have the Sixers be championship contenders. I’d make this trade-off ten times out of ten.
Also, watching the games on TV is great. Just do that instead. Unless we’re talking courtside seats, I find watching NBA games on TV to be a far superior experience to being in the building. You don’t have to leave your house. No traffic. You have control of the volume. No circus performers unicycling around during timeouts. No loud-ass 90s dance music playing in 15-second bursts. No jumbotrons demanding you cheer. It’s less expensive. You have endless options for food. You can lie down if your back hurts. You can eat while lying down. You can stand for a while if you feel like you’ve been sitting too much that day. You don’t have to touch bare forearms with the stranger in the seat next to you. You can change the channel. TruTV, TBS, you name it. Impractical Jokers is always on those channels. Could see what those guys got going on for a few minutes before flipping back to the game. Check in on Murr.
And keep in mind, the Sixers will be bad again someday, probably pretty soon. This window can’t be longer than two or three years. Us non-rich fans will get back in the building eventually. But for now, this is what it is. We wanted LeBron. We got him. And now we get to watch what may be the best Sixers basketball of our lifetimes. I do not regret this.
Kinkead: If you’re a season ticket holder going through renewal, email Matt with some information at M.Schultz@sportradar.com. I’ve got a chart with STH prices before the Jaylen Brown trade, so we can do a comparison here.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com