Lakers Honor Their Season Ticket Holders by Raising Playoff Prices by 325%

By Craig Kwasniewski 

I've been a Lakers season ticket holder since 1999-00. So I've been lucky to witness SIX NBA Finals and an All-Star game. I've seen the Lakers go from an early-decade dynasty, to a mighty collapse and the lottery and back to the mountain top, all in a span of 11 years. All this while sitting waaay high up in Section 316 at a relative decent price of $28 a ticket. It's fair to say it's been a great run and, much to my wife's chagrin, I've attended 80% of the regular season games and 98% of the playoff ones (I only missed two: the 2001 Western Conference Finals clincher over San Antonio and... (heavy sigh) the Robert Horry game-winner over Sacramento, hence the reason I have not missed a Lakers home playoff game since). 

Anyway, in a bad economy, it was nice of the Lakers to honor such dedication by tripling their ticket prices for the playoffs. No seriously, Southern California is one of the hardest hit areas, the unemployment rate remains high and the state itself is literally tens of billions in deficit... so OBVIOUSLY the time is right to jack up the playoff costs. 

Here's the thing, the Lakers made a HUGE stink about not raising ticket prices last summer. They issued a press release saying: 

With the current state of the economy, we feel that increasing ticket prices for the upcoming season would add to the financial burden that most families and individuals are suffering at this time,” said Buss. “We are determined not only to continue fielding a team that enjoys a high level of success on the court, but also to keeping our games affordable for our loyal fans, who are the heart and soul of the team. Although we are freezing prices for the upcoming season, rest assured that we will continue to do whatever is necessary to bring another NBA Championship back to Los Angeles. 

Well I wonder how they'll spin the "uptick" in the costs of playoff tickets?  Maybe a new press release saying:  

With the current economy, we feel that Lakers fans need to help pay... and by pay I mean max out those damn credit cards and pay for this roster, including Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton and Adam Morrison who make a combined $15.1 million, which doubles because of cap rules. So someone has to pay for the $30.2 million spent on these these piles of feces and well, that's going to be you, the season ticket holder.  Go Lakers!  

I know, boo hoo, the Lakers fan is crying because he has to pay extra to see the NBA Finals every year. Point taken. And OF COURSE I can just pass on playoff tickets and live off regular season games alone. But as any NBA fans knows, the real deal is the postseason.  All the memories, the clutch games, the tension, the anxiety, the celebrations... you may get that 6 or 7 times during the course of the regular season, but you get that almost all of the time in the playoffs.  Only the NHL rivals the pure excitement and adernaline of the NBA Playoffs.  I'm an addict, I need my fix and the Lakers know I'll pay the extra $$'s to sit under the bridge downtown at Staples Center and shoot up.

Now I know someone has to play for the league's highest paid roster, just spare me the BS spin that the front office is "looking out for it's customers" by not raising regular season prices when you know damn well you're making it all back in the post season.  

BTW - Here's how the costs break down.  Regular season prices where I sit in Section 316 are $28 per seat or $1,204 per seat for the entire season (43 games including 2 preseason games).  The postseason is 16 games at $1,460 which averages out to $91.25 or a 3.26 times the regular season cost.  THAT is sticker shock!  Especially since my salary was dropped by 20% since the economy turned sour.  Again, I'll definitely pay it... it's just a lot of money in a bad economy.

BTW 2 - Every NBA team sends out playoff invoices in February. Even lottery-bound teams, with the premise that maybe, just maybe team X rallies late for a playoff spot. They know season ticket holders are willing to fork out the extra cash, because you never want to miss out on the excitement of a playoff run.  What do they do with the money paid for non-played games?  They bank it and earn interest while the money is "credited" toward next season.

Comments

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Hi my name is Pedram. I just wanted to say that my cousins birthday was coming up and he LOVES THE LAKERS. I wanted to see if you could send him a gift from the lakers to his house because i have'nt seen him in 5 years and I wanted to give him something special for his birthday. He is a very big fan of Kobe Bryant and would LOVE to have something from Kobe Bryant. So please send him a gift. His address is 23511 aliso creek rd. apt. #56 aliso viejo CA 92656. Thankyou.

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Well, what can you expect from that front office Craig?

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Hello season ticket holders I am looking 4 courtside floor seats to the opening game against the houston rockets money is no object. please help me locate someone willing to sell!

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Hello season ticket holders I am llokfor courtside floor seats to the opening game against the houston rockets money is no object. please help me locate someone willing to sell!

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