The Cost of Courtside Tickets to An NBA Game

Although for most people the NBA experience will mean sinking in the couch in front of the TV, you can’t argue that seeing an NBA game in person will be something you will surely enjoy more. And when you’re watching a live game, what better seats could you land than in the courtside area?

When you are watching a live NBA game, all of the action feels more real, alive, and close to you. It is a great opportunity for you to see your idols, some of the biggest names in the game doing what they are best at. But how much would courtside tickets to an NBA game cost? This article should give you a pretty good idea of the prices you should be prepared for.

How Much Would Courtside NBA Tickets Cost?

The short answer is that courtside tickets for an NBA game will be anywhere from $300 to $60,000, depending on a few factors. Yes, This is a really impressive range for the prices, but there are some reasons behind it:

• The actual place where the game would be played
• The knockout with an upcoming season
• The Popularity of the playing teams
• The performance of the teams in the last few games

But What Are Courtside Seats and Why Get a Ticket in That Area?

The name should be pretty self-explanatory. As you might imagine, the courtside seats will be on the bench that is the closest to the court on which the game is played.

You might also like our articles about the cost of tickets to the Oscars, Met Gala, or the Grammys.

Basketball offers you the possibility of being seated at a hand’s distance from the ball court. Buying tickets for the courtside area will mean that you will be a maximum of one to two meters away from the game and celebrity players.

But Why are the NBA Floor Seats So Popular?

One of the best things about attending professional basketball games is that you can see the games up close. Most other sports will create a considerable distance between the playing field and the participating audience.

You can’t take advantage of this benefit more than getting the courtside tickets. You will be so close to your favorite players that you could almost high-five them (you shouldn’t try, though, unless they come to you). What you can do, if you’re lucky enough at least, is exchange a few words with them when they are close to you.

A seat so close to the game would offer a piece of authenticity. It will make everything more real. You will be so close that you will almost feel like being part of the playing teams. You will basically see exactly what the coach sees, which will be an amazing experience, especially for someone who not only loves to watch basketball but to play it as well.

Factors Behind The Cost of a Courtside Seat

The Playing Teams

A big factor in determining the NBA courtside tickets price will be the reputation of the basketball teams that will play one against the other. This is easily understandable considering that more popular teams will have a bigger fanbase, which means more people will fight for a chance of attending the game. A big team will have a large audience even if the performance of their last few games is questionable.

If you’re a big NBA fan, you can’t argue that a price of a few thousand dollars for a courtside game ticket won’t be worth it when teams like Los Angeles Lakers or Golden State Warriors are playing. On the other hand, the floor seat ticket for smaller teams like Utah Jazz or the Atlanta Hawks will be considerably lower because their audiences will be smaller.

Even though the popular teams in the NBA are only a handful, their reputation is in constant change so, depending on when you read this article, the prices might vary considerably. This is why you will have to check the price per individual game before purchasing.

The Type of Match

The nature of the match will also be a determining factor when the price of the courtside tickets is set. The most significant part of the revenue for the NBA will be made in the playoffs series. This will also reflect in the price of the tickets, with courtside seats for playoff games being more than double the price for regular-season game seats.

Even so, the most expensive tickets will always remain the ones for the NBA finals. The courtside seats for an NBA final will have a price that will surely hit your wallet pretty hard. For example, in 2019, a seat in the Toronto Scotiabank Arena for the final game was priced at an average of $5,000, while a ticket to the Oracle Arena final game was somewhere around $3,000.

You will also show your class level if you go for courtside seats for important matches. You surely have noticed that most of the time, especially during very important games, the courtside area is packed with celebrities. This means that usually if you aren’t a millionaire just yet, courtside seats for NBA finals would be a far-fetched dream.

Below you will find some other stats to understand the cost of the NBA courtside tickets and their prices, especially for the finals:

• At the time this article was written, the most expensive pair of tickets ever sold for an NBA game was bought for $133,000.
• The VIP floor seats for the 2018 NBA finals were priced at an average of $47,723. This average happened because the price jumped dramatically from $16,000 per ticket for the first game to an amazing $76,000 for the second game.
• It has been recorded that someone actually spent more than $100,000 for two of the cheapest courtside seats in the NBA, in the 2019 finals. This takes the price of just one ticket for the courtside area to $50,000, which isn’t a small one to pay for a single game.

How Can You Get Courtside NBA Tickets?

You will usually have three ways in which you will be able to get NBA game courtside tickets. The most straightforward way is through certified sources like official ticketing websites. You will be able to place the order online and will receive the ticket in your email. Just tick the desired game, go for floor seats and pay, and you’re good to go.

A second way, one that we don’t recommend, would be through the black market, which in this case would be third party intermediaries. Even though buying from third party sources is never a good idea, in this case it will be even more expensive than getting them from certified sources.

This is due to the added expense that represents the profit of the intermediary. And their profit is nothing to ignore. Sometimes two tickets will cost the same as three bought through official websites. People use this alternative when they think about going to the game too late and all of the official sources are out of tickets.

Using the final way you will risk not finding a ticket but you will have a chance of getting tickets for very cheap. In this situation you will have to find ticket holders that for some reason or another cannot attend the game and want to sell the tickets. Some of them will let go of courtside seats for what might feel like pennies compared to the official price.

If you’re a hard-working individual with an average income and you want to buy courtside tickets to the Lakers game for example, then you should really reconsider, because most of the time the prices will be out of reach. If you really want to see an NBA game from the courtside area, there is another way for you to do this.

Our research has shown us that the only way of enjoying the NBA courtside experience for a decent price would be by participating at a lesser-known game in a smaller city. The reason is quite simple. Tickets to a less important game between two lower tier teams in a small city will be worth considerably less than tickets to the Lakers game at Staples Center.

Conclusion

Courtside seats at an NBA game will surely be an unforgetable experience for anyone, basketball fan or not. And just because the experience si amazing and the seats are limited, the tickets will be far from cheap and very hard to get even if you have the money. Wanna know if it will all be worth it? It will surely be, we’re sure about it. So if you have the money to buy courtside seats at an NBA game, you should try the experience at least once.