Season Tickets vs. StubHub? 2019 Report

It's been over a month since I've posted anything on this blog. And while I'm still trying to recover from what has to be one of the most disappointing seasons of my 19 year run as a season ticket holder, I have some things to say to wrap up this season and move on to the next, which hopefully starts with a lucky result in next Tuesday's draft lottery. We can always hope, right?

For the past five years on this blog, I've written an end of season post comparing the cost of Wizards season tickets to the cost of tickets on the secondary market based on my weekly tracking of season ticket prices on StubHub. This year I'm not doing that. Instead I'm just going to write about my own personal experience owning and selling Wizards season tickets in two locations in the building (Sections 109 and 415). And yes, I know the title of this post is now wrong.

I'm changing my reporting here for two reasons. First, I just couldn't be bothered to track this data every month or every week. It's just too much effort for a team that didn't exhibit much effort out on the court. Or in other words, I just don't have the data. Second, this is the first season since I've been tracking the value of my tickets that I've been underwater, where what I paid yielded less than the value of the dollars shelled out.

How do I measure that, you might ask? Here's how:

Let's say I have two pairs of tickets to a Wizards game: one in Section 109 which cost me $192 (2 tickets at $96 each) and one in Section 415 which cost me $80 (2 tickets at $40 each). Let's say I manage to sell my upper deck tickets for $28 and use the other two to go to the game. The value of that game for me is $192 because that's the cost of the seats that I am actually sitting in. I only recovered $56 on the two tickets I sold so therefore my cost for $192 of value is $216, meaning I took a $24 loss. 

I track every game like that for the entire year and then measure whether I won or lost money on the season. Every season I have tracked this, my value has been equal to or slightly greater than my cost, except this year when I took a loss of $307.

The month of March 2019. Possibly the most disastrous month ever from a Wizards value standpoint.

How did this happen, you might ask? Well broadly speaking and without citing any specific facts for now, the bottom fell out of the Wizards ticket market this year when the bottom fell out of the season, which happened in like November. Honestly, unless you wanted to go see the Warriors or Lakers games, this season's tickets were available for cheap (and certainly less than season ticket holders paid for them) on the secondary market. Too much supply and little demand. Folks lost interest in this season pretty quickly when the team started underperforming worse than they usually do to start a season. No winning, no attendance. Not this year.

Now for some specifics:

• This year I sat in my Section 415 seats just four times, meaning I sold or tried to sell 36 regular season games (the Wiz only had 40 home games this year due to the Londan game being a home game) and three preseason games. My total cost for those 39 games was $3,320. My return on trying to sell those tickets got me $1,492. These things have no value most games. The team selling them at $40 per regular season seat is far, far above market value. 


• There were just eight games this year where I sold tickets for more than I paid in Section 109 (Houston, Boston, the Lakers, Philadelphia, Golden State, Milwaukee, Miami and San Antonio). In the upper deck, that number dropped to five (the Lakers, Toronto, Golden State, Miami and Boston).  


• There were six games in the upper deck that I couldn't sell at all, not even for $5 to me and a cost of $7 to the buyer. That means that there was nobody willing to buy my seats for a lousy $7. $7!!!! The six games by the way were Orlando, the Clippers, Charlotte, Sacramento, Orlando again and Utah.


• I took a trip out of the country in March and had to miss the first six games of that month which unfortunately for me were not very sell-able. My cost for these six games? $1,632. My return via selling on the secondary market? $594.50. That's a loss of $1,037.50 over a two week period.


• I sold my lower level seats to the Orlando game on March 13 (which was one of the six games in the bullet above) for $25 each, a loss of $71 per seat.


• The overall numbers would have been way worse if it wasn't for the Miami game on March 23 and the Boston game on April 9. I actually made money on the Miami game just because (in all likelihood) it was Dwyane Wade's last game in D.C. In all likelihood refers to the reason I likely sold at a profit, not the likelihood it was Wade's last game in Washington. And the Boston game? Some fool paid me $60 per ticket for my upper deck seats only to be at a game where the entire roster of the Celtics sat out to rest for the postseason.

This is not a good set of stats for the Wizards season ticket holder.

To the Wizards' credit, I guess, they elected not to raise season ticket prices this year. I am sure the team has a lot of data similar to what I've presented above and I'm pretty positive they had lots of anecdotal information about how angry a good portion of the season ticket holder base was and is about the state of the franchise. Raising ticket prices would have been suicide, even with the firing of Ernie Grunfeld out there.

I also appreciate the fact that the team allowed me to renew my lower level tickets, which all things considered could sell pretty well (except in March of 2019) most nights, and not renew my seats in Section 415 which are nothing short of extortion on the part of the team. Unless the team goes deep into the playoffs for the next few seasons (which is unlikely) I see no way those seats returning the value to the people who buy them. They should drop the prices on those things. And fast.

I've had some pretty good years getting value out of my season tickets. The discount provided to season tickets have helped some years tremendously but the real value has come through season ticket holder benefits like the Monumental Rewards Program (now gone) and the Fluid Tickets Program (not gone but completely useless). I renewed my season tickets for three reasons this year: (1) next year is my 20th season and it's a nice round number, (2) some seasons I've attended a lot of games pretty cheaply so I'm OK overpaying for a couple of years at the end (that's such a terrible attitude by the way) and (3) maybe the team will win the draft lottery and tickets will become valuable again. I'll be watching next week for sure.

Wizards STH Roundtable: Renewal Time!

It's late February and that means two things for Wizards fans: (1) the trade deadline has passed and (2) the Wiz are asking their loyal season ticket holders for some cash for the next season. This year, those two events could be seen as intimately entwined with one another and I'm having difficulty seeing that as a good thing in any way right now. Throw in a catastrophic John Wall achilles injury and a very vocal quest for the postseason issued by the team (which might also be seen as a distraction from what was really a cost cutting exercise) and this season might test season ticket holders' mettle more than any other year in recent memory.

