It will probably become someone's memorable Father's Day gift: a seat right behind the visitors' bench at Staples Center to watch the Lakers and Boston Celtics that day in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Should the best-of-seven series, which begins tonight in Boston, go to a fifth game, that seat is available for $27,028.
The nation may be struggling with soaring fuel prices, high food bills and rising home foreclosures, but when it comes to the revival of the celebrated Lakers-Celtics matchup in the NBA championship series after 21 years, all economic indicators are up. Ticket prices and merchandise revenue have risen steadily through this postseason, as have television ratings and online hits, with an even bigger jump anticipated for the Finals.
StubHub, an online ticket service, is offering the Father's Day special with up to eight individual seats available at the $27,028 price. For a group, a 44-person suite is being offered for $51,431.
"This is the biggest thing I've experienced at Staples Center since it opened," said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, owner and operator of the arena. "We've had the Grammys, concerts, championship fights, figure skating and the Pac 10 tournament along with the five teams that play here, but I've never seen anything like this. . . . People are buying premier seats [starting at $15,000 each] for next season to get the right to buy tickets for this series. Just during lunch today, Tim Harris [who handles seats for celebrities] had 10 calls. Everybody who is anybody wants in."
In Boston, enthusiasm is also high, although tickets are not quite as expensive. The chants of "Beat L.A.," a mantra from the '80s, began in the Boston locker room after the Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons on Friday night to qualify for the Finals, and have echoed from Faneuil Hall to Harvard Square.
"It's been phenomenal," said Chris Villani, a Boston sports radio host. "There's been a mixture of relief and euphoria."
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Reviving a rivalry
It was a ritual of spring for Kobe Bryant, starting at age 6. Living in Europe where his father was playing professional basketball, Bryant would eagerly await the precious package from his grandfather in the United States, a package containing tapes of the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals. Bryant would watch those tapes over and over, imitating Magic Johnson's celebrated hook shot in the 1987 Finals or seething at Kevin McHale's brutal foul of Kurt Rambis in 1984.
