The Brooklyn Nets basketball team has spurred a 505% increase in ticket sales and NY fans are loving their new sweetheart after the team made the move to its new home at Barclays Center. The Nets are using their natural rivalry with the New York Knicks to fuel more ticket sales.
The rivalry is no longer about the little Nets against the big Knicks, said Robert Borland who is chairman of managing sports at the Robert Preston Tisch Center at New York University. “It’s more a battle of equals,” said Borland, where two big conglomerates are battling it over sponsorships.
The Nets made their move to Barclays right before the season kicked off. The center is situated at Brooklyn’s primary transit hub and is part of a nearly $5 billion development deal. The Garden in Midtown Manhattan, where the Knicks play their games, is only five miles distance from Barclays.
One advertising executive, Scott Becher, director of Z Sports & Entertainment, is talking up the Nets’ new identity. Becher calls the Nets’ new identity hip and urban which is a departure from a more usual corporate identity. The new black and white logo for the Nets is the partial creation from part owner and rapper Jay-Z. This new look has propelled the Nets to the number four spot in franchise sales at the NBA’s Online store.
The new hip-hop image has shot Nets’ ticket sales up 505 percent from last season. In the secondary ticket sales market, Nets’ tickets are priced at $193.78. That’s only slightly behind tickets for the Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers.
When all is said and done, the Nets are making a big splash in the New York City sports market. After the Nets beat the Knicks in an overtime game in late November, 96-89, Jay-Z tweeted that “The city is under new management.”
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