00:00We spoke with Vanessa Perdomo, host of Bloomberg's Business of Sports podcast,
00:03about why prices at Madison Square Garden are so astronomical.
00:08You're going to see fluctuation no matter what on these ticket prices, but
00:11everyone did go to StuffHub like right away. And, you know, even earlier this week, you know,
00:17we saw when pre-sale was happening, Chase did a pre-sale and it was $2,000 opening prices for
00:23a
00:23pre-sale ticket, which is something that you don't really see ever, right? The problem with,
00:29you know, leagues and people, they try to say it's the secondary ticket prices that go super high.
00:35But these are actually the main ticket prices that are starting really high. And then once you get
00:39to the secondary ticket price, it's astronomical. We're seeing tickets up to $80,000. A reporter,
00:45you know, had found out that two tickets had sold for the court side for $279,000 on StuffHub and
00:53that was a confirmed sale. What do you make of it as somebody who covers this industry? Is this like
00:58a strictly New York phenomenon? What does it say just about who's going to games, who fans are
01:03in this year, 2026?
01:05Well, who's going to the games is extremely wealthy individuals. And obviously, if your company loves
01:11you that much, you might get some hospitality seats out of the deal. But I, you know, what we're seeing
01:17is tickets prices have increased. It's something we've been talking about a lot when we're covering
01:21the World Cup. But this for the NBA finals is a very specific New York thing. Obviously,
01:26the Knicks haven't been back in the finals since 1999. So people have been waiting. They're really
01:30excited. But last year was actually the most, you know, was the cheapest the finals have been
01:35in a really long time. The average for last year was about $1,100 per ticket. I mean, it was
01:42Indiana
01:42and OKC. So there were two of the smaller markets. But even we're seeing this year with the West Coast,
01:48you know, the games outside of MSG, those ticket prices have gone up more than they would have
01:53been last year just because the Knicks are in the finals.
01:55You mentioned 1999. I think a lot of us taking a trip down memory lane to those finals back in
02:001999, the Knicks versus the Spurs. Here we have that matchup once again. When you look at these two
02:05teams with one another, do the Knicks have a better shot this time around than they did now 20 plus
02:10years ago?
02:11It's really hard to say because of Victor Romanyama is this freak of nature athlete.
02:15He's so big. He's so good. And obviously with Mitchell Robinson not being at 100 percent.
02:20Pinky injury. Pinky injury. But, you know, he got surgery and he's still playing. So that's
02:25obviously a good thing. But it's it's not going to be the best for his defensive game on Victor
02:29Romanyama. But I do think that they have a better chance. The Knicks are are actually favored in this
02:34series. What explains the success of the Knicks this year? I mean, this is a team that I love to
02:38watch
02:39because they seem, at least at face, so close to one another. Brunson, Towns, Hart. I mean, it's a it's
02:46a great
02:46crew of players. Could you have foreseen this at the beginning of the season? What has gotten them
02:50this far?
02:51I don't think you could have foreseen this at the beginning of this season. And I think that even
02:55you didn't foresee this in the beginning of the playoffs, actually. And I think what it took the
03:00turn was them coming back for the game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. They had the biggest
03:05comeback ever in the Eastern Conference Finals came back by nearly 20 points with seven minutes
03:11to go in the fourth quarter. I think that really drove the team in this playoff run. And it's made
03:18them come to the finals. They have so much confidence going into this. I mean, when you go through a
03:22sweep like that and you have so much time off, you know, when you go through two sweeps, I mean,
03:27that really gives you a lot of confidence going into the finals. And I think they know how bad New
03:31York wants this. And I don't think that that's wasted on the players. I think Jalen Brunson
03:35wants to be the person who brings a championship back to New York.
03:39You're excited. I'm excited. All of New York City is excited about this, including the Dolan family
03:43who owns this team. I know that there's been some speculation. They've talked openly about the
03:48prospects of maybe spinning off the Knicks, spinning off the Rangers. Talk a bit about
03:53the business theory behind that. Why does that make sense for MSG right now?
03:57Well, actually, it makes sense because when you see their value on the market, they're valued at
04:02around like $8.8 billion on the market, which their shares have gone up since the
04:06Knicks have reached the finals. But the reality is the Knicks themselves are worth about $9.8
04:12billion and the Rangers are worth about $4 billion on their own. So if you spend them off into their
04:17own properties, you're only going to get more money for each. And you're actually going to be able to
04:21see what the market values them when the Knicks are doing better on their own. If the Rangers are
04:25doing better on their own, you're going to be able to see that value.
04:28These valuations are crazy. Or are they? I mean, like, are all teams now kind of in that stratosphere?
04:33No, I mean, the valuations are crazy. Definitely. I mean, but you know what? The funny thing is
04:37the valuation of the Knicks is actually probably lower than what they would go for. Obviously,
04:42if they were still together with Madison Square Garden as an entity, you see the Lakers just were
04:47sold last year, earlier this year, last year for $10 billion. The Celtics are $6.1 billion.
04:53And the Knicks are technically the most valued, the highest valued team, right? You would think
04:58in the NBA. So their valuation is right on the money, I think. Sports valuations have gone
05:05up to an astronomical amount that every single owner really has to explore selling off minority
05:13stakes at this point if they want to do anything with their stadiums or really increase value.
05:18Got about a minute left. And I got to ask you about the World Cup happening kind of coincident with
05:22this. And as we talk about the craziness of ticket prices for the NBA finals, I mean,
05:26World Cup is another level. But I now gather that law enforcement government's looking into
05:30how high some of these ticket prices are. They're looking into it. I don't know
05:34what they're going to be able to do about it. You know, the reality is FIFA set the dynamic ticket
05:41pricing the way they did because they came into the U.S. market. It's not something they've ever done
05:45before. They did it. And I've talked to FIFA about this. They said, you know, if we didn't do it,
05:49it would have been done to us. So why not, you know, them get the money instead of it
05:54happen on the secondary ticket market like you were seeing for the finals and other entities.
05:59The New York again is really reaping the not so much benefits of that. You know, New Yorkers are
06:06actually on the other side of this. If you want to go to a game at MetLife Stadium, it's going
06:10to be
06:10the same thing. You're going to be paying thousands and thousands of dollars, especially if you want to go to
06:14the finals. I do not see a single actual fan being able to go to the World Cup. Vanessa, thank
06:21you very much.
Comments