As secondary market brutalizes Nets tickets, 24% cut planned for next season

From Bloomberg News, NBA's Brooklyn Nets to Cut Ticket Prices 24% Next Season:

With attendance flagging, the NBA team will cut ticket prices by an average of 24 percent for the 2016-17 season, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The discounts will apply to season tickets for some but not all of the best locations at Barclays Center. Front-row seats are not going on sale, nor are the $3,500-per-game Hollywood Seats, between the bench and the scorer’s table. Floor seats on the baseline and seats in rows B through D, which cost as much as $1,450 per game this season, will be reduced a blended 11 percent.
The arena’s more affordable seats will get bigger discounts.

That latter number is not disclosed, but remember, the cheap seats are often much, much cheapter on the secondary market. On the secondary market, tickets for the next two games start at $10 and $9, though the lowest face value (I believe) is $25.

I wrote last March:

Re-setting the prices in January, the Nets lowered the cost for the cheapest season tickets in several sections to $25 per game from $45. Remember, those seats were $15 in the first year and $25 in the second year before the aggressive boost to $45. Now the top price in the cheap sections is now $45, down from $70.
Surely they recognize the declining interest in the team (see the TV ratings), the periodic comps and flash discounts, and the brutal secondary market where tickets often fall below $20. I've seen Nets vans around Brooklyn offering tickets for $20, with no fee.

The Daily News adds:

The Nets (16-42) will miss the playoffs for the first time since moving to Brooklyn in 2012, dropping attendance to an average of 14,931 per game (27th in the NBA), about 82.5 percent of capacity.
That figure is down from a 41-game average of 17,037 last season (94.1 percent capacity).

Keep in mind that reported attendance (aka tickets distributed) is always significantly more than actual gate count.

Not everyone was impressed. Here are a couple of comments from NetsDaily, where fans reported cuts of 8%, 16%, and 19%:

Still too expensive.
I believe this is north of what they were the first year in Brooklyn. I’ll continue to buy single game tickets on the secondary market until the team is good. Not much incentive to go back to season tickets.

the market will dictate prices a little more over time if the team is bad
I’m confident they’ll drop again

After last season, they tried to raise the price of my seats from $99 to $135
Given it was quite clear the team was going down the tubes, I really couldn’t believe it. I had no desire to even get a partial plan with a price hike like that.

Yup, they bumped prices for my half-season too
There’s just no way it was worth it. For the price of 23 games in section 227 I could go on stubhub and buy tickets to every single game, and in a better section to boot.

Still 60 percent off on stub hub

I still feel like a sucker for buying full season for the first two years.
Everyone has to realize there were three reasons for the first season success.
1) New team in Brooklyn
2) Good team
3) And most important: Barclays
I still remember being surrounded by tourists with shopping bags from the merch store, and opposing teams fans. People wanted to see the worlds greatest arena as much or more as this team. People wanted to experience Brooklyn food more than Brooklyn ball. Second year, I bought the hype of Garnett and Pierce and AK and the contender aspect. But I was brutalized on the secondary market. Only a few games, LeBron, Knicks, Christmas, etc could I ever make any money and other games it was a disaster. I didn’t buy them to make money, but when my schedule wouldn’t allow me to go to a lot of games I was murdered. I remember a Bulls game I couldn’t even get $25 and I had first row mid court in the upper bowl. On top of that my ticket agent was arrogant, and I found other season ticket holders getting percs that I didn’t get. I met one girl, who was young and very pretty with season tickets who said "every game there are empty seats in the lower bowl, my sales guy moves me down". I understand that’s life when you’re young and beautiful and that comes from playboy Prokhy on down, but it was very disturbing that all I got was one game in a B Suite when my tix were up for renewal as a perc. And I didn’t go because I didn’t want to be hounded for a renewal. I think the sales team and Yormark turned off a lot of season ticket holders and I would NEVER buy them again. If they’re somehow magically great,next year I’ll still l just go the games I want and at 7PM they will be drastically cheaper on Stub Hub. There is still not enough of a fan base to fill this arena, and most of the season tickets are bought by the wealthy and the corporations, hence all the empty seats this year, and even last year. I relish the time when this team has a real fan base and Marks can deliver this over the coming years, but not one or two, maybe 5 to 10.