The Los Angeles Lakers have become the most talked-about team ahead of the 2018-19 NBA season, thanks to acquiring LeBron James from Cleveland in the off-season. Now, with a new season tipping off in less than two weeks, the Lakers have also become the league’s hottest squad on the secondary ticket market.
An impressive 14 of the NBA’s 30 teams ranked clashes with the Lakers as their best-selling home game of the upcoming season, according to Ticket Club data. They previously nabbed nine of the best-selling games in other cities in 2015-16 but failed to do so once in the past two seasons. The smart play and all-star roster of reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors have led them to dominate sales on the road, earning best-selling games in 20 different cities last season, down five from their unstoppable 2016-17 campaign. Now, with all eyes on LeBron in Los Angeles, Steph Curry and the Warriors notched top marks in only nine regions.
Philadelphia, New Orleans, Portland, San Antonio and Washington are among the markets most eager to see the Lakers visit and have garnered impressive sales. As expected, the LA’s first visit to Cleveland is the best-selling game thus far for the Cavs, who are still reeling from the loss of their former star.
While the Lakers may have edged Golden State with the most best-selling single games, the Warriors still hold the league’s highest season average ticket price for the fourth consecutive year. Their projected season average ticket went up from last year and currently stands at roughly $322. However, the Lakers’s own average drastically increased to $267, the highest they’ve seen since Kobe Bryant’s final season in 2015-16. With LeBron James now off their roster, Cleveland’s already-moderate average has dropped even further.
Four-time league MVP James is already proving to elicit the same kind of star-power that Lakers legend Bryant brought to LA. His highly-anticipated Oct. 20 home debut against Houston has racked up a staggering average ticket price of nearly $515 apiece and is the Lakers’ preliminary best-seller ahead of the season. Their best-selling game last season was a December 18 meeting with Golden State, which also honored Bryant with a historic double retirement of both his #8 and #24 jerseys. Tickets for that night went for over $750 on average. In 2016, Lakers fans rapidly flooded the secondary market to make an April 13 clash against Utah – Bryant’s final game of his remarkable 20-year career – the season’s dominant top-seller, with an unprecedented average ticket price of over $1,000.
In terms of overall team sales, the New York Knicks are among Ticket Club’s strongest performers with early-season match-ups against Golden State, Brooklyn, Boston and Chicago falling just below the 2019 All Star Game to be the league’s top five sellers. Additionally, holiday games have remained strong sellers since the early schedule was released. Blockbuster Christmas Day clashes include Bucks vs. Knicks, 76ers vs. Celtics, Trail Blazers vs. Jazz, OKC vs. Houston and Lakers vs. Warriors.