The market for NBA Finals Game 1 at Oracle Arena and tonight's Game 3 at Quicken Loans Arena "was stronger than any Finals game in at least the last five years," according to SeatGeek data cited by Kevin Kleps of CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS. SeatGeek Content Analyst Chris Leyden said that the "average sales price for Game 3 of the NBA Finals" between the Warriors and Cavaliers was $1,196. TiqIQ "wasn't tracking sales prices as high as its competitor (an average sale of $947 for Game 1 and $937 for Game 3), but the company said the ticket market" for the '15 Finals was "better than any since it started analyzing Finals data" in '10. Cleveland-based ticket broker Amazing Tickets Owner Mark Klang said that the demand for tickets for this year's Finals "was double the market" for the '07 Spurs-Cavaliers Finals, the last time it came to Cleveland. Merk's Tickets Owner Scott Merk, another Ohio-based ticket broker, said that he "expects the price range to be between $600 and $10,000" if the Cavaliers return home for a possible Game 6 on June 16 with a 3-2 series lead. Meanwhile, because any digital ticket exchange for Cavaliers home games "has to happen via Flash seats, even those sales that occur on other secondary markets, the vast majority of the sales occur on the team-operated marketplace." This has meant "millions in additional business" for Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert, whose Flash Seats "charges a 23% fee to the buyer for every ticket that is resold, plus a 5% fee to the seller if he or she is not a Cavaliers season-ticket holder." During the regular season, the average sales price for a ticket sold on Flash Seats "increased 70% year-over-year, and there was a whopping 350% jump in year-over-year sales volume for Cavs games on the market" (CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS, 6/8 issue).
