It’s never been a better time to be a New York Knicks fan, and it’s also never been more expensive — at least if you’re trying to get into Madison Square Garden for the NBA Finals.
Ticket prices for Games 3 and 4 are booming as the Knicks hold a 1-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the finals. Buying a courtside seat could cost you a year’s worth of tuition at NYU. The cost of a ticket on the secondary market to sit anywhere in MSG to watch the Knicks would even make FIFA officials blush.
Even seats in the 400s seem unfathomably expensive. (Well, not as much by New York standards).
StubHub said the demand for Game 3 tickets at MSG is analogous to the Super Bowl.
“Which is a level of demand essentially unheard of for an NBA regular-season or even most playoff games,” a company spokesperson said.
Game 3 seats are also being priced on the site at a similar value as recent Super Bowls, too. The Game 1 win spurred activity. Demand for tickets at MSG finals games surged to five times its usual pace, and tickets for Game 4 went at 10 times the usual speed.
The cheapest ticket available on StubHub for Game 3 costs $7,517. That’s for section 413. The average cost for a month of rent in Manhattan, according to MNS Real Estate, is $5,181.
Still, that’s a pittance compared to the prices fans have to pay if they want to sit up close. Those seats are for ballers only. The combination of extreme wealth in New York City and the pent-up excitement of Knicks fans who have gone 27 years without a finals appearance and 53 years without a title has made for a pricey brew.
Two Game 3 tickets in section 12D, row A, are going for $102,880 each on StubHub. Across the court in section 5D, you can get a pack of four for $419,022. Four Game 4 seats together in row A of section 11D are being sold for $651,778 — or $162,944 each.
That’s more expensive than a college education. One year of tuition at NYU is $68,576 for the 2026-27 school year, according to the university’s website.
If those prices sound insane, maybe it’s what the market demands. The Knicks are auctioning off two courtside seats on celebrity row to raise money for The Garden of Dreams Foundation. The “total fair market value of the tickets is $39,600,” according to the team. The highest bid so far: $100,000.
The crazy part might be that it’s not the top of the market either. Imagine if Game 4 becomes a closeout game. Or if that’s Game 6, also at MSG. What amount of money would a wealthy diehard Knicks fan pay to see their team win the title on their home floor? There might not be a theoretical limit.
The Knicks’ finals run has also been good for the city.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that the team’s home games have driven an estimated $202 million in economic activity during these playoffs. If the Knicks play all three home games in the finals, the mayor’s office said it estimates the total economic activity will be worth $465 million.
“When the Knicks win, New York comes alive,” Mamdani said in a statement. “And as these numbers make clear, that energy supports small businesses, workers and neighborhoods that make New York what it is. Go Knicks.”
