Celtics increase prices and #16 in jeopardy?

[stephen beauregard <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Celts hike ticket prices for next season

NBA Notebook/by Steve Bulpett
Thursday, June 13, 2002







EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - It's going to cost more to go to a Celtics game
next season, but after three years without an increase it was probably
to be expected.


Tickets for the 2002-03 games at the FleetCenter will rise in price by
an average of 12 percent, but most of the increase is in the arena's
lower bowl. The Celtics will still offer nearly 1,500 seats in the
balcony for $10 (the NBA mandates only that teams have 500 tickets
priced thusly).

``And,'' added Celtics chief operating officer Rich Pond, ``5,000 of our
seats will be $25 or less. That's more than a quarter of the seats in
the building. Our goal is to make sure we always have affordable seats,
and we think our product is very much affordable for families. Obviously
the people in the higher priced seats will be paying more, no question
about that. But that's where the greatest demand for seating is.''

Pond noted that the ticket increase is not in response to the fact the
Celtics reached the conference finals in their first postseason
appearance since 1995, but rather an inevitability due to rising costs
after three years of holding the line.

Full and partial season-ticket packages are on sale now, with individual
game tickets to go on sale in September.

Fox has plenty to say

While Shaquille O'Neal handles the comedy and Kobe Bryant tries to be
like Michael Jordan (almost the way Michael Jackson tried to be Diana
Ross), former Celtic Rick Fox has become the verbal conscience of the
Lakers.

``I think Rick does speak a lot for the group,'' said coach Phil
Jackson. ``Sometimes he says it as a challenge and he says it as truth,
I think, other times, too. I made sure Rick was a captain this year
because I felt that he really was. (He) wanted to be and felt very close
to the center of the core in this group.

``Kobe and Shaq are stars. They're sometimes concerned because there are
so many outside periphery things going on. A lot of times these guys get
together in group meals, group dinners. They keep the thing together.
Rick is one of the guys inside of that that's really pushing for team
unity. He does say a lot of things, but I respect him for things he has
to say as long as he backs it up.'' . . .

O'Neal was looking to future jewelry even before his third NBA
championship ring was secured.

``I would like to win five or six, seven,'' he said. ``Right now we're
working on number three. So if we get number three, we can start talking
about more. I'm just focusing on number three.''