Posted by BlueSeats:
Posted by djsunyc:
you are correct. alot of the garden is filled with the casual fan. in section 404/405, we recognize only 7 fans we see every time. outside of those 7, it's totally random.
i love basketball. having tix to watch basketball was entertaining. the key word is "was". it is no longer entertaining. it's very trivial but jimimou and i were at a game 2 weeks ago when we looked at each other and realized we can not support this team. they have our money this year, but the entertainment value is basically gone. we used to bleed blue and orange, even as recent as 2 years ago. but after the lb firing, and what has transpired since, i have not cheered for one single thing this team has done. never applauded anything. this is sounding like a confessional. am i no longer a fan? i don't know anymore. but there's nothing about this team that makes me want to be associated with it.
[Edited by - djsunyc on 12-10-2007 12:52 PM]
I know where you're at. I gave up my tickets in 2002/2003 in protest of Layden,, and under the assumption it'd be about 10 years before we'd be good again. The problem was, I never went to all the games. I'd take 8-10 key games, and all playoffs, and sell the rest at face value. But they got too hard to sell and I ended up eating a lot of tickets for games I didn't care to, or couldn't, go to. I remember going into a couple of bars on 8th ave near the Garden trying to sell tkts an hour before game time and being laughed at. That's when I knew it was over.
For a blip of time when Marbury came I wondered if I hadn't made a mistake, but that lasted about as long as a sneeze.
And of course we know the chest thumping "real fans" of forums like this rarely go to games, so I don't know who comprises that fickle garden crowd.
My dad worked for the Port Authority and used to do the same thing... we went to all the big-time games throughout the 90s (the season after the Knicks beat Larry Bird in the playoffs is when he got the tickets). He sold the tickets at face value, and everyone would buy the tickets because they knew if they bought crap tickets, like the Grizzlies or the Kings they'd have a chance to see Charles Barkley or Karl Malone or David Robinson or whoever, as well as playoff tickets for face value. I only went to the Knicks versus the Bulls in the regular season and don't think I ever went to a first round playoff series except the year the Raptors knocked the Knicks out, because the writing was on the wall. And even when I saw the Knicks in the playoffs, I only went to elimination games (usually, games 5-7) against the Heat and Pacers. The majority of my playoff experience though was against the Bulls... that's why my dad got the season tickets, to watch great playoff basketball at the Garden.
He still has the tickets because he's petrified of losing these seats. He doesn't want to be put on a waiting list. I understand this sentiment, because there was a time when people would beg for tickets. I never saw so much ridiculous, fanatical graveling in my life. But, he has to eat pretty much all of them now. There is some charity through the Garden where you can donate tickets so underprivileged children can see the game, which makes eating the tickets easier for him... but I believe you can only write off 30% of the value.
But that's the crowd. When I'm in town I have access to tickets, so I go. But i still talk to the other season ticket holders I remember from a decade ago. No one wants to give up the FUTURE value of these tickets, whereas some gave up the present value. I think you actually made the right decision, but most of the other season ticket holders didn't clearly understand how bad this team was going to be, considering how good it was for how long it was.
