Knicks, Rangers tickets get big increase
A proposed design of the renovations at Madison Square Garden.
Like fans of the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets before them, Knicks and Rangers season-ticket holders were hit Friday with one price of a new or renovated building: a steep rise in ticket costs.
In the 2011-12 season, Knicks season tickets will go up by an average of 49 percent and Rangers tickets by an average of 23 percent, MSG Sports president Scott O'Neil said.
But those figures are skewed by big increases in the lower bowl, which will be completely redone for next season, the first phase of a remaking of the 43-year-old Madison Square Garden in the next three summers.
Seats that do not include access to new, all-you-can-eat clubs and other amenities will go up by an average of 28 percent for the Knicks and 13 percent for the Rangers.
No seats will have personal seat licenses attached to them.
The Garden declined to offer a complete breakdown of the new pricing, other than to say Knicks tickets will range from a low of $35 to a high of $3,600 for courtside seats. Rangers tickets will range from $39 to $1,200.
One factor in the lesser increases for the Rangers: Their prices have risen in four of the past five years, while the Knicks have not raised prices in six years and have done so only once in the past 10.
O'Neil said the additions of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony were not a factor. He said the pricing mostly is attributable to the renovation, whose cost could approach $1 billion.
There likely will be further increases to what currently are the least expensive tickets before the 2012-13 season, when work on the upper bowl is scheduled to be largely completed.
The Garden said for Knicks games, 48 percent of the arena -- representing 8,623 seats -- will have increases of 15 percent or less. About 7 percent of seats will double or more; 6 percent will be flat.
Seventy-two percent of Rangers season tickets will have price hikes of 10 percent or less. Eight percent will go up by 50 percent or more.
O'Neil said he is confident that fans in the lower bowl who prefer less expensive tickets will be able to downgrade; such moves will be accommodated in seniority order.
New York's other pro teams have had to adjust ticket and / or PSL prices after initially overreaching, but Garden officials are hopeful that they have gauged the market properly.
"I hope there's not sticker shock here," O'Neil said. "We believe it's a fair value and we think with the increased amenities you're going to get and the new building, there is anticipation.
"There's going to be some changes. I think we'll be all right. I really do. I believe in this plan."
If nothing else, following the Mets and Yankees in 2009 and Giants and Jets in 2010 presumably prepared Knicks and Rangers fans for the bills that arrived Friday -- along with their 2011 playoff invoices.
The Dolan family owns controlling interest in the Knicks, Rangers, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.
