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During our recent discussion about the impact on ticket prices of the Golden State Warriors move to San Francisco, GSoM community member DoThaRightThing made the following point about the cost of attending a game at Oracle compared to those at Staples Center.
Im going to LA for game 5 because its cheaper......driving to LA and back, 2 lower level seats at Staples, 100$ for a room, 20$ taxi fair each way (to staples and back), and dinner at the Rock n' Fish should not be cheaper (honestly its about dead even, still WTF) than two lower levels seats at Oracle and a dinner comparable to RnF.
A report provided by secondary ticket marketplace, Vivid Seats, adds support to the observation that the Warriors' tickets have become extremely expensive compared to their NBA playoff counterparts - in fact, as of yesterday, Game 4 is the most expensive ticket of the guaranteed playoff games remaining.
Click here on on the image above to see the full table.
Although median and average ticket prices might not quite illustrate the point well enough for you, TiqIQ adds to that with an infographic showing that the Warriors' cheapest tickets are the also the league's most expensive and $78 more than the cheapest ticket at Staples Center.
And things won't get any better for Game 6 at Oracle when the only more expensive tickets than the Warriors' median of $297 will be the Toronto Raptors' median of $434 and the Oklahoma City Thunder's median of $341 (click here to see chart).
The cost of attending Warriors games has been an issue all year, with everything from tickets to parking at the BART station (which used to be free) to those loaded nachos seeing noticeable price increases. At this rate, those worrying about being priced out of Warriors games with the move to San Francisco in 2018 could very well find themselves priced at a few years before that. Does that mean heading to L.A. for Game 5 is your best bet to see a game in person? That probably depends on some combination of your time and the comparative availability of tickets. But it's also not all that difficult to imagine the scenario described above where you'd almost break even.
On the bright side, if a willingness to put your money where your mouth is counts in the discussion about the best fanbase is, Warriors fans certainly have an edge over the competition.