The Dallas Mavericks won the 2022-’23 Most Disappointing NBA Team Championship Trophy, and ... are raising ticket prices?
Bold strategy.
Yes, select ticket prices for the Dallas Mavericks are increasing between 8 to 10 percent for the 2023-’24 season.
Via email, Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban declined to comment.
After the type of season the Mavs’ concluded, doing anything to the price of a ticket other than slashing it is always a bad headline waiting to happen.
Alas, most pro, minor, college, high school and youth league teams do it. We are numb to it.
The losing team is just as apt to raise the price of a ticket as is the winning team.
The cost to attend a Mavs game is pricey, and it’s also below the NBA median. It’s just expensive to attend an NBA game these days, the same for the NHL, NCAA, NFL, MLB, as well buying a carton of eggs, a gallon of gas, or a bottle of milk.
Soon enough, some young go-getter and Harvard drop out will finally figure out a way to monetize breathing.
The NBA’s salary cap is projected to be about $134 million for next season, and combine that along with the unfathomable operating costs of running a team and ticket-price hikes will never stop until the market collapses, which will happen after man stops selling the wreck of the Titanic as a vacation.
Since the Mavs are asking fans to pay more to attend regular-season games, they may just want to do something to instill some confidence. Some hope. Something more than the deadly two As: Apathy and Anger.
That process begins this week, with the NBA Draft on Thursday night. That process then continues with the start of the NBA’s most exciting season, NBA Free Agency, which officially begins on July 1 but unofficially began on January 1.
No NBA team is in the position like the Dallas Mavericks. They are the rare example of a team with expectation, and yet they tanked their way into the lottery and paid a $750,000 fine to do it.
They possess an All-NBA player in the prime of his career. If you have read this far and are unsure who this is, it’s not Kyrie Irving.
Speaking of The Thinker, the Mavs can spend the most money on Irving, who can be a free agent. Expect the Mavs to offer him a max contract, $272 million over five years.
Between Irving and Luka Doncic, the Mavs would have nearly $90 million tied up to between two players.
It’s doubtful the Mavs acquired Irving in a trade without some type of verbal assurances between the two parties that they intended to offer him a max deal.
Also, it’s doubtful anyone has a clue what Kyrie Irving will do. He’s the NBA superstar who wants the max contract, and be treated like the 12th player on the bench.
He literally wants the most expensive, tastiest cake available at Neiman Marcus, but prefer it not have a single calorie.
When Kyrie forced his way out of Cleveland, in 2017, to escape LeBron James, it was because he wanted to be The King. Once he was The King he learned he really didn’t like the crown, but he does want the money.
Whether it’s the Mavs or some other NBA team, Irving will get the money here soon enough.
After what we saw the Mavs do after he came to team, not sure keeping him is going to do much to make Mavs fans happy.
Electric scorer. Elite finisher. As good as any ball handler who ever lived. A smartest-guy-in-the-room, teenage diva.
Keeping Irving could be more damaging than the trade to acquire Lamar Odom, a wreck of a deal in 2011 that resulted in Mr. Kardashian playing 50 games for the team before they traded him.
Keeping Irving could be more damaging than the trade to acquire Rajon Rondo, who famously quit on the team during the 2015 playoffs.
Unless there has been a drastic change of heart, don’t expect the Mavs to do anything other than try to keep Irving.
What they do with the 10th overall pick in the NBA Draft is a guess. The potential draftees at No. 10 aren’t going to do much for this team this season.
There is speculation that the Mavs intend to deal that pick either for a veteran, or flip for multiple picks. That makes sense.
There is also speculation the Mavs want to trade up. That doesn’t make sense, unless they are trading up for Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson or Brandon Miller.
No one really knows.
We know this team needs real players, at multiple spots.
And we know it will cost just a bit more to watch them in person this season.
