NBA Franchise Notes: Suns Will Not Increase Ticket Prices Next Season

The Suns yesterday announced that there will be no increase in prices for season-ticket plans for the '12-13 season, marking the fourth consecutive year of no such increases. Season-ticket prices will be reduced for more than 35% of seats at US Airways Center, including upper bowl, lower bowl and club seats. The team also is expanding its $10 seating option so that 33% of upper concourse seating is priced at an average of $10 per game. Ticket holders will receive premiere benefits, including free parking, if they renew by April 7 (THE DAILY).

THUNDERING HERD: In Oklahoma City, John Rohde noted every Thunder home game at Chesapeake Energy Arena this season “has been a sellout,” making last night’s game against the Rockets “the 35th consecutive sellout dating back to the final 14 games last season.” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said, “It's a broken record with our crowd. You know that every game they're going to be there, every night, no matter who we play.” Rohde wrote it is “almost a certainty this entire season will be sold out.” A limited number of tickets “can be found for some of the 13 remaining home games, and the Thunder holds back 200 tickets every game as part of its Rewards Zone offer, with registration beginning three hours before tipoff” (NEWSOK.com, 3/12).

GRINDING TO A HALT: NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner noted T’Wolves G Ricky Rubio’s season-ending knee injury might also end the team’s “postseason ambitions and what had been a true NBA revival in Minnesota this winter.” Target Center was “alive again, for the first time in any sustained sense since Kevin Garnett got traded in 2007 and in some way since the last playoff appearance in 2004.” Ticket sales are up 14%, and the team’s sold out game against the Lakers last Friday was the T’Wolves “seventh, most since Garnett's final year.” Aschburner: “Now it's all on hold -- the highlights, maybe the excitement, possibly the winning” (NBA.com, 3/10).