Time to head out and get the pulse from five members of the Wizards DC12 Club on five very relevant subjects in Wiz-land. Oh, and by the way, this team ain't making the playoffs no matter how much they tell Trevor Ariza and Jeff Green that they love them. These are perilous times indeed for Washington basketball fans. Let's see what our panel thinks about the state of the team and whether tickets are worth it at all anymore. Five questions. Five people. 25 answers.

1. Season Ticket Prices for the 2019-2020 season were announced last weekend. At least for next season, prices are frozen. How do you feel?

Patrick (Section 421; Season 4): The only seats I'd ever consider (unless my salary reaches six digits)  are in the 400s. As the prices have continued to increase during my four-year tenure as a season ticket holder, I decided to stick to seats within the similar price I have been paying. The seats I pay for in Section 421 didn't change and it looks like most, if not all, seats in the 400s didn't change. I'm disappointed that season ticket rates did not go down. The rates this season were already higher than they should have been. Considering John Wall is most likely not going to play next season and, who knows, maybe Brad won't be around next year, Monumental should be lowering the prices!

Josh (Section 109; Season 6): Ted and Monumental probably thought they were throwing us a bone by not raising prices but this season my prices were 20% higher than last. So that still works out to a 10% annual increase and I don't think the organization has performed well enough to "earn" such a raise. The idea, which they are touting in their materials, that next year's upgrades to the TV screen/scoreboard at center court and the ability to have wraparound advertisements on an LED strip is a new "benefit" for season ticket holders is a bit insulting.

Kim (Section 117; Season 11): The freeze placed on the ticket prices is a marketing strategy to hopefully entice season ticket holders to renew since the team has played so poorly. Ernie Grunfeld's mid-season trades did not help the team synergy or the morale of the fans.

Marcus (Section 104; Season 5): Prices stayed the same, which feels right. As much as we may have hoped for it, I didn't think they would actually lower the prices. Any increase, however, would have been a disaster. 

Jonathan (Sections 109/415; Season 19): How do I feel? Relieved. For the first time in a few years, neither my lower level seats nor my upper deck seats increased in price. This is a good move by the team considering I didn't really expect them to cut prices (which would have been a better move). Next year is likely going to be seen as a wasted year by a portion of the fan base and if they end up locking up Trevor Ariza or Jeff Green on long deals or sign Jabari Parker or Bobby Portis to deals with player options, they might be right. Raising ticket prices would have killed renewals in my opinion. My 400 level seats at $40 per game are still a complete waste of money that can easily be bested on the secondary market most games. My seats in Section 109 are still about the same price they were before Ted Leonsis slashed prices after the 2010-2011 season. It's ironic but one of the worst things Ted did to himself was to cut season tickets in some locations in half. He could have maintained those seats at the same price for eight years in a row. Instead, he's gotten them back to about where they were in 2010 and faced criticism for raising prices multiple times.

2. Otto gone. Oubre gone. Kieff gone. Mahinmi still here. Wall out 'til 2020. Where does that leave the Wiz?

Patrick: It's going to be a depressing season next season, especially if the franchise has the same coach and general manager. I had already tuned out of this season a couple of months ago when I realized I couldn't get consistently decent entertainment from watching this Brooks-led team. Considering that there will be only five players coming back next year for sure (I expect Dwight Howard to take the player option and, no, we are not paying Jabari Parker $20 million next year), this team is in total disarray and I don't see how the Wizards can be a formidable playoff team for the next couple years. At the very least, I would hope that the team can offer us fans entertaining basketball, even if in a losing fashion. That's all I'm asking for. Hey, Ted, Remember your 10 point plan?

Josh: The Wiz situation is just horribly depressing. I became a season ticket holder towards the end of Brad's first year. I went to Florida, so having Brad, and also remembering how awesome John was at Kentucky, made me excited about what was about to happen with the team. Then they made the playoffs for the first time in the Wall era my first full year as a ticket holder. There was just so much promise and excitement. Now it has all come crashing down - with a ton of disappointment along the way. Bad coaching and even worse management and, of course, some bad injury luck. Ugh it's just so bad.

Kim: It leaves the team in the basement...rebuilding again with everything on Beal and Satoransky. Thomas Bryant needs to hit the weight room to bulk up a bit so that he doesn't get pushed around as much. He's a "diamond in the rough" and looking forward to his development. Mahinmi...(heavy sigh) such an albatross. $15.9 million bench-warmer who is laughing all the way to the bank.

Marcus: In trouble. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any hope for the Wizards in the near future. John's injury is a major blow to the franchise. It's very possible that he will never be the same again and the supermax will really hinder the Wizards' potential and flexibility for the next few years. The only real hope is for the ping pong balls to have that Irene Pollin magic.

Jonathan: Drifting. Honestly, what's the plan? Are we going to just say we expect to contend each year, put a toe over the luxury tax line and then decided to sell off players and give away picks when it turns out we are not as good a team as ownership says we should be? And then do the same thing over and over again each year? Is anyone going to figure out a short term or long term plan because this "win now" mentality that's driven the team to make band-aid move after band-aid move without ever actually "winning now" is nuts. 

3. Did you try selling any of your tickets this year? How did that work out for you?

Patrick: I will be attending the fewest number of games I've ever attended these past four years. I maxed out the number of games I could return via the Fluid Ticket Program and tried to sell the other tickets. Unless the Wizards are playing a marquee team like the Warriors, there is no way I could break even on my tickets. My section isn't particularly a place where a potential buyer would prioritize, but looking at prices on third-party sites makes me wish I just bought my tickets on StubHub.

Josh: I tend to get to only 12-15 regular season games a year, and this year I went a bit less because of how depressing the team has been. I depend on the resale market to help me afford my tickets but the resale market has been depressed too and I will probably end up with double the costs for my tickets compared to last year, even when adjusting for the season ticket price increase.

