NBA tickets??
 

Hi Fellow Fodors Folk, I require your advice and assistance again.
Our 5 weeks in the US is drawing nearer and we are very excited.

My Question: We are in LA from Jan 15 - 21. We would love to attend an NBA game, but looking at the websites from Australia, it is all a bit foreign and confusing to me. So, I am enlisting your help. We do not have any allegience to a particular team, so that is not a concern. When i go to look at tickets online though, it tells me that some tickets are from season holders, and some are from ticketmaster or StubHub?

I need 4 tickets. My husband (keen basketballer) and 2 sons (9 and 10) and me.

When do I buy them?
Where do I buy them from?
Do they have to be collected (from where?) or can they be emailed/eticket?
What is StubHub?
And lastly, is the Staples Centre arranged with steep seating or when it tells me we would be up in the Upper back section, would you need binoculars to see what is going on?

I thank you for your help with this.

Kym

Most all tickets to Clipper or Laker games will be from season ticket holders. Stub Hub is a safe site ( I <i>think</i> it is owned by eBay) where ticket holders can re-sell for games they aren't attending.

You are perfectly safe buy tix on StubHub, ticketmaster or from nba.com which is also ticket master.

I am a season ticket holder to a different NBA team and most times when I've bought road game tickets for Staples or other arenas, I was able to print them out at home. Once in a while I've had to go to will call but that is getting less and less common.

Seats downstairs at Staples will be very expensive but great if you can afford them. You don't need binoculars to see from the upper levels (though some people take them so they can see up close what is happening on the benches, etc.). There are large screen TVs over the court so between seeing things 'live' on the floor and on the big screens you'll see everything.

Another question if I may. When I jump on the StubHub site, the seats under say, $200 are already very limited. Do more become available closer to the date,as in season ticket holders release the ones they can't use, or do seats become more scarce therefore I am just better off taking whatever is available now?

It depends on the opponent. What game(s) are you trying to see. Some will be VERY limited.

We are limited in dates and places. We could either see a game in san Fran between Jan 1 - 4, or in Vegas between Jan 10 - 13, or LA between Jan 14 - 21. It is difficult as I am not familiar with venues or teams, as to know what I should be chasing. Of course, I have heard of the Lakers and the Clippers, so I have been looking at their schedules. But even then, there are only 2-3 games to have a look at. I haven't looked at the Vegas or San Fran option. and my husband has just decided that we will pay up to $400 per ticket (I am a bit horrified at this, but as he says, we are only in the US once!), so that may open up my options a little bit?
Thank you for your help.

OK - you said NBA (Professional)

If so -- there are no games in SF or Vegas -- neither city has an NBA team. There are teams in Oakland and in Sacramento -- but those and LA are the only teams in California.

The only other team on the west coast would be Portland (and Phoenix which is sort of 'west coast').

What other cities are you visiting during your 5 weeks? There are NBA teams all over the US.

OK -- I just looked at the Laker and Clipper schedules.

The only Laker home game during your time frame is against the Cavaliers . . . and you'd have to pay a FORTUNE (if you could even get tix) since LeBron James just moved to that team. That makes it the toughest ticket of the entire season.

The Clippers have 3 home games during your dates and none are against really popular teams (the Pacers would probably be the toughest ticket)

Oakland has a game on Jan 2.

We are really just doing a 5 week trip down the West coast, starting in Seattle from the 27th. I hadn't thought about Portland.... didn't know they had a team... we are in that area from the 27th - 30th December. do they play in between Christmas and New Year?? If the Clippers have 3 games, and the teams they play aren't popular, they would probably be the easiest to get tickets to? Because the teams don't mean anything to us loyalty-wise, any game should be good to see... but i guess, the bigger the teams, the greater the experience for us.
I appreciate your help.

Oakland? Is that along the west coast or futher inland (I could just google it!)

When you look for tickets, where do you go?

Just put the team's name in google and the NBA official site will come up and you can try to book tix there. If not - then go to stub hub.

The Portland trailblazers have 2 home games while you are there. That might be your best bet for tix. Though the Rose Garden (Trailblazer arena) is not huge and I don't know what their season ticket sales is like this year.

The Clippers have become a very popular team (they have a better record than the Lakers) so you'd want to book tickets early. There is also a lot of notoriety re the Clippers so my guess is their tickets will be even harder to get than in previous years.

I'd probably try for Portland first since you really don't care which team you see.

Single-game tickets have not gone on sale yet. I just checked the Golden State Warriors website (Oakland) and their "pre-sale" starts Sept. 10th. Personally, I'd try that first, to see what's available. You won't have any problem later finding tickets given your very generous per-seat "allowance".

http://www.nba.com/warriors/splash/single/20140904

Oh - yes -good point. I forgot to mention that -- it is usually around the 2nd week of Sept that teams start selling single game tickets. And as late as the end of the month for some teams. Fans often do put there spare tickets on Stub Hub before then, but the actual ticket (or printable file) wouldn't be available til the official release dates.

Also didn't see this bit >>Oakland? Is that along the west coast or futher inland (I could just google it!)

Oakland is directly across San Francisco Bay from SF. There is BART connection from downtown SF to the arena in Oakland.

Portland might still be your best option.

Often,the morning of a game the tickets are reduced by half or more. However, there is a huge risk of there not being any. That said, I have never had a problem buying OKC Thunder tickets this way. There have always been tickets, even during playoffs.

Don't go to Oakland, it's a bloody dump. Oakland is the Detroit of the West Coast.

Go to espn.com and it will have all the schedules. The NBA's website is confusing.

StubHub is a reseller (site for touts) and there is no way you'll get anything less than $200 per for the Lakers-Cavs game without supreme good luck (or an illness in a ticketholder's family). If you know who LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are, you'll understand why.

<<The Clippers have 3 home games during your dates and none are against really popular teams (the Pacers would probably be the toughest ticket)>>

Try again: they're in LA from the 14-21 of January.

There are two Clipper home games - the Cavs (1/16) and the Celtics (1/19). You can get the Celtics game, that team is rebuilding and you won't overpay.

But if you really want the once-in-a-lifetime memory, try one of the two LA games with the Cavs (1/15 Lakers-Cavs, 1/16 Clips-Cavs) just so the boys can say they saw LeBron play in person.

oops - you are right . . . those were December Clipper games -- sorry :(

I hate the way the schedule is laid out -

Much of Oakland is in fact "a dump", but the arena is not, and it's very easy to get to by public transit from downtown San Francisco (BART).

Hi Kymjon,

We purchased tickets from here..

http://www.ticketexchangebyticketmas...15?PID=1606392

As you will see, there are tickets available for the game against the "Cavs" and if your husband is an NBA fan, I'm sure he would be keen to see Kobe V Lebron.

I'm also from Australia and had no problem at all with buying/printing and using tickets purchased from that site.

I would agree that if you have the wherewithall, etc., and you are only going to see ONE NBA game in person then seeing one in which LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are playing is worth the time and money. Both are, or can be, absolutely phenomenal in terms of athletic ability and if they are both "on" it could be unforgettable.

http://www.slamonline.com/nba/most-e...vs-road-games/

Tickets to Cavs on the road are expensive - the above article shows average ticket prices for games v. The Clippers, Bulls, Lakers and Knicks. Woah.

I am now going to stop complaining about how much 76ers Cavs tickets cost me.