The absence of the big names – the usual ones: Lakers, Warriors, Celtics, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic – has worn out the already relative enthusiasm of Las Vegas for the Final Four from the NBA Cup 2024 scheduled for Saturday 13th and Tuesday 17th December at the T-Mobile Arena.
After i quarter finalswhen it was discovered what the 4 finalist teamsi ticket prices for Final Four games are collapsed at figures that are usually not seen for an NBA match, not even a second-tier one. Today, a ticket for one of the two semi-finals it can also cost you 29 to 39 dollarsa very low figure. For the finale it gets better but not much, $79 for a game between two NBA teams with a prize on the line, they are very few. Considering that you play a vegasone of the world’s entertainment capitals where the most important thing is to be present, at any event.
That, net of the NBA’s expansion rehearsals in Las Vegas, which seems to be just a question of “when” and no longer “if”, there was little interest in the finals of the mid-season tournament wanted by Adam Silver, it was already seen a year ago. When also due to the late afternoon hours first semifinal between Bucks and Pacers was played in a half-empty arena and above all silentwhich is difficult to hide despite the strategic lighting and expertly darkened stands.
Bucks, Hawks, Thunder e Rockets they are not major teams or markets for the NBA, even though Atlanta and Houston are two metropolises. If so spirit of the NBA Cup has been respected, i.e. that of open the competition beyond the usual contenders (even when they are not, read Lakers and Warriors) and generate focus on the “smaller” teamsit is unlikely that when the calculations are made the question of tickets, and above all location, will not come up. And at the accounting table at the next Board of Directors, the TV viewing figures will also have to catch the eye: the NBA Cup recorded this year a 10% drop in spectators compared to the 2023 editionthe first and with the novelty effect to consider. The decline mirrored the overall decline in NBA TV viewership for the first two months of the season, and was explained in part by tight event competition, among Worlds Series MLB, the match-event (to be kind) between Mike Tyson e Jake Paul and the elections US presidential elections.
In a perfect world for investors’ pockets, they would go to the Final Four of the NBA Cup every year in rotation Lakers, Celtics, Warriors, Heat, Knicks, Mavs, Suns and Wembanyama with Spurs next. After all, years ago, jokingly but not too much, Adam Silver himself said that “the ideal NBA final for us would be Lakers against Lakers, every year“. But nothing, at the 2024 Final Four there will be a two-time MVP and NBA champion like Giannis Antetokounmpoa Top-10 NBA like Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderone of the most athletic teams (dunks! Alley-oop! Blocks!) in the league as i Rocketsand the team where they play Trae Young and the first overall pick in the last draft, Zaccharie Risacher.
But do you want to put up yet another challenge in the geriatrics department between Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant? If you are American, yes.
