The city that never sleeps doesn’t know how to budget either.
According to a report by Front office sportsthe most legitimate fanbase in the NBA — who hasn’t seen a ring for their team since 1973 — is also the league’s most gullible, as the Knicks have had the highest-priced tickets for a 12th straight season.
This means that at Madison Square Garden, a group of four tickets in the 2021-2022 regular season costs just under a grand at about $937. No other team in the league has such an expensive average price for a 4-pack. It’s one reason Forbes cites Madison Square Garden Sports — which owns the Knicks, Rangers and the Garden — as that 5th most valuable sports empire at $7.84 billion.
That’s a lot of money for a lot of bad basketball, especially considering the Knicks have higher prices than the Warriors ($740), Lakers ($712), Celtics ($596), and Bulls ($579).
And get that, the Warriors are playing in a building that only opened in the fall of 2019 and that cost $1.4 billion.
No matter where the Knicks play, their fans show up to watch them lose. They were last season Eighth in average home attendance and seventh overall between home and away for a team that finished 37-45.
To understand how overwhelming MSG’s impact is on people in NYC who like to squander their money, consider that the Knicks have only made the playoffs once in the last nine seasons — resulting in a meager win — and not have won a title since Nixon was in office. Still, the Knicks have had the most expensive tickets in the league for the past 12 seasons, despite hitting the floor with a product that should have been discounted.
The Dolans, the family that owns the Knicks, have found their fans will pay caviar prices for tilapia.
Since 2010-2011, the Knicks have lost an average of 45.6 games per season and 548 regular season games. During that period, they’ve only made the playoffs four times, recording just one straight win. You’ve also gone through six head coaches and three interim coaches in that span of time.
Oh, and if I still haven’t poured enough salt in the wounds of Knicks fans, here are some of the players who could have called up but decided not to:
• Jimmy Butler (2011)
• Isaiah Thomas (2011)
• Rudy Gobert (2013)
• Nikola Jokic (2014)
• Devin Booker (2015)
• Donovan Mitchell (2017)
• Bam Adebayo (2017)
• Mikal Bridges (2018)
Expensive.