Kim: No. Not applicable for me.

Marcus: I've sold more tickets this year than I have in any of the past years as a season ticket holder. The Ticketmaster site keeps getting increasingly difficult to use. They've taken away some of the useful stats of actual seats sold to help you with pricing. They have implemented a "recommended price" feature that I've used with some success. The biggest issue is that there isn't really too much demand for Wizard basketball outside of LeBron or Steph coming to town. It really seems like a better deal to not have season tickets. 

Jonathan:  I did because I felt I had to. The increased cost of season tickets meant unfortunately I wanted to recover some of my cost so I sold the Golden State and Lakers games without thinking about it. I also have upper deck seats so I tried to unload at least two tickets per game. It was tough. 400 level tickets by and large are worthless. Of the 26 home games so far, I've sold just four games for more than I paid. Of the remaining 22, I've sold 10 for $10 per seat or less and I've eaten two more entirely.

4. The Wizards promotional schedule has a bobblehead giveaway on April 5. Who should it be?

Patrick: This is a no brainer for me but let me think about this more strategically. Let's see...who on this team actually deserves some recognition? It should be someone who has been playing a decent number of minutes. Therefore, it can't be the rookie. My favorite bench warmer, Jason Smith, is no longer around. It should also be someone who has been on the team for a while. *looks at roster* Wait a minute...how many players were even on this team before this season?!? Since John and Brad already have had their own bobblehead nights, I'll name my favorite non-All-Star player on the roster: Tomas Satoransky.

Josh: Ooof. Tough one. I guess Thomas Bryant has been the most fun player to root for this year? I'd like a Kara Lawson bobble - she's so great, my daughters (who I take to all of the games) love her, and she and Buck make me more proud of the Wiz organization than anyone else at this point.

Kim: Tomas Satoransky. He has really stepped up as the most improved player in my opinion for the last two years while John Wall was out injured. His confidence has greatly increased and he's not hesitant like he used to be. They should put his jersey in the team store as well.

Marcus: Thomas Bryant. That would be my dream. It's probably Bradley; I don't think that he's had one in quite a while.

Jonathan: Tomas or Thomas. If I were asked to make a prediction, I'd say it's going to be an All-Star Bradley Beal bobble, which would be the fourth team-issued Beal bobble. It's too bad the Wizards self-limit their own options here. I'm sure they want to hand out something that will make fans turn out for the giveaway alone and scheduling just one bobble per year gives them no flexibility to give a role player and possible future star a shoutout for hard work and good play. The solution here, of course, is to give away more than one per season like a lot of other teams do. I'm rooting for Satoransky or Bryant and expecting Beal. And as a side note, the Wizards are masters at self-limiting their own options across the board.

5. 2019-20 season: in or out or on the fence? 

Patrick: I'm not COMPLETELY out. If I had to give a percentage, I'm about 99.99999999% out. If Ernie Grunfeld is fired before the renewal date, I'll renew my tickets, but pay for the cheapest seat available. The benefits and incentives we get as the most basic of season ticket holders (i.e. not Courtside, VIP, etc.) have gotten worse over the years to the point I don't think we are being appreciated. *sigh* Why do I even root for this franchise?

Josh: I will temporarily renew to hold my tickets but if Ernie is still the GM heading into the draft I am canceling my tickets. Ted blocked me on Twitter, so that's the only way to make my frustrated voice heard at this point!

Kim: On the fence!

Marcus: Extremely on the fence for a couple of reasons. Like I stated before, it seems like it would be cheaper to find secondary market tickets for every game than to have season tickets. The other is a personal reason; my wife and I are about to have our first child due in March and I'm sure that will mean fewer trips to Capital One next year. I love my current seats, though. That might be what will keep me in.

Jonathan: Right now I'm on the fence. This is my 19th year and I always said I wanted to make it at least 20. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say? I appreciate the gesture by the team to keep ticket prices the same next year. Some of my years as a season ticket holder have been pretty good to me from a finacial standpoint. I'm willing to give it at least one more year if the team will let me not renew my upper deck seats. If they won't do that, I might be leaning towards out.

Preseason

The Washington Wizards wrapped up their five game preseason slate last night by pounding the Guangzhou Long-Lions 140-111. Devin Robinson led the Wizards onslaught with 23 points and a number of spectacular dunks. Austin Rivers was the high man with five assists and Troy Brown picked up more boards than any other Wizard with eight. There will never be a box score like this in the regular season. Ignoring the fact that I don't know exactly what a Long-Lion is, nobody really cared about this game. 

Other than promoting general international basketball goodwill, last night's game was pointless. Most Wizards season ticket holders didn't care about the contest and didn't go and the Wizards coaching staff didn't care because John Wall and Bradley Beal didn't play at all. Yet I was charged by the Washington Wizards $136 for last night's game. I was also charged the same amount for the other two preseason home games against the Miami Heat and New York Knicks. This has to stop.

Eight preseason games used to be standard for every NBA team. This year the Wizards played five, three at home and two away, just like they did last year. Since I became a Wizards season ticket holder in 2000, I think three is the maximum number of preseason home games the team has ever had. We used to get two or maybe some years even one as the team tried to fill other local arenas in lieu of their home building downtown. It spread the excitement of the NBA to other cities while sparing season ticket holders the burden of paying half price for some meaningless games. Now for some reason, we are made to pay for three.

Apparently NBA teams are free to set their own preseason schedules, unless they are selected for an international tour like the 76ers and Mavericks just finished in China or like the 2008 Wizards did in Berlin and Barcelona 10 years ago. If teams are truly free to schedule as many preseason games as they want at home, why are the Wizards scheduling three? It just unnecessarily drives up the cost of season ticket plans. I get that $136 per game is not a lot, but some ticket holders paid five figures per seat for these meaningless games. Also if $136 is not a lot to me, it's certainly not a lot to the Wizards, who have way more money than I do.

