Hours after the start of sales, "all available tickets were snapped up" yesterday for Saturday's NBA lockout all-star exhibition game at Florida Int'l Univ., according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. Tickets went on sale at noon ET and less than an hour later, "all of the $100 lower-level reserved seats were gone for the game that will feature" Heat G Dwyane Wade and Fs LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The "remainder of the $50 upper-level seats were sold out, as well," within two hours. Before the "ticket allotment was depleted, the secondary market already was advertising prices in excess of $500." Within an hour of the conclusion of sales, tickets "were showing up on StubHub for $1,700 apiece, with the cheapest re-sales prices at the site at $300." Counterfeiting "has been an issue at other recent lockout exhibitions," but an FIU spokesperson said that the school "took measures against such actions." Still undetermined is "whether streaming video of Saturday's game will be available, as was the case with recent exhibitions in Philadelphia and Winston-Salem, N.C." Both of those webcasts were "free of charge, which was not the case with previous webcasts of such exhibitions." Proceeds from the event will go toward the "Mary's Court Foundation," which was established in honor of the late mother of FIU men's basketball coach Isiah Thomas. A report indicated that the teams "would be broken up between Nike and Brand Jordan endorsers," but Wade on his Twitter account said that "that would not be the case." Winderman notes Wade "apparently will play as an opponent of James instead of as a teammate" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 10/4). In Miami, Andre Fernandez notes the "exact amount of ticket sales was not announced Monday, but according to FIU, the arena is currently configured to hold approximately 4,000, due to some construction projects" (MIAMI HERALD, 10/4).
