New York City’s frenzy over the Knicks’ first appearance in the NBA’s conference finals in 25 years is sending ticket prices at Madison Square Garden soaring.
The average price for seats for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night were listed at just under $1,200, a record for NBA conference championships, according to TickPick. And it will cost nearly $600 just to get in the door.
For courtside seats near the Garden’s famous Celebrity Row, where Timothée Chalamet, Bad Bunny and Spike Lee usually sit, the price is $62,000, according to StubHub. Ticketmaster, the official ticketing platform for the Knicks, has a pair of seats one row behind courtside for around $19,300. Both options come with exclusive lounge access, VIP entry and in-seat dining.
New York hasn’t seen this level of excitement around the Knicks since 2000, when the team also faced off in the conference finals against the Pacers. Indiana was led at the time by Reggie Miller, the taunting, sharpshooting guard and longtime Garden nemesis. The Knicks, who featured Patrick Ewing in his last season with the team and Latrell Sprewell, were eliminated in six games.
Fans are hoping for a different outcome this year. Led by star point guard Jalen Brunson, the Knicks knocked off the reigning champion Boston Celtics to advance to the conference finals. The Celtics had won all four regular season games against New York, and Boston was heavily favored.
The clinching victory May 16 sent throngs of Knicks fans clad in blue-and-orange jerseys into the streets outside Madison Square Garden. They scaled light poles and broke into colorful and sometimes profane chants, singing unofficial anthems like the Sheck Wes song “Mo Bamba” while climbing street signs.
For fans deterred by the high price of getting into Madison Square Garden, there is a cheaper option. For Game 3 in Indianapolis Sunday, courtside seats were listed for about $24,000 as of Wednesday morning, according to TickPick. The cheapest tickets were roughly $300.
In other Knicks news, team merchandise is flying off the shelves as the Knicks make their deepest NBA playoff run since the turn of the century.
Sales of Knicks products are up 80% compared to last season’s playoffs, according to new data from the NBA’s e-commerce partner, Fanatics Inc. The team begins the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night when it hosts the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden.
Crowds clad in blue and orange have been celebrating victories outside the arena, with videos going viral of fans climbing atop billboards and buses.
Knicks All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson has had the best-selling jersey across all sports since the Knicks began their hotly contested second-round matchup against the rival Boston Celtics on May 5, according to Fanatics. The Knicks have been the NBA’s top-selling team since then as well.
Brunson jerseys have outsold superstars such as Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors.
If the Knicks defeat the Pacers in the best-of-seven series, they will move on to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 and be looking to break a streak of more than 50 years without a championship.
