EDITORIAL: How many San Antonio Spurs fans could afford tickets to the NBA Finals?

As the Spurs make this remarkable playoff run, Like many San Antonians, we have been watching and cheering the Spurs make ... from the couch.

The price of tickets to NBA Finals games has been startling. "Crazy" was the adjective New York Knicks guard Josh Hart used to describe ticket prices on the secondary market for Games 3 and 4.

"The cheapest ticket $7,000, $8,000," he said. "That's ridiculous."

It is absurd. As of Tuesday afternoon, ticket prices for Game 4 at Madison Square Garden were starting at about $4,400 and listed as high as $80,000. Ticket prices for Game 5 in San Antonio were starting at $1,500 and listed as high as $43,000. Of course, someone has to see those prices as fair value.

The secondary ticket market is interesting because at some point - minutes before the game, tipoff, the end of the first quarter - a ticket's value declines sharply, and when the game is over, it is worthless.

Some will say this is the free market in action. And maybe so. But we have found the prices - at a time when many Americans say they are feeling the strain of higher costs and inflation - unsettling.

It is an ugly reflection of the widening income gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else. There may be plenty of Spurs fans (and especially Knicks fans) who can easily drop $1,500 or $10,000 for an NBA Finals ticket. But how many Spurs fans in San Antonio - median household income of $65,000, 17% in poverty, per the U.S. Census - could never afford to attend a Finals game?

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This is bigger than the NBA. World Cup prices are out of reach, too.

The league should consider policies to ensure fan access. Here at home, Spurs Sports & Entertainment should sweeten its $75 million community benefits agreement that will accompany a new arena downtown in 2032.

NBA action may still be fantastic. But resale ticket prices to that action are not. At some point, fans who have no choice but to stay home may stop cheering.

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 11:05 AM.