INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Where was everybody Saturday?
The NBA’s All-Star Saturday “night” festivities started at 2 p.m. local time, drawing little resemblance to years past. As NBC broadcast All-Star Weekend in its first year in a new TV deal, the events had to take place in the early afternoon to avoid clashing with primetime coverage of the Winter Olympics.
But it’s hard to draw a crowd in the Los Angeles area when the sun is still out by the time things end. Traffic was still brutal. Hardly any fans could be found when the 3-point contest, the day’s first event, began.
Though the stands did gradually fill enough to show a semblance of a crowd for the slam dunk contest at the end of the evening, the barren stands underscored concerns that interest in All-Star Weekend has collapsed.
Sunday’s All-Star Game allayed concerns that all is lost for the weekend, as the new USA vs. the World tournament format helped restore a level of competition and excitement. But accessibility to All-Star Weekend — and major sporting events in general — has become increasingly difficult.
Though the LA Clippers’ Intuit Dome typically has a capacity of 18,300 people, that capacity was down to 15,067 for Saturday night’s events, according to an NBA spokesperson. While the league said it was a sellout, and tickets were indeed unavailable for Saturday and Sunday’s events on Ticketmaster, the arena remained half empty.
There were even calls for seat fillers leading into the festivities.
So what is going on?
On Sunday, fans were standing outside the arena seeking tickets, but struggling to find anything remotely affordable. One local fan who preferred to withhold his name in speaking with The Athletic lamented that he couldn’t afford even the worst seats on the resale market and was just hoping to find a way into the building, even if it still costs a significant amount.
“I would pay $400-$500, but it’s all $900 or above. It’s still the All-Star Game,” he said. “It’s the best players. I want to see it.”
It’s hard to compete on the secondary market when even ownership has to go to Ticketmaster resale and StubHub to get their people in the door. Most owners only receive about four official tickets to purchase through the league, according to sources from multiple teams familiar with the process. In order to bring along friends, family and corporate partners, they have to buy tickets with everyone else, which helps drive the demand for obscenely priced resale tickets in the thousands.
Somewhere around half the seats are reserved for use by various entities connected to the NBA and its teams, according to league sources, so the pool for the public to purchase from is relatively small. Entering the weekend, the only official tickets for sale at face value were through the NBA Experiences portal, which charges a premium for special access during the events. Currently, fans can put down a $500 deposit for the right to purchase an Experiences package for the 2027 All-Star Game in Phoenix.