Packed house for the Wizards-Knicks preseason game last week.

I attended one of our three preseason games this year, the first one against the Knicks. I cared so much that I left at halftime. All things considered, I got kind of lucky. All five starters (except for Dwight Howard with his mysterious butt injury) played significant minutes and the Budweiser Brewhouse was open for discounted beer although none of the regular bartenders showed up (hey, it's preseason, right?).

I actually got lucky in other ways this preseason. I actually sold all my other tickets that I didn't use, albeit all of them at a loss. Yes, someone actually paid me for my lower level tickets to see the Wizards and the Long-Lions last night. I can imagine they might have wanted to see John Wall and Bradley Beal up close and playing. They didn't get that privilege. I'm not arguing with the decision to sit Wall and Beal but I am objecting to the Wizards charging me for a game I didn't attend and someone who bought my ticket for a game that the team really didn't take seriously by resting players.

But I imagine the excitement felt by the two folks who bought my lower level seats for just twenty bucks (to me) plus fees (which go to Monumental Sports since they also own Ticketmaster locally) was nothing compared to the folks who shelled out some money last preseason to see the Wizards take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. I actually got more money than I paid out of that sale. What the people who bought my seats got was tickets to a game with no LeBron, no Dwayne Wade, no Derrick Rose, no Tristan Thompson, no Iman Shumpert, no J.R. Smith and no Jae Crowder playing for the Cavs because they all sat out. Healthy but not playing (because there was no point to the game). There is no way I would have sold those tickets if the "injury report" was made available ahead of time. No way.

In recent years, the NBA had tried its best to make sure that fans don't get cheated out of their money by watching games where teams rest players. This is a star-driven league and most fans pay to watch players not teams. When healthy players sit, fans get cheated when they pay for games. The league has extended the schedule to allow more rest and has also fined teams in the regular season for taking games off. They need to start doing that with the preseason or just not charging people for tickets. They can start with the season ticket holders and they can make the tickets non-transferable electronic tickets so they can't be re-sold. Somehow, this has to stop.

Season Tickets vs. StubHub? 2018 Report

This is the fourth of four posts I'm writing to wrap up the 2017-2018 NBA season and then I'm putting this thing on hold for the summer, or most of the summer anyway. Yes, I know the NBA season is still going on with the Finals about to start. It's just not going on for me. After a series of heightened expectations for the Wizards this season, the team historically underperformed and in the process revealed itself to be poorly constructed, complacent and with little freedom to improve without some creative moves that actually pay off, something that has been sorely lacking these past ten seasons or so. I'm tired of writing about this mess, so I'm taking some time off to detox.

Every year since 2014, I've written a blog post about the cost of Wizards tickets on the secondary market. This year is no exception. I believe it's important to track and report this data, especially considering the extreme hikes in season ticket prices that some of us have experienced over the past few years, including this one. The important thing for me to understand here is whether Wizards tickets on the open or secondary market can be had for less than what season ticket holders pay, which is supposed to be a discount over the market price, although the Wizards, and every other team out there, will advertise it as a discount over the gate price. The open market is more important.

First, let's re-set the conditions of this data gathering I do every year. I have two sets of season tickets for Wizards home games over at Capital One Arena, one pair in Section 109, Row E and one pair upstairs in Section 415, Row C. Both these seats are in what I call the corner sections, but which over the years the Wizards have gone back and forth on between corner and center. The focus of this exercise is to validate the price of my tickets. I know it's selfish but it's my damn blog, although in the process I assume this reporting is helping Wizards fans in general feel confident or not so confident about the price they pay for their tickets.

It's important to note a few things here. (1) The price of tickets on the secondary market is variable. The price of tickets rise and fall based on how the Wizards are performing, whether stars on the visiting team are injured, the night of the week, whether the Washington NFL franchise is playing and even when you decide to buy. There's a lot of unpredictability about this thing. My data was captured anywhere from a few days to a few weeks ahead of time for each game. I didn't shop for the highest or lowest prices; I just took what I found when I looked. I believe over time and having done this for years that this won't affect the big picture that much.

(2) Listed for sale doesn't mean sold. The fact that folks are pricing tickets at a certain price level doesn't mean they are selling at that price. Overall, I guess you could argue this may yield slightly higher results and thus make it seem that the secondary market appears more robust than it actually is. I don't share that opinion. If you want a ticket to go to a game, you are either going to pay the advertised price or not. In addition to tracking this stuff, I actually sell on the secondary market sometimes. I believe after doing that for several years, I have a fairly good nose for this stuff.

(3) Don't become a ticket reseller based on this post. The prices reported here for ticket sales do not reflect the money delivered to the seller. Remember that StubHub (which is the source of this pricing data) takes a cut as does every other secondary market seller. I don't want anyone out there buying season tickets and then getting annoyed because I said you can sell Wizards tickets at a profit. While the results reported here show that Wizards tickets are slightly more expensive overall on the secondary market, the margin is not enough for you to be profitable as a regular seller. Want to sell your Wizards vs. Warriors tickets? You can probably make some cash, if you believe that you are actually paying the same amount for each Wizards home game (news flash: you are not and some of your tickets are worth about nothing).

Over the prior four years I've done this, the price of season tickets has proven to be cheaper than the secondary market every single year. This year is no different. For trending purposes, I have found season tickets in the lower level to be 30% (2014), 48% (2015), 29% (2016) and 26% (2017) cheaper than those available on the resale market. For the 400 level, the trending has been slightly to significantly lower at 25% (2014), 46% (2015), 17% (2016) and 19% (2017) cheaper than on StubHub.

