The Christmas Day game between the current NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers and the LeBron James-fueled Miami Heat is one like none other this upcoming basketball season.
Expected by many to be a preview of this year’s NBA Finals, the game pits Kobe Bryant and his veteran crew against James and the Heat, whose new power triad of James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade is making Heat fans dream of their first Championship win since 2006. The Christmas date is putting some focus to, and enhancing, months-long wild anticipation from fans and the media alike about the prospect of the two revamped teams meeting, sparking celebrity bets, and driving ticket prices through the roof.
Miami opens its preseason tomorrow, October 5, but primary and secondary ticket prices for the team’s Christmas Day meeting are skyrocketing. Just three days ago, American Express Cardmember tickets were on presale at Ticketmaster, with a face value of $600 as the only option available. Today, October 4, there are no such tickets available.
Christian Anderson, head of corporate communications for ticket search engine FanSnap, notes that the site has nine ticket sellers with a total of 4,900 ticket listings, and prices are averaging an impressive $939. The lowest priced ticket available on the site sells for $240.
StubHub’s corporate communications manager, Joellen Ferrer is seeing a similar picture at the ticket resale site. “We have certainly seen high activity and demand for the Christmas Heat-Lakers match-up. Already, it’s one of the most anticipated games of the season, based on gross sales on StubHub.
“Every year, the holiday games offer fans exciting match-ups, and without question, this is one that has been earmarked since the schedules were announced. On StubHub, fans have paid an average price of $521 per ticket for this game, which is course represents the wide range of seating locations. Currently, the range of tickets purchased has been as low as $225 and as high as $2,471 for this game.”