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Tickets went on sale yesterday for NBA basketball — in Brooklyn!
As the New Jersey Nets’ future home at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues starts to take shape after years of delays, the team began offering current season ticket holders the first crack at locking in luxury accommodations in the new digs.
The 4,000 “All-Access” premium seats being offered at the rapidly rising, 18,000-seat Barclays Center in Prospect Heights, will run from $99 a game for lower level to $1,500 for courtside — or $4,356 to $66,000 for a full season.
The arena is slated to open in summer 2012, with the Nets inaugural season starting that October.
Unlike the Jets and Giants — who last year charged their fan bases thousands of dollars for just the right to buy season tickets at the new Meadowlands Stadium – the Nets aren’t pushing personal seat licenses, or PSLs, to help fund construction of the $1 billion arena. But to get the premium “All Access” benefits, fans will have to commit to buying them for the first three years — with the prices locked in.
Nets brass boast that the passes will offer perks similar to, if not better, than those offered with many PSLs, including unlimited food and non-alcoholic beverages at many vendors, private entrances, VIP speed lanes at other entrances, and a first shot at buying tickets to non-Nets events like concerts, boxing and the circus.
“I think this is the best entertainment buy in all of New York,” Nets CEO Brett Yormark crowed, “especially when factoring in the ability to see top acts like Madonna before tickets hit the secondary market.”
Yormark said the average Nets ticket at Barclays Center would run $132 — more than double the $60 average for tickets to see the woeful Nets at Newark’s Prudential Center. In the 2006-2007 season, when the team was last a contender, the Nets’ average ticket ran $101.
The new Nets prices are expected to be among the NBA’s highest in their inaugural season in Brooklyn and comparable to what the Knicks will charge at Madison Square Garden.
Knicks tickets now average about $88, according to Forbes, but tickets are being jacked up an average of 49 percent next season following a three-year Garden renovation.
The World Champion Los Angeles Lakers currently charge a league-high average of $113 a ticket, according to Forbes.
The Nets currently have the equivalent of 9,000 season tickets holders attending games at the Prudential Center when factoring in partial season packages. Each is being sent glossy mailers advertising the new ticket plan. About 60 percent live in New Jersey and 40 percent in New York.
Non-season ticket holders will be offered any unsold premium tickets in June, and in the fall, all tickets will be available to the general public. Lower-level season tickets will start at $65 per game, and the Nets said that half of all tickets will cost $55 or below – including 2,000 to be priced at $15 and under.
After breaking ground at the Barclays Center a year ago, nearly 30 percent of the steel is now up and framing of the roof and upper bowl is underway. The installation of the façade will start in July.
The arena is expected to be completed a few months before the Nets play their first games at their new home in October 2012. Yormark said the public would be offered free tours and that there will be a grand opening event for the arena stretching over a few weeks that should include live performances by some top acts in the entertainment business.
To date, the Barclays Center has received commitments to host 149 events annually but officials anticipate hosting about 200, including 44 Nets regular-and pre-season games.