You need lots of money to buy tix to Kobe’s finale, GSW bid for 73
They might not cost as much as a leather, snakeskin and 18-karat gold hat, but tickets to watch the final game of Kobe Bryant’s illustrious career and the Golden State Warriors’ bid for an NBA-record-setting 73rd win on Wednesday night will cost you a pretty, pretty, prett-ay penny.
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From Darren Rovell of ESPN.com:
Fans have paid a StubHub average of $971 for a ticket at the Staples Center to see No. 24 take the final shots of his 20-year NBA career for the Lakers, against the Jazz, while StubHub data shows the average price paid for the Grizzlies-Warriors game on Wednesday night is now $436.
“It is virtually unprecedented to see the two highest-priced regular-season games of the year take place in the last game of the season at games with no playoff stakes involved,” StubHub spokesman Glenn Lehrman said. […]
Ticket prices to Bryant’s last game immediately jumped when Bryant confirmed early in the season that this would be his last. The Warriors’ ticket prices skyrocketed Sunday night after the team beat the Spurs for the second time this week.
According to Chris Matcovich, vice president of data and communications ticket reseller TiqIQ, which has been tracking secondary-market sales since the 2009-10 season, tickets for the Warriors’ home game against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Wednesday night matchup with the Utah Jazz “are the most expensive regular season games we have ever tracked.”
Per TiqIQ, as of Monday morning, the average list price for Bryant’s last game was $2,110.05, with an average sale price of $1,429.13. The average list price for Warriors-Grizzlies — which more than doubled between Sunday night, when Golden State knocked off the San Antonio Spurs, and Monday morning — is $1,594.15, with an average sale price of $711.24. For reference, the average ticket price of a Lakers home game is $317.78, while the average cost of a ticket at Oracle is $427.89.
With prices like those, it seems like it might be a good idea to just hang at home and watch the festivities from the comfort of your own couch. If you’re bound and determined to be in the building, though, you must remain vigilant and keep your head on a swivel out there. The Lakers on Monday issued a fraud alert to warn fans “about the dangers of purchasing tickets on the secondary market” and advised them “to only purchase tickets through the Lakers Ticket Exchange on the team’s website.” Likewise, the Warriors suggested fans go through their Ticketmaster resale option, which currently has tickets ranging from $338 to $17,000. So if you’ve got somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 stacks to blow and you want to really get your The Andersons on, you’ve got your marching orders. I’ll keep an eye out for you as I man the remote.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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