By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
Ticket re-seller Vivid Seats says NBA Summer League Day 1 tickets on their secondary market platform is selling for more than double the price than the $35 per ticket cost at the box office.
On Wednesday, the average cost of a ticket sold for Friday’s Summer League opening day on Vivid Seats was $94, $2 more than the average ticket cost Tuesday and five bucks more than the ticket price Monday, according to Vivid Seats.
Ticket re-seller StubHub is listing the least expensive Summer League ticket at $100 as of Wednesday morning.
The increasing secondary ticket market prices for NBA Summer League’s first day is “consistent with the sales and demand for sure,” Thomas & Mack Center Executive Director Mike Newcomb said Wednesday morning.
The 11-day, 83-game NBA Summer League, which has all 30 NBA teams plus the Chinese and Croatian national teams, has already sold out more than 17,000 tickets for Friday and Saturday at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion. The Summer League runs through July 15.
Vivid Seats is attributing the hot secondary ticket for Friday’s opening day to the debut of the league’s number one draft pick Zion Williamson. Williamson’s New Orleans Pelicans will play Williamson former Duke teammate RJ Barrett (number three overall draft pick) and the New York Knicks in an opening day match-up Friday.
Here’s Vivid Seats’ take on the “Zion Effect” on ticket price trends during the 2018-19 college basketball season.
While Vivid Seats said their average re-sell price ticket for Friday is $94, that’s more than twice their first-day ticket costs in past years at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas: $42 for Day 1, 2018 (first time all 30 teams participated); $48 for Day 1, 2017 (24 teams participated) and $43 for Day 1, 2016 (23 teams participated).
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