A few weeks ago I received an email from the Denver Nuggets’ mailing list, promoting a play-off ticket presale. I was pretty stoked that there were tickets as cheap as $12 and plentiful at $28. I sent a round of email to a group of friends and bought up 7 playoff tickets for Game 4 of the first round.
The tickets have arrived and after the Nuggets upset the Spurs this evening, I should be excited about going to the game. However, a week out from game 4 I’m sitting here worried and pissed off at the NBA and their scheduling honks.
If you go over to the NBA scheduling page, you’ll see that all of the Game 4’s have been assigned a date and time – except for the Nuggets/Spurs and Wizards/Cav’s. The NBA was gracious enough to schedule the game on a Monday – but yet still doesn’t have the time posted. It’s obvious they’re hedging their bets to see which series appears more competitive and will get them their prime time slots. I understand how TV ratings work and realize they have business decisions to make – but could the NBA be any more disrespectful to their hard-working fans who have bought tickets to the game?
Personally, putting it on a Monday night complicates matters for my friends and me. We’re trying to coordinate work and class schedules, and there are some people who simply cannot be there at the 6pm start time (the start time for the other games). I’m not arrogant enough to expect the NBA to conform to me needs – but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to give you the freaking game time a week prior to the event. I could cut them some slack if this was game 5-7 (those “if necessary” games), but give me a break, this game is set in stone – supposedly.
If the time doesn’t work, that’s fine – but give us time to be able to get rid of these tickets if we need to. If I have to flush even one ticket down the toilet… that’s too much. The NBA is arrogant enough to think every game warrants national TV coverage, resulting in 3-4 day gaps in between games. Game 1 of the Nuggets/Spurs was Sunday, and Game 3 will take place almost a week later – for a 7-game series?!? The length of the playoffs is just an absurd publicity grab.
None of the other major sports leagues screw their home fans during their playoffs as much as the NBA. The NFL gets national TV coverage, but there are only 12 teams (and 4 games played in each round), and they take place on a weekend. Major League Baseball – for it’s many faults, concedes that their first few rounds do not warrant prime-time coverage and play the games during the day. At least they communicate dates and times to their fans.
I really want to like basketball and the NBA, but their general disrespect to the fans in their arenas make it very difficult to like these teams.