Payback will be due

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ON BASKETBALL

Payback will be due


By Peter May, Globe Staff, 3/19/2003

ou have to wonder where it will all stop. Then you remember: It never has and
it never will. If there is a truism in sports today, especially in Boston,
it's that ticket prices keep going in one direction.



The recent announcement by the new Celtics owners that there will be ticket
increases next season wasn't exactly a bombshell. (Given last night's dreadful
performance, an 87-74 loss to the Nets, maybe they ought to follow the old Red
Sox lead of announcing a ticket spike on the day after Thanksgiving at 5
p.m.)

You had to figure the big hit was coming the moment Wyc Grousbeck and the boys
forked over $360 million for the team. In some areas, it's a staggering ticket
price increase. In others, it's modest. But, assuming the tickets are still
purchased, that means more money for the bosses - and what they do with it
will tell us just how serious they are about building a championship team.

Of course, as long as there is the Grand Canyonesque gap between East and West
in the NBA, the term ''championship team'' in the East has to be qualified.
Right now, the Eastern Conference playoffs amount to an NBA version of the
play-in game for the NCAA Tournament.

One season ticket-holder, Marty Joyce, has six seats at courtside. His annual
bill rivals Harvard's endowment. It will be more next season - and he is ready
to pay.

''These guys are looking to win,'' Joyce said of the new owners. ''I'm a
business person. The numbers always have to make sense in business. Things
like signing and bringing in players, and adding a 12th and 13th player to the
roster, they come with a price to everyone.

''When I first got my courtside seats, we were a nightmare of a team with
Pitino at the helm. Now things are looking up. Every time I bring someone down
there, it's an experience of a lifetime. I have friends in other buildings
laughing at how little we paid. Now they're giving me a hard time that we're
in line, or a little high. I say, `Well, hopefully, the Eastern Conference
finals are a habit, not an exception.'''

But whether the Celtics make it out of the first round, or whether they make
it out of the East, is immaterial to the increase. It's a happening thing.
This is the second consecutive year that ticket-holders have been nailed. Last
year, it was Paul Gaston raising prices on his way out the door while refusing
to allow his team to spend money on free agents it desperately wanted. (Then
again, after seeing Rodney Rogers last night, maybe Gaston knew something we
didn't.)

Now, it's the new owners' turn. What will they do this summer? Will they allow
general manager Chris Wallace to sign someone with the mid-level exception
money? Or will they look at the payroll, look at the looming luxury tax, and
hold the line? That would be a tough sell given this raise.

So far, the signs are (sort of) positive. The new owners agreed to bring in
extra bodies. They drew the line on Vin Baker's alcohol problems. But Bimbo
Coles and Grant Long, while nice additions, are short-termers; Baker is a
long-termer. The Celtics aren't going to upgrade in the conference without
another significant addition. Wallace thought that somebody was Baker.

I know this. If I'm Antoine Walker's agent, I make a copy of the new ticket
plan and send it to the Celtics, with a polite note saying, ''So this is how
you're going to pay for my client's extension?'' Don't forget, if the Celtics
don't get it done, they run the risk of losing Walker, who would be an
unrestricted free agent at the end of next season. And he won't come cheap.

Ticket prices have long been absurdly high, so this latest increase is just
another step along the way. Longtime season ticket-holder Mike Rotondi, who
has four courtside seats near midcourt, saw his $550 seats bumped up to $700 a
pop. He says he's thinking of unloading two - and it kills him to even think
of the prospect. When you think of paying $2,800 a game, for 43 games (which
includes two exhibition games) - and that for many of those games, you get
teams like Denver, Cleveland, Atlanta, etc. - you get the picture. You pay
that money to see the Lakers once, and they arrive and Shaq is out. You pay
$250 for Paul McCartney, but you get Paul McCartney.

I have no doubt people will pay the prices. It may be faceless corporate
apparatchiks who pay, but someone will. I also have no doubt that the new
owners know exactly how much extra revenue will come in from this motherlode.
They owe it to the people who pay to put the best possible product on the
floor. If that means overspending to get a Keon Clark, so be it.

That's what they're asking the fans to do - and that's before they even know
what is going to happen. The very least they can do is the same.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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