Here are this year's results:

• Purchasing Section 109, Row E seats for the entire 2017-2018 season cost me $3,400. Purchasing approximately equivalent seats on StubHub would have cost me $4,681. Season tickets are 38% cheaper. It's worth noting that next year's seats in my location will cost $4,080, which about splits the difference between this year's costs and the resale market.
• Purchasing Section 415, Row C seats for the entire 2017-2018 season cost me $1,530. Purchasing approximately equivalent seats on StubHub would have cost me $1,737. Season tickets are 14% cheaper. This is an extremely slim margin, lower than I've ever found. Next year, these tickets will go up to $1,700, essentially wiping out any discount over the secondary market. This is a hugely significant point!

As I have done in the past, I have included the cost of preseason tickets in the cost of my season tickets but not in the resale cost. These games are worthless yet the team continues make season ticket holders pay for them at half the cost of a regular game. It's disgraceful and shouldn't continue. There is no Earthly reason why season ticket holders should be made to fork over the cost of an additional 1.5 games (3 preseason games at half price) when they've spent a lot of money of 41 regular season games.

The results above make lower level season tickets seem like a bargain (they do not make upper deck seats seem like a bargain). But are they really? Just like in prior years, the average cost continues to be driven up by some marquee games. Want tickets to see the Wiz play Golden State? By my research you'll pay $345 for a seat similar to mine downstairs. Cleveland? $262 or $293 depending on whether you wanted to attend in November or December. This of course represents a significant dilemma for the season ticket holder who feels he (or she) is paying too much and wants to recoup some cash via resales. Yes, you can get a significant portion of your investment (please don't laugh at that word) by selling off your Warriors or Thunder tickets but then you also don't get to see those games in person.

On the flip side, if you wanted to go see a bunch of games at Capital One Arena below season ticket holder prices, you can. I have 15 games on my spreadsheet with resale prices below the average season ticket holder game cost, including getting in to games against Phoenix and Utah for less than $47. Remember, I'm paying $80 per. You could also quite easily have attended more than half the games this year in seats comparable to mine for less than $1,500 or less than $72 per contest. The story in this paragraph and the one prior are true every year and likely always will be.

Of course one of the biggest benefits of being a season ticket holder is the guarantee of the right to purchase playoff tickets at what (if the team makes it far enough) will eventually be a deep discount. Don't believe me? Check out the graphic at the top of this post for the (at the time I took the screenshot) then unavailable home game one in Houston for the NBA Finals. The pricing is, shall we say, robust. Of course it also won't happen since the Rockets lost Monday night to the Warriors. Still don't believe me? Check out the pic below showing Stanley Cup Finals tickets for a Capitals home game. Yes, I know folks are crazy about the Caps and there's a lot of years of playoff losses inflating those prices but they are still crazy high.

In playoff years, I typically track the secondary market values for postseason games also. This year, I did not because (a) I was pretty much checked out at this point and (b) I figured the Wizards weren't going far and I was right. I will say that if you intend or need to sell your playoff tickets that timing can be everything. People make emotional decisions during the playoffs. Game 6 tickets vs. Toronto might have sold well if they were available right after a game 4 win at home. Just saying...

If the risk / reward of skipping or attending the regular season game vs. the Golden State Warriors is a head scratcher for the average Wizards faithful, the playoffs represent a sort of double jeopardy. These tickets typically will represent a good resale potential (although not as much as marquee games against regular season opponents in some case; nowhere close actually) but these are the games that you want to attend. Going to the playoffs is why you buy in the first place. They are also the most expensive tickets you will ever buy from the team. Sorry for the no results this year on this one.

So that's my report for this season. I'm not the only one who writes about this stuff. You can get a little bit different take on this whole situation by reading WizKid's report on this whole situation. And in case you read that and end up feeling that he and I are in totally different spots, I'm not sure that's true. Ultimately the analysis of whether this purchase is worth it is a personal one. I can easily make the case as WizKid does that my season tickets are not worth it. After all, is beating your heart against a brick wall for 18 years with just one division title to show for it really worth it? We all have to make that decision for ourselves.

I will say in closing, though, that the math behind an upper deck season ticket purchase considering the price hikes next year really is to the point where it no longer works. The team has to stop raising these prices. Other than the playoff incentive (meaning first or second round exit given recent history) and a couple of other season ticket holder perks, the numbers don't really work at all here. I did renew my upper deck tickets next year; I don't think I will if the numbers are similar next season and there's another price hike.

Price Check!

I know what you are thinking. I said just less than three weeks ago that I was done complaining about the cost of Wizards season tickets on this blog. Let's address the issue head on, shall we? 

First, the Wizards lost today to the hapless and nothing-to-play-for Chicago Bulls. Yes, we were on a super-rare afternoon back-to-back but if this team is really supposed to be going places, it needs to beat the Bulls even in Chicago at this point in the season. The Wizards are just one game ahead of the Miami Heat at this point. And the Heat have the tiebreaker for the division title (and higher seed) and they don't have to play the Houston Rockets or the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road.

Second, Twitter happened. I saw a tweet this morning objecting to the price of Wizards upper deck tickets, something I myself have ranted about for the last couple of years. I believe seats in the 400 level are overpriced and I also believe that long-time season ticket holders should get a discount of some sort to allow them to hold on to the tickets they've sat in through multiple, multiple losing seasons. And not just losing. Like horribly losing. That tweet got me wondering, though. Are the Wizards upper deck tickets really overpriced vs. the rest of the NBA? I took a similar look at this issue three years ago. I think it's time for a refresh on this one.

Finally, I'm not complaining. Other than in the previous paragraph.

So...here's the deal with what I've done. I've looked at the price of the front row and the back row seats in most of the arenas around the league and ranked them 1 to whatever (it's not 30, oddly enough). I did my comparison shopping at center court and nowhere else and based on the tweet I saw this morning, I did it only in the upper deck. Just one vertical slice through the building.

