Boosting Brooklyn Nets' attendance, three games (9,000 total tickets) of freebies to New York City employees
The Brooklyn Nets are giving away 9,000 tickets to three upcoming home games, as part of City Employee Appreciation nights, according to the Brooklyn Paper. That's both acting charitably and ensuring that announced attendance remains high.
The games are Dec. 14, 18, and 21, against the Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Washington Wizards, none of which typically draw well, though the Wizards have a good team this year.
The Nets current home attendance, according to ESPN, is 16,964, or 95.7% of capacity, while the rival New York Knicks, in the larger Madison Square Garden and with historically higher ticket prices, are at 18,145, or 91.6% of capacity.
(Note that the 12/3/21 headline says CITY TO GIVE AWAY 9000 NETS TICKETS TO MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES IN DECEMBER, but I'd bet that the city is distributing tickets donated by the team, since the city is not in the business of buying surplus tickets. My query to the arena didn't get a response.)
"We are incredibly thankful to the city employees of New York who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic – and continue to do so – and we are proud to partner with Mayor de Blasio’s office to host this group at Barclays Center,” said Nets CEO John Abbamondi, according to the article. “This initiative is part of our continued efforts to be the team for hardworking New Yorkers by ensuring that our games are accessible to everyone.”
Well, if they really wanted to "be the team for hardworking New Yorkers by ensuring that our games are accessible to everyone," maybe they'd restore the promise of 2,000 seats per game for $15--viable sporadically for the first season--but no, they're not doing that.
But the Nets and the city get a halo, and a decent number of people get free tickets.
Boosting attendance
The upside for the Nets is that 3,000 tickets per game represent a significant chunk of the house, 16.9% of the 17,732 announced capacity, which helps contribute to the NBA attendance rankings.
Note that the NBA counts tickets distributed, rather than tickets sold or gate count, so teams regularly report sellouts when there are empty seats.
As I reported in August 2016, the Nets averaged approximately 14,900 fans per game over the first three years, which I calculated as about 13.2% less than announced attendance. In the fourth season, they averaged only 11,622, more than 23% below the announced figure.
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| From ESPN |
NetsDaily has made much of the Nets' seeming superiority.
Note that uniform patch sponsor Webull gave away 1,000 tickets for each of the first eight games, again boosting attendance.
Also helping fill the arena is the distribution (sale?) of some 300 standing-room tickets, a first, over the last several games, leading to attendance exceeding capacity. (According to ESPN, a few teams have attendance exceeding 100%, presumably thanks to standing-room tickets.)
More from the article
From the Brooklyn Paper:
“City employees serve New Yorkers every day, building a recovery for all and ensuring New York City remains the fairest and safest big city in the world,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “The City Employee Appreciation game nights are a slam dunk and I’m grateful to the Brooklyn Nets for their partnership to honor our City workers.”This is why elected officials like teams--the freebies make them look good, even if, say, the arena where they play doesn't pay property taxes.
Any city employee is eligible for tickets, with one caveat: they must be able to show proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, in keeping with the city’s mandate for indoor entertainment venues like the Barclays Center. Eligible employees will receive an email with a link to express which games they’d want to go to.