While it is still tentative, a deal has FINALLY been reached between the NBA owners and the players. I won’t bore you with the details, which are still being hashed out. What’s important is that professional basketball will be back in our lives in a few short weeks. Christmas Day, to be exact. The 2011-2012 NBA Season will debut on December 25 with a three-pack of star-studded games.
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Some talking heads have espoused the notion that fans have been driven away by the lockout and the missed games. Don’t believe that. Sure, true NBA fans are pissed, but they’re pissed because they don’t have basketball to watch. That’s all they want. It’s the casual fans (read: fair-weather fans) who might stay away, but what do they matter anyway? They don’t regularly attend games, they don’t buy merchandise, and they don’t contribute to the television ratings. Unless the team is winning, of course. Then you can’t keep the casual fan off the bandwagon. And that will never change, regardless of how angry they might be right now. If there’s one thing you can count on a fair-weather fan to do, it’s change their mind.
One look at the Ticket market for the Christmas Day games shows that the NBA fan base is still there. The schedule is as such — the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks will kick things off at Madison Square Garden with a 12:00 tip-off. The Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat will tip at 1:30 from American Airlines Arena, and the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center for a 2:00 start time. Considering the fact it’s Opening Day AND nobody has to work, it’s not hard to understand why people are willing to pay premium prices to attend the highly intriguing games – anywhere from $160 to $1,000-plus. The secondary market is always fluctuating, but suffice it to say that you probably want to purchase NBA Tickets for Christmas Day as soon as possible because it’s unlikely prices are going to come down.