Some disclaimers: 

One: This comparison took me less than an hour so it's inherently not researched very thoroughly. I used data from each NBA team's website about the cost of 2018-2019 season tickets, where the information was available. If it wasn't, I moved on. That's why prices aren't ranked 1-30. I just didn't get some.

Two: All arenas are different and I'm not considering that in this quick post. The upper deck in Memphis or Detroit or Portland or wherever else may not be equivalent to the 400 level at Capital One Arena. Some buildings don't even have the same number of levels as the Wizards' home over at 601 F Street NW.

Three: Pricing of NBA tickets is way more nuanced than comparing the price of center court tickets in the uppermost level, even beyond considering the geometry of the different arenas in disclaimer two above. As you move towards the corners of the arenas to the end zones, prices may fluctuate differently in different buildings. The rankings below may be completely different when you look at that data. I didn't. I just skipped it. Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this, since I consider my tickets to be in the corner; the Wizards, however, don't so I'm paying center court prices for corner tickets. Sorry, that was a complaint.

On to the results? Well, not quite yet.

Below is a list of the prices for back row upper deck tickets for 20 of the 30 NBA teams. Why only 20? Because I couldn't find pricing easily for 10 of the teams. Following that, there is a list of the prices for front row upper deck tickets for 18 of the 30 NBA teams. What happened to the two other teams from one list to the other, you may ask? Well, Houston prices their tickets "starting at" but doesn't give a upper range and Phoenix only shows prices for available seats, and there are no seats available at the front of center court in their arena. The Suns sold all those out.

And what about the other 10 teams? Well, four teams (Boston, Golden State, the Lakers and Toronto) have wait lists and just haven't published their prices. Chicago also has a wait list but they published their prices. Of the other six, two (Cleveland and Indiana) want you to make an inquiry (I didn't, or more accurately chose not to, have time to wait for that) and one (Oklahoma City) just doesn't give any information at all (I'm kind of assuming there's a wait list here too).

The other three are the Atlanta Hawks, the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers. Philly, like Phoenix, only shows pricing for seats that are available and it appears the entire upper deck where season tickets are available are sold out. If you want Knicks tickets, it appears there may be some but the team wants a $250 per seat nonrefundable deposit. If they have seats, they'll let you decide if you want to buy them when they tell you where they are. Don't like the location? The team keeps your $250. Finally, I just got a black screen when I clicked on the Hawks' link for season tickets, which somehow seems perfect for that franchise.

I'm taking this page to mean that the Sixers' upper deck tickets are all gone.

So, with all that said, here are the prices for the last row in the upper deck of 20 of the 30 NBA franchises, with most expensive listed first.

1. Chicago Bulls: $70 per game.
2. Sacramento Kings: $1,806 per season.
3. Miami Heat: $40 per game.
4. Brooklyn Nets: $35 per game.
5. Portland Trail Blazers: $33.60 per game.
6. Houston Rockets: $1,364 per season.
7. Detroit Pistons: $1,320 per season.
8. Milwaukee Bucks: $29 per game.
9. San Antonio Spurs: $28 per game.
10. Washington Wizards: $28 per game / $1,190 per season.
11. Phoenix Suns: $1,177 per game.
12. Orlando Magic: $1,099 per season.
13. Minnesota Timberwolves: $1,008 per season.
14. Los Angeles Clippers: $968 per season.
15. Denver Nuggets: $22 per game.
16. Dallas Mavericks: $766 per season.
17. Utah Jazz: $18 per game.
18. New Orleans Pelicans: $750 per season.
19. Charlotte Hornets: $14 per game.
20. Memphis Grizzlies: $11 per game.

The Wizards are listed 10th on the list above. They are actually tied for 9th with the San Antonio Spurs, which is amazing to me that possibly equivalent seats between the most consistently successful franchise in the NBA over the past two decades can cost the same as they do for a Wizards season ticket holder. Three years ago, I put the Wizards 24th out of 25 teams in a similar study of season tickets with decidedly different parameters. While it's clear the cost of Wizards tickets have risen relative to the rest of the NBA, I'm not sure they are that out of line with other cities.

Some other things that stick out here. The cost of tickets in Chicago are insane; I can't imagine paying $70 a game for upper deck last row tickets. And they are all sold. Sacramento's tickets are equally surprising, although almost $30 per game less than in Chicago. I actually went back to Sacto's website to check my numbers were correct and they are. The only thing I can think here is only game in town and new building. Finally, if I'm in Memphis, how do I not have season tickets. $11 a game? Seriously? Charlotte too at $14, particularly if it gets me any shot at the All-Star Weekend activities next year. I'm not sure it does by the way.

As far as the Wizards place goes vs. the rest of the league, they are right in the middle of things. There's little variation in price between 14 (the Clippers) and 6 (the Rockets). Some teams list price per seat; others list price per season. Depending on the number of preseason and overseas neutral site games (read: Mexico City and London), positions may switch just a bit. But overall, this list shows Wizards tickets in the last row of the upper deck center court are not overpriced, especially considering Washington has to be in the upper half of cost of living and what I'm assuming are some of the most expensive tickets (Boston, Golden State, New York and Toronto) are not even on the list.

Had to double check but indeed, Sacramento Kings tickets are really expensive.

So what about the front row in those same sections? Well, here's that list. Remember I dropped two from the list.

1. Chicago Bulls: $80 per game.
2. Sacramento Kings: $3,096 per season.
3. Brooklyn Nets: $72 per game.
4. Portland Trail Blazers: $68.40 per game.
5. San Antonio Spurs: $68 per game.
6. Miami Heat: $55 per game.
7. Milwaukee Bucks: $53 per game.
8. Los Angeles Clippers: $2,275 per season.
9. New Orleans Pelicans: $2,100 per season.
10. Minnesota Timberwolves: 1,932 per season.
11. Denver Nuggets: $43 per game.
12. Charlotte Hornets: $42 per game.
13. Dallas Mavericks: $1,770 per season.
14. Detroit Pistons: $1,760 per season.
15. Washington Wizards: $40 per game / $1,700 per season.
16. Orlando Magic: $1,699 per season.
17. Utah Jazz: $34 per game.
18. Memphis Grizzlies: $31.50 per game.

