Brooklyn Nets tickets now start at $70/game, at least for season-ticket plans. Times have changed. Shouldn't public support for Barclays Center (& MSG) be revisited?

Remember the promise, nine years ago, of $15 tickets to Brooklyn Nets games (and how it was rarely fulfilled)?

And remember that tickets soon rose to $25 and $45, then went back to $25 (and went lower on the secondary market), once the novelty wore off--after three years--and the team struggled?

Well, those days are long in the past, now that the Nets have superstars. Game tickets are now on sale, at least for full- and half-season plans, with individual ticket sales--presuming some are being held back, for premium pricing against top rivals--announced at a later moment. 

Season tickets for 43 games (41 regular season, plus two pre-season) cost a minimum $3,010, or $70/game, as shown in the screenshot at right.

When I checked two days ago, however, there were no tickets available at that price, but rather a handful at $80 and $90 per game in the upper (200) section, at $3,440 and $3,870 (see screenshot) for the season.

Tickets in the 100 section started at $5,590, or $130/seat.

So the Nets are catching up on the typically more expensive New York Knicks, where tickets start at $93 for 44 games, at least according to this screenshot. 

A premium product

Well, the Nets are a lot better, favored for the NBA championship, with three superstars: Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, who recently said, with foundation, that "at full strength, nobody can beat us."

And billionaire team owner Joe Tsai, who also owns the (struggling, but maybe not for long) arena operating company, has a huge payroll. But he also has new options for revenue, including sponsorships, burgeoning media rights, and--soon enough--gambling. 

After all, as he just told Sportico, in an article today headlined How Joe Tsai and His ‘Rag Tag Team’ Are Building a Sports Empire:

Sports sits in the middle of this,” Tsai added, “because we own the intellectual property. Without the IP, no one can do anything. Having that is almost priceless.”

With the cartel-like league limiting the number of teams, New York offers a huge upside to team owners and team stars. Asked his goals in New York, "one of the largest cities in the world," Harden told Sports Illustrated:

That was one of the reasons I wanted to come to New York and Brooklyn. I want to build my business side and my brand side more than it already is, and what other place would you do that than Brooklyn? And as long as we win, as long as we handle our business on the court, our work off the court will reach the same level.

Indeed, in June, the luxury ecommerce company Saks appointed "NBA All-Star, entrepreneur and investor, James Harden, as an independent member of its board," and welcomed him taking a minority stake in the firm.

Public reciprocity?

So New York offers a clear premium, and the Knicks' historic (but declining) dysfunction hasn't deterred ticket-buyers from the Mecca, in Manhattan.

Such pricing power argues for less public support for such arenas, and more reciprocity. For the Barclays operator, the direct subsidies, tax breaks, tax-exempt land, and tax-exempt financing are woth hundreds of millions of dollars, plus the ability to monetize the (nominally) publicly-owned arena via naming rights. 

(Hello, Barclays Center and incoming SeatGeek Plaza, after being known as Resorts World Casino NYC Plaza and Daily News Plaza.)

It hasn't worked out financially for the arena's bottom line, but there's always depreciation--and, crucially, the option of a new-ish arena in NYC helped drive the rising price of the Nets.

Meanwhile, even some minimal promised reciprocity never happened. Consider that the Barclays Center never launched the promised--but non-enforced--program for low-cost use of the arena by community groups. 

Yes, it has steadily distributed free tickets--50 upper bowl seats, 4 lower bowl seats, and a suite--to local nonprofits via the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, which has proved a loyal partner. So far that's been an easy lift.

Re-setting the balance

Does Madison Square Garden deserve its tax break, valued in 2019 at $42 million, according to the NYC Independent Budget Office? 

Of course not, especially since the value of NBA (and NHL) teams keeps rising, and the original rationale was to keep the New York Knicks and New York Rangers from leaving the nation's media capital.

One argument against eliminating that tax break, according to the IBO, is that the city has helped subsidize sports facilities for the Brooklyn Nets, New York Yankees, and New York Mets. 

Why not take that argument to its logical conclusion and try to recover some of those subsidies and tax breaks from each team and venue?

When Tsai bought the team at a spectacular price, delivering enormous profits for Mikhail Prokhorov, Slate's Ben Mathis-Lilley suggested in August 2019 that the city deserved a piece of the upside. 

Tha makes some sense, though I wrote that it would also be be an argument, perhaps, for a piece of the downside in the overall Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project.

Either way, there's clearly a case to put sunsets in such deals that can trigger re-evaluations and potential renegotiations. Instead, all renegotiations have favored the project's developer. 

In 2009 the public agencies--Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Empire State Development Corporation (now Empire State Development. or ESD)--renegotiated terms to enable the overall Atlantic Yards project. In 2019, ESD agreed to allow former space designated for parking to go to a revenue-producing fitness center and fieldhouse.

Upcoming, likely, are a legislative "fix" to enable to developer to potentially avoid a $2,000/month fine for each delayed affordable housing unit as well as a state process to allow the project developer, Greenland Forest City Partners, to move the bulk of the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" flagship tower--now the site of the arena plaza--across Flatbush Avenue to construct a giant two-tower project at Site 5, longtime home of P.C. Richard and Modell's.

The upside has been much higher for Prokhorov and Tsai than any other participants in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, private or public. Increased tax revenues and more business for local food and beverage joints don't measure up.

Family pricing?

For the next few years, the Brooklyn Nets hardly seem an option, say, for most family visits to a basketball game. Well, they'll be on TV a lot.

Maybe try college hoops? That's rare at Barclays, but, hey, Long Island University has a nice gym.

Even the WNBA's New York Liberty, who don't sell upper level sections (why not?) at Barclays, prices currently available seats at $40--see screenshot at right, though StubHub offers some at $33.