New York Post: Nets Successfully Converting Knicks Fans

Avery Johnson, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Billy King

If you picked up a copy of today’s New York Post and glanced at the entertainment section, it was hard to miss the two-page article talking about the success of the Brooklyn Nets already. The article features some surprising stats about how well the Nets have done already, as well as many quotes from new Nets fans.

First, let’s look at some of the stats.

• 10,000 season tickets have already been sold out of the 18,000 seats in the arena. Of course, not every seat can be a season ticket as there are also single-game tickets as well as partial plans and giveaways, but 10,000 is a very nice number. In contrast, last season in New Jersey, the Nets frequently had less than 12,000 total tickets sold. We will never see that in Brooklyn.
• 90% of Brooklyn Nets season ticket holders did not have season tickets with the New Jersey Nets last season. I believe that most New Jersey fans will remain Brooklyn fans, but I think that most of these people just don’t want to make the trip from New Jersey to Brooklyn every night to watch a basketball game when they can watch the game on TV. However, there are a few people that got season tickets last season in New Jersey just so that they would be able to secure their good seats for this season in Brooklyn.
• According to Nets CEO Brett Yormark, 45% of the season ticket sales were from Brooklyn residents, 25% were Manhattan residents, 12% were New Jersey residents, and the remaining 18% came from other boroughs and Long Island. I am glad to see so many Brooklynites buying tickets for the Nets. It shows that the people are embracing the new team. It is also good that people from outside of Brooklyn are buying tickets. As Stephen A. Smith says, the Nets want to “take over New York”.
• There will even be cheap tickets for Nets games, unlike for the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. At MSG, the cheapest Knick ticket is $45, while the cheapest seat at the Barclays Center will be only $15, 1/3 the price of a Knicks ticket. This shows that the Nets care more about their fans than the Knicks because if a family of 4 wants to see the Knicks, they need to spend nearly $200, while they only need to spend $60 to see the Nets play.

Below you will see some quotes from Nets converts: Knicks fans who converted to Nets fans. Most of these people have been disappointed with the Knicks over the last 15 years and are ready to move on to a new, more exciting, more affordable, and more fan-friendly team.

"“I have virtually the same tickets in both arenas [25 rows up from the court]. The Nets charge $90 [per ticket] and the Knicks charge $120.”“I like how aggressive the new Nets owner [Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov] is. There is a great deal of hope in Brooklyn, while the Garden is filled with angst, desperation and denial. I’m fed up with [Knicks owner] James Dolan. His complete disregard for loyal money-paying customers has driven me to Brooklyn.”“The level of excitement for the Nets is huge. People really want to be part of this from the ground up. I think the arena is going to be an iconic landmark. I’ve been a Knicks fan my whole life, but I started following the Nets the last few years.”“Anything Jay-Z touches turns to gold. He’s an American dream story. This will eventually be the best team in the league. I can put my name on that.”"

These fans are sick of the disappointment and frustration of being Knicks fans and having to watch James Dolan’s moves in disgust. As the season moves along with the Nets playing better than the Knicks, I expect more and more “Nets converts” to appear.