I swear... sometimes I think professional sports teams are trying to price out average, every day fans.
At a time where all you see on the news is financial doom-and-gloom... the Lakers saw fit to announce a "variable pricing plan". That means fans who want to see the good teams have to pay more.
"This has been a growing trend in sports and entertainment ticket pricing in recent years and allows us to increase revenues to offset our increasing payroll costs," Tim Harris, senior vice president of business operations, said Tuesday."At the same time, while determining the market value of ticket prices, we were sensitive to being able to protect our season seat holders by keeping their price increases to a minimum."
One of those games, of course, is the Christmas day game against the Celtics. Other "premium" opponents are Cleveland, San Antonio, New Orleans, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston. (Houston?)
It's a shame, really, because basketball is one of those sports that can really offer a different experience when you're at the game. It's not like football... which is better on TV. I like sitting mid-way up in an arena and watching the play develop. But it's increasingly hard to get to a game.
And before someone starts cramming the "scalpers are the problem" argument for systems like this... someone tell the teams to stop making deals with ticket brokers... who then act as scalpers when we're forced to go to them for a decent seat.
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Hey... wanna work for the C's? You know a thing or two about the internet? Well... they're hiring. And for our fans in Connecticut... remember... The championship trophy is bringing Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen and JoJo White to Hartford this afternoon.