I'm sure you've heard the same things I've heard since the NBA released the 2010-2011 NBA schedule that included an opening night game between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. Nine all-stars on the floor. The first look at the two superstars plus Bosh in Miami. The first meaningful game for Shaq. A potential Eastern Conference Finals matchup. Yup... I've heard it all. Call me a party pooper; call me whatever you would like but there is no way this game could ever live up to the hype. You do realize that the cheapest ticket available for this game is going for about $170, right? And no, that is not a first level seat. That ticket I found on StubHub is up in the noosebleeds of the TD Garden.
The cheapest ticket that would allow you to not have to bring binoculars into the TD Garden is currently going for around $330 dollars on StubHub. There were a few single tickets available directly from the Celtics the other day but even those were going for around $280 dollars just to sit in the upper loge. Did I mention you could have gone to Game 3 or 4 of the NBA Finals last year for around this price? Well, you could have.
Why fans would pay these prices and how the NBA can get away with inflating prices so much for a regular season game blows my mind. Would I like to be there? Hell yes! The atmosphere at the TD Garden on Tuesday night is going to rival that of last year's playoffs.
If I had $300+ in my bank account would I spend it on a pair of tickets? No sir. I would much rather save that kind of money for playoff tickets. Last year I paid $40 for decent balcony tickets to Game 4 of the Cavaliers series and I gurantee the atmosphere at the Garden will be no better than it was during that game. I can also gurantee you that Tuesday's game will mean MUCH less than any game that happened during last year's playoff run.
After all, this still is considered a regular season game, correct? Did I miss out on a memo or something that notified fans that this is some kind of preseason playoff game? If so then just throw all of this stuff out and call me an idiot, but I'm usually on top of things when it comes to the NBA and I don't think I'd miss out on news like that.
Travis recently wrote a piece on here detailing the "calm before the storm". He was dead on with that piece and starting Tuesday morning you will most likely hear about the game whether you're watching Lifetime or the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
That brings me to my next question that we've discussed in detail recently on the Celtics Late Night Show. How historical is this game? If you asked David Stern he would probably notify you that Tuesday night's game is the most historical game in NBA history. Why wouldn't he? He's going to be sitting on his couch wiping the crack between his cheeks (and not the one's on his face) with $100 bills on Tuesday night planning out how he's going to spend all the revenue that the game brings in.
As you probably would expect from my tone, I disagree with Stern. In five years will we remember this game? No way. If the Celtics meet up with the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals and go on to win the NBA Championship will we remember everyone of those games better than a regular season game against the Heat? Ding, Ding, Ding. If you said yes you are the lucky winner. Being a fan of the NBA it almost embarasses me to think about all the people falling for this trap and falling for all the hype. Celtics fans are paying more to see this game than they did for Opening Night of the 09'-10' season when the Celtics raised Banner 17 and when Paul Pierce received his first ever ring. Sorry if I offend anyone with all of this but it's truly embarassing to witness.
Here we all are saying how fake LeBron is and blah, blah blah, but yet the reason all these fans are paying so much for this game is to see LeBron, Wade, and Bosh in their first regular season game. And if you try to tell me you're paying all this money just to see the new look Celtics, well that offends me because I'm not a fool.
Nobody attending Tuesday's game and paying ridiculous ticket prices can hook up to a lie detector test and tell me they'd pay the same amount of money if the game was against the Orlando Magic or even the L.A Lakers.
I'm sorry if I offended any of the poor souls that over paid and fell for the hype of this game but this is how I feel. I know a lot of people attending the game are season ticket holders so none of this applies to them because their attending at face value so I give those people a pass.
To those other people that over-paid just to "say they were there" (I've heard that a lot), I have this to say: Enjoy the game and I wish you the best. I hope it goes into three overtimes and Ray Allen hits a three point shot with no time remaining to win the game. At least then you might be able to say you got your money's worth.
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