Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

Nets start selling tickets for Brooklyn 2012; prices up; no PSLs (personal seat licenses), despite 2006 prediction; "Grand Opening Weekend" planned

The Nets are selling tickets for Brooklyn 2012, reports the Times:
Getting a full season’s jump on selling season tickets at Barclays Center, the Nets started their sales effort Wednesday. Available now only to current season-ticket holders are premium season passes, which include unlimited food, concierge service and other perks. They start at $99 per game and go up to $1,500.

The Nets’ chief executive, Brett Yormark, said the team started sales to gauge how many season-ticket holders would re-up for the move to Brooklyn. The passes will be offered in June to fans who do not hold season tickets, and the rest of the tickets will be available in the fall.

Higher prices

The Post adds:
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.
In 2006, when 170 suites were planned (as opposed to 104 now), the “blended average ticket price” was to go up 73% for regular-season games and 64% for playoff games by the 2009-10 season.

No PSLs, despite earlier plans

Notably, the Nets no longer plan Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs), which in both internal Forest City Ratner documents and a KPMG report from 2006 were supposed to bring $20 million in over two years in revenue from 4500 PSLs ($4444 each over two years).

That's likely a reflection of the recession, the drop-off in luxury spending, and the uncertainty of the product on the court.

Instead of PSL, three-year deal?

One commenter on NetsDaily observed:
Three year commitment = way out of PSL

I had my meeting on Monday at the Barclay’s Showroom and it was a great experience. Top notch, first class.

But the pricing is through the roof for the seats I’m in now. Like $300 more per game, per seat. Of course I’m sitting center court, 7th row, so I guess that will be expected.

In the end, I may actually be priced out of this place if I don’t want to be in the rafters. Think about the starting price of $99 for the All Access Pass ticket sections. That’s $99 per game, per seat so basically $200 per game x 44 games (3 preseason) = $8,800 × 3 year commitment = $26,400.

You are signing a contract to pay $26,400 for 2 seats for the next 3 years without knowing what the product will be on the floor.

To me, that’s just too much at this point. Maybe something will change, or I’ll have to get comfy with sitting upstairs.
Concerts coming

NetsDaily, with its pipeline to the promoters, reported:
In an interview with NetsDaily, [Nets CEO Brett] Yormark also said the arena will open in stages with the Nets Opening Night following a "soft opening" and a "Grand Opening". Not long after the Bruce Ratner-Mikhail Prokhorov partnership takes over the arena in the summer of 2012, it will be the site of the "soft opening," perhaps a reception; followed by a "Grand Opening Weekend" of concerts, the lineup of which will be announced in the coming weeks. Yormark declined to comment on who might be the opening act in the "Grand Opening" series of events, but Jay-Z joked at the Barclays Center ground breaking, "if that doesn't happen, then something's wrong. I'm not doing my job.
Suite sales rise slowly

Nets Daily reported that "[s]o far, 40% of the 104 suites have been sold." That's 41.6, or 42 suites.

If so, that's seven more suites sold since July 2010, nine months ago, when the total was 35.

The announcement

The Brooklyn Paper excitedly reprinted the press release (below), with a brief intro:
NETS All Access Season Tix For Barclays Center On Sale Today
All Access Season Ticket Buyers Also Receive First Rights to
Purchase Tickets for Non-NETS Events At the Barclays Center

–Unlimited Food with All Access Pass at NETS Games–
–No Personal Seat Licenses for NETS Tickets–

March 30, 2011

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—The first-of-its-kind All Access season tickets for NETS Basketball at the Barclays Center of Brooklyn are going on sale today for current season ticket holders. The team is distributing by mail premium-designed, five-panel ticket packages that showcases the NETS and the Barclays Center in preparation for the team’s relocation to Brooklyn for the 2012-13 NBA season.

Season tickets for these premium locations will feature the unprecedented NETS All Access Pass. This Pass will offer fans several distinctive elements, including the opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public to non-NETS events that will be staged at the Barclays Center. The All Access Pass can also be used for unlimited food, prepared by award-winning Levy Restaurants, at designated clubs and all fixed concession stands during NETS games; a first-time offering for a major New York metropolitan area sports team.

Additional All Access Pass benefits will include: a private entrance, dedicated VIP speed lines at all entrances, concierge service, early access into the Barclays Center, membership to the Barclays Center Business Alliance - a corporate networking program exclusive to sponsors and season ticketholders - and much more.

While All Access Passes are the first ticket offerings being made available, non-premium NETS season tickets for the Barclays Center will be implemented in different phases in 2011.

When all price points are unveiled, the NETS ticket prices will be available for everyone's budget. Two thousand tickets will be priced at $15 and under for each game, and an allotment of tickets for all events at the Barclays Center will be made available to the community, which was committed to in the Community Benefits Agreement of 2005.

Fifty percent of all season tickets will be priced at $55 or less per game, and lower level season tickets start at $65.

There will be no Personal Seat License (PSL) for NETS tickets.

All Access season tickets start at $99, with 20 price points overall. In an effort to give customers cost certainty amidst a trend of rising ticket prices, prices for the All Access premium season tickets will remain flat during the three-year required commitment.

“Our number one priority in pricing our tickets was to ensure that NETS games are accessible to everyone," said NETS CEO Brett Yormark. "As we unveil our first of many unique ticket options, our All Access Passes will provide our customers with unprecedented features and value in offering the finest experience in sports and entertainment worldwide. Brooklyn has long been an underserved sports and entertainment market, but we are excited to change that and launch the greatest ticket value for a major venue in the New York area. We look forward to an electrifying opening of the Barclays Center in 2012 and to being part of the continued renaissance of Brooklyn.”

Including NETS Basketball, the Barclays Center will have more than 200 events annually, including premier concerts, monthly major professional boxing cards, professional tennis, top college basketball and hockey, and family shows, such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney on Ice. To date, the Barclays Center has received commitments to host 149 events annually, and that list continues to grow.

Located atop one of the three largest transportation hubs in New York City, the Barclays Center will be directly accessible by nine subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.

Current season ticket holder seat relocation is based on ticket holder tenure and current NETS game seating location in the Prudential Center.

About the Barclays Center
Scheduled to open in the summer of 2012, the Barclays Center will offer approximately 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 seats for concerts, and will also have 104 luxury suites, including 15 Brownstone Suites (16 seats each), 68 Loft Suites (10 seats each), 11 Cabana Suites, six Studio Suites, and four Party Suites. Suites are on sale. The arena will also include six clubs and restaurants.

Designed by the award-winning architectural firms Ellerbe Becket, (www.ellerbebecket.com) and SHoP Architects (www.shoparc.com), the Barclays Center will be one of the most intimate seating configurations ever designed into a modern multi-purpose arena, with unparalleled sightlines and first-class amenities.

In addition to Barclays, the naming rights partner, the Barclays Center currently has 12 major partners, including: ADT, Cushman & Wakefield, Stolichnaya, EmblemHealth, MetroPCS, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Willis, Jones Soda, Haier America, Phillips-Van Heusen, Anheuser-Busch, and High Point Solutions.

Steel began to rise for the Barclays Center in November 2010, and currently portions of the upper concourse level are being constructed.

For more information on the Barclays Center,
log on to www.barclayscenter.com.

Comments