Jeremy Spicer has been waiting for this moment since he was nine years old, sweating through a Patrick Ewing jersey on a Brooklyn blacktop in 1999. The Knicks were in the Finals then. He did not make it inside. He promised himself he would be there the next time. The next time is now — and it is costing him something he did not expect: not money, but a decision he cannot stop making every hour on his phone.
Spicer, now 36 and working in finance, is a Knicks season ticket holder. He purchased his two upper deck seats for Game 3 at face value — $700 each, the right he earned by committing to a full season of games when the Knicks were the worst team in the Eastern Conference. He put down $1,400 without hesitation. Then resale prices started moving.
As of Sunday, Game 3 at Madison Square Garden — with President Trump expected in attendance for what would be the first NBA Finals appearance by a sitting president — had a resale get-in price of $8,201. The average price had more than doubled in days. Individual seat listings in Spicer’s section sat at $9,066. His wife is pregnant with their first child. He has been checking StubHub approximately every hour.
“If it sells close to $10,000,” he said, “that would be too irresponsible to turn down.”
The Dilemma Every Season Ticket Holder Is Having
The 2026 NBA Finals are the most expensive in history. For context, each of the past six NBA Finals had an average ticket price below $2,000. Game 3’s average has already surpassed that ceiling by orders of magnitude. Game 4 listings, should the Knicks take a 3-0 lead, start at $14,000 in most sections. Projected listings for a potential Game 6 hover around $11,000 — which would surpass the most expensive average Super Bowl ticket ever sold.
A 55-year-old retired police officer who asked to be identified only by his first name — Clarence — has been attending Knicks games since his father brought him as a child. His father died in 2003 at 60, two years after the Knicks’ last Finals appearance. Going to games became his way of honouring that memory. He paid $1,400 for two Finals tickets and sold them both within hours of listing for more than $8,000 each. “Even dad would know it’s a no-brainer,” he said. “That would pay for all of my playoff games and next season’s entire season ticket plan.”
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The Ones Who Could Not Sell
Not everyone is treating this as a financial transaction. Jonathan Klug and his wife Stephanie have built their social lives around the Knicks — scheduling vacations around away games, attending most home games, and editing each other into photos when one has to miss. When his section’s seats reached $5,000, he deleted the StubHub app entirely to remove the temptation. They are now listed at $8,201.
“My heart won’t let me sell it,” Klug said. “Never take these moments for granted. Enjoy them while they’re here, because you never know when you’re going to see it again.” He is aware that even if the Knicks return to the Finals someday, the economics of Madison Square Garden may price him out entirely. His season ticket package already jumped from $2,400 this season to $3,100 next year for the cheapest available option.
The broader picture is one that sports economists have been tracking for years. Live sports are drifting steadily toward becoming luxury commodities. The 2026 Super Bowl drew some of the most expensive average ticket prices in NFL history. The FIFA World Cup final at MetLife Stadium next month had a resale ticket listed for over $2 million. “Demand is always rising,” one sports economist told reporters. “There’s no upper limit on demand, minus maybe a zombie apocalypse. Prices will keep increasing.”
Madison Square Garden is not getting any bigger. The Knicks have not been here in 27 years. For Spicer, the calculus shifts with every game result. After New York’s Game 2 win — the Knicks are up 2-0 heading into Madison Square Garden — he decided he probably won’t sell his Game 4 ticket. “If it’s 3-0 going in, knock on wood, that could be the game.” He is back on the couch either way, scrolling through the seat map, watching the number climb.
Later this month, his wife is due to give birth. He says he will take his child to games early, the same way his father brought him. He fell in love with the sport that way once. He hopes the same thing happens again.
For now, though, the number hovers at $9,066. And he keeps checking.
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