INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers kicked off their season Wednesday night with a victory over the Pistons in Detroit.
The interest in the blue and gold is at a fever pitch as the new season officially gets underway.
“Across the league we are seeing demand up this season for sure,” said Joseph Bocanegra, a spokesperson with StubHub. “The Pacers are number five top trend team, which means sales from last year compared to this year are significantly up. In terms of year-over-year growth in our top trending teams, it’s the Minnesota Timberwolves, The Atlanta Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers, The San Antonio Spurs and The Indiana Pacers round out the top five.”
Officials with StubHub said the Pacers playoff run last season boosted ticket sales, with demand more than double last year and a 32% increase in international ticket buyers.
Bocanegra said the best-selling game of the season across the league so far this year is when the Pacers play the New York Knicks this Friday.
It’s been caused in part by a huge spike in fans from around the world, which StubHub said is rare.
“It’s definitely not normal,” said Bocanegra. “The Pacers are going to see fans from Australia, Taiwan and even the Netherlands buying tickets to go see them at their home games.”
And local ticket sales brokers say they too are seeing an increase.
“From a volume standpoint we are seeing close to double in sales early. But the prices aren’t that high,” said Renny Harrison with Fanfare Tickets in Carmel.
Harrison said the Pacer’s playoff run last year definitely plays into the surge in demand and says the time to buy tickets for Pacers games is now.
“A lot of times, it is good to wait until the end,” said Harrison. “However, I think with the pacers this year buying early may be better advice. Certainly, if you’re on a budget, going to some of these early games would be a good thing. To some extent, the time to buy [tickets] could be now. NBA basketball with the season starting last night is still kind of off the radar. I think sometimes because we are in the middle of the NFL season and really the NBA starts so early now, I think the time to buy would be now. The prices are probably lower now than they would be later on.”
And StubHub said with the Pacers’ popularity only going up, ticket buyers need to be flexible.
“Anytime there is going to be an increase in demand you can expect an increase in prices, so the home openers, the big rival games, some of the bigger more popular teams, those tickets are going to be more costly, just because demand is up,” said Bocanegra. “Also if you’re willing to attend a weekday game, sometimes the weekday games are more cost-effective than the weekend games. We always tell people to buy as soon as you’re ready. Gone are the days when you can snag the good last-minute deals. It certainly still happens, but we just want people to be able to buy tickets when they are ready and buy on a trusted site like StubHub or another trusted source.”