Kaufman

This NBA playoff season I have attended the play-in games in Charlotte and Miami, the first two games of the Eastern Conference final in New York, Game 6 of the Western Conference final in San Antonio, Game 7 in Oklahoma City and Games 1 and 2 of The Finals in San Antonio. Game 2 was the 60th NBA Final game I have attended.

Yes, I love the NBA.

More people ask me about the cost of tickets and ticket pricing for Game 3 and 4 in New York — which I did not attend — than want to talk about the actual games.

When the Knicks won the first two games in Texas, I knew Game 3 would be the most expensive basketball game of all time — and it was with standing-room tickets at Madison Square Garden being bought for $7,000 a few hours before the game and some courtside tickets selling for over $500,000.

Only the Super Bowl in Las Vegas two years ago had a higher “get-in” price and even that game’s “premium tickets” were far less expensive than the NBA Finals Game 3 ticket.

The College Football Playoff title game in Miami this year was the perfect storm to create a high ticket price — Miami playing at home, a great, easy-to-reach location, and most importantly, Indiana, with a huge, affluent fan base, which had never played in a championship game.

The Knicks playing at home up 2-0 after not having won a title in most of the fan base’s lifetimes is not a perfect storm: It was a Category 10 hurricane headed directly toward Manhattan.

Ticket prices for regular-season games at MSG are by far the highest in the NBA. Even when the Knicks had the worst team in the league, every single game is sold out with high resale prices.

Going to anything at MSG, which sits just off Broadway, is an event, and tourists and residents from all around the world want to see their favorite team or players.

New York is an international city, and the NBA is truly global league. When players on opposing teams from small countries come to MSG, fans with ties to these countries come to the game.

The Knicks have a super strong fan base but have been awful and irrelevant for years, having not played in the NBA Finals since 1999 or won the title since 1973.

This long drought is a huge engine in driving up the ticket price as fans have been waiting a lifetime to go to a NBA Finals game with the opponent being irrelevant.

If the Knicks make it to three straight Finals, the ticket prices will not be at quite these insane levels.

World Series tickets involving the Yankees were lower at the back end of their dynasty than the first years and Patriots fans who have been to a couple Super Bowls in the past decade took a pass on last year’s Super Bowl.

Other cities have had long droughts and passionate fan bases, such as Milwaukee and Denver, but the fact that Knicks fans have a lot of money and “everything is just more expensive in NYC” created the Category 10 ticket price.

A price of a studio apartment in New York can purchase a mansion in Milwaukee.

The “event” of the Knicks in the NBA Finals encourages fair-weather celebrities and those wealthy enough to be at the game and pay whatever it takes to have the best seat.

The Knicks’ dramatic victory in Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the series has set the stage to create a ticket price that may not be topped by any sporting event for a very long time as Knicks fans will pay anything to see their team clinch their first title in 53 years.

I’ll be in San Antonio for Game 5 tonight, but if there’s a Game 6 in New York on Tuesday, the answer is no.

Ira Kaufman, an Altoona native and traveling sports fan, hosts IRA on Sports on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m. It is available on Soundcloud & iTUNES, search Ira On Sports. His column appears occasionally in the Mirror.