The Thunder's season-ticket prices "will be going up" for the '13-14 season, according to John Rohde of the OKLAHOMAN. Next season, the franchise's sixth in Oklahoma City, will see the team's "first price increase for half of all season-ticket members" and for 97.5% of upper-deck patrons at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Thunder VP/Communications & Community Relations Dan Mahoney said that the price adjustments "will be a $2-$3 increase per ticket" in the upper deck, known as Loud City. He added that courtside and Champions Club tickets will see "a $10 increase per ticket," and all others will see "a $2-$5 increase per ticket." Rohde noted these increases will be for '13-14 season tickets, "not for single-game tickets." Mahoney said that there "will be no change in playoff pricing" for the '12-13 postseason. Rohde noted the Thunder's season-ticket prices next season will "remain somewhere near or below the league average" (NEWSOK.com, 2/20).
PICK UP THE PACE: ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd recently said on-air of the Pacers' attendance woes, "You’re holding an organization to a standard that happens because of race. There’s no other explanation why people don’t go to Pacers games." In Indianapolis, Bob Kravitz disputes that notion and writes there are "a couple of reasons" for the team's low attendance this season. Kravitz: "Here’s the big one: The NBA season-ticket-buying culture in Indianapolis is dead, at least for now." That has "nothing to do with race," but has "everything to do with six years of really bad basketball." The bottom line is "you don’t rebuild a season ticket buying culture after just one year of reaching the second round of the playoffs." Especially not in a "small, relatively soft market, a market hit hard by the bad economy, a market that has seen the Pacers lose corporate sales from the likes of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Marsh and others." Fans "don’t react overnight." For now, they "realize they don’t have to purchase a season ticket." Instead, they "can get a deeply discounted ticket to any game they select, and do so at the last second" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2/21).