Some notes here. First, San Antonio tickets are way more valuable in the front of the upper deck than they are at the back. Justifiably so, I think. Four titles in the last 20 years and the only major sports team in town I think let's you do whatever you want. Second, I'm still buying tickets if I'm in Memphis and also Utah on the basis of this list. Probably more so in Utah considering the team's play this year but on a city basis, I'm picking Memphis. Finally, I still can't believe the price of tickets in Sacramento. Who buys these things? Although, let's be honest, I likely would if I lived there.

Now, it seems like the Wizards tickets in the front row of the upper deck are priced near the bottom of the league. That's not really true. I'd consider the price of tickets from spot number 9 (the Pelicans) to spot number 16 (the Magic) to be pretty much the same. Heck, if Orlando charged $100 more for an entire season, they'd jump up four spots. The Pelicans tickets are going to go up on April 12 by the way; early bird pricing ends on 4/11. My conclusion about these tickets for the Wizards are the same as the back row: these tickets are not overpriced relative to the rest of the NBA.

All that's not to say that Wizards tickets aren't too expensive. I still think they are. All this is also not to pick on the tweet I saw this morning. I think in spirit, I am right in line with the thinking that I saw on Twitter. The one thing that I'll say about all this though is that more price hikes by the Wizards in coming seasons the likes of what we've seen over the past couple will put the cost for season ticket holders higher than other arenas in a hurry. They'll be priced like tickets for teams in New York or teams that sell out at least half their games in every season or teams that have won championships recently. The Wizards for sure aren't any of those.

Back For Season 19

Last week I made the decision to renew all four of my Wizards season tickets for the 2018-2019 season. I handed over my credit card at the Renewal Suite (aka Suite 124) before the most recent game we shouldn't have lost at home (against the Timberwolves) and had $11,560 added to my credit card. That's a lot of money and it took a lot of thought but I decided ultimately that I've had some pretty cheap seasons over the years with the Wizards, I can afford one more really expensive one. I'm sure next year they will ask for more.

I'm also sure next year's decision will be harder. I made this year's decision knowing that the price might be too rich for my friend Mike to participate as he has these last 15 years. I might have to make a different decision next year if he's out and I have to bear the entire cost of these seats myself. I wanted to get to at least 20 years but if the cost is just too high, I might be stopping at 19.

All that means I'll be back at 601 F Street for an unspecified number of home games next season. It will not likely be anywhere close to all 41. I'll likely be replaced by Golden State Warriors fans, Cleveland Cavaliers fans, Houston Rockets fans and Boston Celtics fans for between four and six games and I may have to give up a few more. It sucks that I will likely miss most of the big regular season games next year and it sucks more that there may be road team fans in my seats in those games but all of that sucks way less than the cost of season tickets going up (for me) over 19%. I offered some suggestions in 2016 to get more season ticket holders to every game. I guess nobody at Monumental Sports is listening to my suggestions if they are even hearing them.

At this point, I guess I can give up seeing the Wizards win a big regular season game. What I really need is the Wizards to win a big game in the Eastern Conference Finals or the NBA Finals. Winning games in the regular season or the first or second rounds of the playoffs is no longer good enough at this price point. We need some better results.

So for all my hard earned and spent cash, I've got 41 sets of tickets to home games next year plus three preseason games. Why preseason games aren't free for season ticket holders is beyond me. I get that the arena needs to pay staff during these games and it costs money to open up the building, but preseason games in the NBA are a complete joke. When the Cavaliers visited the Wizards last October 8, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose all sat out. Thank God some poor schmo bought my ticket for that "contest." The team should give these tickets to season ticket holders for free. They could make them all electronic and non-re-sellable / non-transferable so we couldn't profit off them if they wanted. But they absolutely should be free.

By renewing early (before March 16) I get $25 per seat of food and beverage credit that I have to use sometime during the rest of this season (regular season only; no playoffs). Hey, $100 is $100. It's not like I'm not going to spend $100 on beers during the remaining seven home games. I also get the standard array of Wizards benefits like tickets to the Meet The Team Party, open skating at Kettler Ice Arena and the like in addition to a brand new seat next year at Capital One Arena. Of all the advertised benefits for season ticket holders, I'm looking forward to the advertised VIP access at Wizards SummerFest the most. I'm not sure that even has been held since about 2014. If they don't have it, do I get some of my money back? I'm guessing no.

I love being a Wizards season ticket holder. Yes, I know we have one of the worst track records of success among the 30 NBA teams in the 18 years I've been doing it so far but I still love showing up for games, participating in season ticket holder events and just being proud to be a Wizards fan. I promise this post is the last time I will complain about the price of season tickets for a while. I just needed to put it down that the rising costs are making this long time ticket holder think twice or three times about the value I get out of this experience. I know someone will take my place if I quit; well, maybe not during the down times I've seen since 2000.

For Wizards season ticket holders still thinking about it, you have six more days to renew. If you decide you are in, don't renew online. Get yourself to the Renewal Suite at Capital One Arena next Friday and renew there. If you do that, you'll get the chance to select an envelope off the renewal board which will give you an extra prize. We got VIP lower level wristbands in our envelope this year. Just saying you may as well get everything out of your renewal costs that you can. See you next season if you are in.

Annual Season Ticket Hike

The NBA All-Star break seemed like a good time for me to take some much deserved personal time off so I've been out of town and mostly out of touch for the last two weeks, including missing the last two Wizards home games. Seems like there's a lot been going on here around this team recently. And of course it's all been typically Wizards-like.

