NBA fans in London "hoping to grab a late ticket" for Thursday's game at The O2 Arena faced a mark-up of "anywhere between 350-600%, depending on the seat," according to Motez Bishara of ESPN.com. By Thursday morning, a "walk-in price" for the cheapest seat for the game was £487 ($658) including fees on StubHub, with a premium seat in the center of the lower bowl going for a "staggering" £1,701 ($2,300) including fees, and only sold in a set of three (ESPN.com, 1/11).
SHOWPIECE GAME: In London, James Benge reported NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is "eager to see London host the league's All-Star Weekend." He said, "It’s something we’d love to do, to play our All-Star Game in London or Europe. We have talked about it for years. Logistically it’s very difficult because of the length of break we’d have to take around the game but in terms of doing things on a one-off basis it’s much more possible than bringing a franchise over here. The payoff in terms of fan interest is arguably that much greater even than playing a single game here." It could be some time before the "showpiece game" moves outside the U.S., as Indianapolis was announced as the '21 host. Silver: "There’s actually a waiting list of teams who want to participate in these games. There could be [more than one game a year] but ultimately it’s not clear that doing one-off games is something that scales. If we’re not in a place where we can bring a team to Europe, adding a few more regular season games doesn’t accomplish much" (EVENING STANDARD, 1/11).
