With NBA preseason in full swing and fans awaiting their teams’ Christmas Day openers, basketball arenas bolted up TicketNews’ exclusive venues rankings for the week ending Sunday, December 18.
The highest ranked of all the NBA venues was Madison Square Garden (MSG), which took the top spot in the rankings for the first time since early November.
MSG’s New York Knicks, opening at home on December 25 against the Boston Celtics, sold well enough to also take over this week’s Top Sports Events rankings. Another strong revenue generator for MSG, the New York Rangers, took No. 6 in this week’s Top Sports.
The Celtics’ home court, TD Garden in Boston, MA, moved up to No. 3 in the rankings. Besides strong receipts for Celtics tickets, the Garden also benefits weekly from ticket sales for the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, who took No. 2 in this week’s sports rankings.
Also enjoying increased sales from the newly minted NBA season was the Los Angeles Lakers’ home, the Staples Center in at No. 4, and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Wells Fargo Center in at No. 6.
While theater venues made a weaker showing this week, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre managed to hold firm in the No. 2 spot.
The O’Neill’s blockbuster hit, “The Book of Mormon”, has played to record house crowds more than twenty times since opening in March, and in recent weeks the show’s producers announced that it had recouped its original $11.4 million cost in only nine months.
TicketNews Exclusive Rankings and Power Scores are based on ticket sales for venues from the TicketNetwork Exchange™. A Power Score illustrates a given venue’s significance among all other venues listed in the Exchange. Two factors are used to calculate a power score: total ticket sales for a venue, and total ticket sales overall.
| Venue | Score | |
| 1 | Madison Square Garden Tickets | 3.53 |
| 2 | Eugene O’Neill Theatre Tickets | 3.12 |
| 3 | TD Garden (Fleet Center) Tickets | 2.88 |
| 4 | Staples Center Tickets | 2.73 |
| 5 | Radio City Music Hall Tickets | 2.19 |
| 6 | Wells Fargo Center – PA (formerly Wachovia Center) Tickets | 2.08 |
| 7 | United Center Tickets | 1.54 |
| 8 | Air Canada Centre Tickets | 1.49 |
| 9 | Pantages Theatre – CA Tickets | 1.49 |
| 10 | HP Pavilion Tickets | 1.30 |
| 11 | Verizon Center – DC Tickets | 1.23 |
| 12 | American Airlines Arena Tickets | 1.11 |
| 13 | Toyota Center – TX Tickets | 1.08 |
| 14 | Gershwin Theatre Tickets | 1.05 |
| 15 | Pepsi Center Tickets | 1.03 |
| 16 | American Airlines Center Tickets | 1.03 |
| 17 | Amway Center Tickets | 0.90 |
| 18 | Oracle Arena Tickets | 0.86 |
| 19 | Bank Atlantic Center Tickets | 0.84 |
| 20 | Reliant Stadium Tickets | 0.84 |