Let me see if I got all this straight.

Bradley Beal participated in his first All-Star Game, scoring 14 points in 17 minutes of action for the victorious Team LeBron. For his efforts (which I'm thankful were limited to just 17 minutes) Bradley picked up a cool $100K for his team winning the game, which I'm sure helped offset the sting of not making it out of the first round of the Three Point Contest on All-Star Saturday Night.

On the Wizards side of things, the team went 3-0 on the road, including coming back from a 27 point deficit in New York against the Knicks and beating the Cavaliers in Cleveland. They celebrated that victory over the Cavs by laying an egg at home in true Wizards fashion against the Charlotte Hornets two days later before rebounding Sunday night to pound the super hot Philadelphia 76ers (I get the Sixers had a favorable schedule recently) into submission for an easy win. If this team could just stop losing to teams it should beat easily...

On the player movement front, it looks like the Wizards missed out on Joe Johnson, Brandan Wright, Greg Monroe and Marco Belinelli and settled for handing a 10 day contract to point guard Ramon Sessions. Why we continue to insist on finding a point guard rather than getting a reliable shooting guard to back up Bradley Beal continues to amaze me. Jodie Meeks ain't working out, folks. Please get someone who can knock down a shot behind Bradley Beal before his body completely wears out this season.

Oh...and then season ticket prices went up. Again. And that's what this post is really about. This is not a tradition I like at all.

Let me say I was dreading this news. I got the email while I was somewhere in Tanzania and had to open it immediately. I needed to know what the damage was. The resale market for Wizards tickets is hotter than I have ever seen it since I first started tracking it during the 2013-2014 season so I thought it would be bad. I'll have more on this after the season is over but suffice it to say that if I know the secondary market is hopping, so do the folks that run the Wizards and price the tickets.

The introductory screen to my renewal information features a ticking clock and a statement from the Wizards about how happy the team was to present me my renewal information. I bet they were.

So let's have it. What's the damage?

 

Not yet.

First up? A description of the upcoming renovations to Capital One Arena. New seats? OK, sure, I'll take a new seat. Better food choices? I've been pushing for those for years. Upgraded clubs? Why do I care? Can't get into those anyway. Better sound system? Won't turn that down but does it win us more games? Retail store open all year round? Don't care. New sponsors? Who on Earth cares about that? Wait, is all this justifying the increase in season tickets that's coming later in this same announcement I'm reading? Can you just tell me how much more I have to pay?

Not yet.

Gotta go through benefits of being a season ticket holder first, including the less-exciting-than-last-year fluid tickets program, flexible payment options that I don't use, Monumental Sports Network that I don't watch, 6th Man referral program that I can't take advantage of and a decal with my name that I guess is nice but doesn't really add that much value for me. You know what? I know all the bennies already; I've been doing this almost two decades and they pretty much get worse every year. Just give me the bad news.

 

Nope, not quite yet. 

Up next is the Events & Milestones section, including VIP access at SummerFest which hasn't been held in years (we'll see if that comes true; my money's on no) and then the Renewal Incentives section which basically is $25 of food and drink credit for early renewal. Yes, there's the ability to buy playoff tickets for this offseason (woo hoo!) and a Bradley Beal autographed basketball if you use your Capital One credit or debit card (I won't) but for me, it's basically $25 or like two beers.

 

NOW, we get to the pricing.

 

So how bad is it? Well, honestly, not as bad as I expected because when it comes to Wizards ticket prices, I'm a glass half empty (or maybe 3/4 empty) guy. But that doesn't mean there is not a stiff hike here.  It's actually pretty bad.

 

Let's start with the less bad news (for me) and that's that my seats in the upper deck are only going up $4 per game, which still translates into an increase of $164 per seat for the regular season (a little more with the three preseason games we are forced to buy). Despite the fact that it's only $4 per game more, I'm still kind of annoyed about this. Resale prices have been hovering at an average of about $36 per seat, so technically season ticket holders may be paying more than tickets can be had for on the secondary market. There's still about a 1/4 of the season left so those numbers may ultimately end up being different but I honestly thought this year was the year they would freeze prices upstairs at least for one season. Guess not.

 

Downstairs, things are worse. Much worse. My per game ticket increase is $16 per game, from $80 this year to $96 next season. Ouch! That's a full 20% above this year's price and pretty much at the same price before season ticket prices were frozen after the 2010-2011 season for a period of three years. Since that freeze was lifted, my seats in the 100 level have increased in price by 92%!!! My season ticket bill this time last year was $9,680; this year, it's $11,560. That's an increase of $1,880 or 19.4%. In one year!!! YIKES!!!!

And I'm not necessarily getting a superior product on the floor. Last year the Wizards won 49 games and made it to the last game of the second round of the playoffs. This year there's probably no way they are getting to 49 and can they really make it to the Eastern Conference Finals? Let's make no mistake here: the only reason prices are going up is because people are willing to pay to go see this team play now. It's not because the team is better.

 

So what does this all mean for me? Honestly, it means I have to make the same sort of choice next year as I've made this year: pay more to attend every Wizards game which is what I really want to do or start skipping some games so my costs don't go up as much. I've missed more games this year than any single season since my second year as a season ticket holder when I was splitting the games with another person and the biggest reason I've cut back is the cost is getting too steep, particularly to watch a team that has lost to the Mavericks, Jazz, Suns and Trail Blazers.

 

For a die hard Wizards fan that's about to re-up for his 19th season (with only one division title to date) that choice is difficult to make. I realize the Wizards have every right to keep pace with supply and demand (which is ALL the team is doing here; charging more because they know people will pay) but it doesn't show a ton of loyalty to those fans who've poured money into season tickets for more than a decade. I'm in for another season, but it's getting harder and harder every year and I'm not rushing right out and renewing at the earliest opportunity. This team talks about treating season ticket holders well; I'm not feeling it right now.