With Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire raising the roof, it was only a matter of time before Madison Square Garden started raising prices.
Season tickets will soar 49 percent next season on average for the Knicks, and 23 percent for the Rangers — a spike Garden execs insist has nothing to do with the acquisition of new stars and everything to do with the $850 million transformation of the arena under way.
However, they admitted team performance is a factor in ticket hikes, noting that prices have stayed stagnant the last six years in part because of the Knicks’ lackluster play.
Most of the increase will be borne by ticket holders in the Garden’s lower bowl, with the seats just behind courtside and rinkside nearly quadrupling.
The upper half will see modest increases of zero to 15 percent.
Spike Lee’s courtside seats will increase 20 percent from $3,000 this year to $3,600 next, but the seats a row just behind courtside will jump a whopping 173 percent at Knicks games and 198 percent for the Rangers. The Garden, however, would not reveal the prices of old tickets or new ones.
In return for all those extra Knickerbucks, a select 100 season-ticket holders will get free food and non-alcoholic drinks at their seats and in the posh 1879 Club, named for the year of MSG’s founding.
The next best 800 seats will get a similar all-inclusive amenity, at the just slightly less luxurious Delta Sky360 Club.
High-end food, drinks and fancy digs account for the lion’s share of the hike, MSG Sports president Scott O’Neil said. “If you take out the all-inclusive, you are at a 28 percent increase,” he said.
The reason the Knick increase is higher than the Rangers is that the Rangers have raised prices in each of the past five seasons, he said.
Upper bowl season-ticket holders may have been largely spared this time around, but once the renovation is completed in two years, with new, wider concourses, lobby, and sky bridges, prices on those seats likely will go up, too, O’Neil said.
Slam dunk on fans
Madison Square Garden’s ticket price increases
* 49% average increase for Knicks season tickets
* 23% average increase for Rangers season tickets
* $600 per-game increase for courtside seats to $3,600
* 173% to 198% increase for seats in row directly behind court or rinkside
* Best 100 seats get free food and non-alcoholic drinks at seats and in posh “1879” club
* Next best 800 seats get free food and drinks at seats and in the Delta Sky360 club