Fans buying more tickets in case this is Nowitzki’s last year

Edward Coronado knows a good thing when he sees it.

Last year, Coronado had the good fortune to be at the Staples Center in Los Angeles when Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz in his final NBA game. Now he wants to make sure he’s in the building when Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki plays his last game.

Coronado was one of several people at American Airlines Center on Thursday who purchased season tickets for the 2017-’18 campaign during the team’s Select-A-Seat event.

Nowitzki will be playing his 20 – and maybe his last – season starting in the fall. And that prospect has created a buzz around town.

“I was able to make it to Kobe’s last game in LA because he was my favorite player at the time,’’ said Coronado, who lives in Dallas. "So I’ve been to a game where you know this is the last time that you’re ever going to see a legend on the court just doing what he does.

“It was a crazy night then, too, so I’m sure whenever it is his last game with the Mavs it’ll be pretty crazy, too. So hopefully he can do the same thing.”

With that in mind, Coronado purchased a full season ticket package for the first time after previously purchasing partial season tickets on two other occasions.

“I’m doing this just because in anticipation that this could be Dirk’s last season,’’ Coronado said. “I’ve been coming to games since I was younger, but I thought it was a smart thing to get season tickets just in case it is his final year.”

The prospect of Nowitzki entering his final season also is what prompted the husband and wife duo of Jared and Katie Fleming — they live in Dallas — to purchase lower level season tickets on Thursday.

“I want to see as much of Dirk as I can the last couple of years he’s around,” Jared Fleming said. “He’s clearly one of the greatest we’ve ever seen – the best we’ve ever had in Dallas.

“And the few years he has left I want to be here to see the rest of it. So that’s the biggest thing for me.”

Nowitzki, of course, hasn’t exactly said next season will be his last. But the Flemings want to be in the arena just in case it is.

“Seeing Dirk right up front, I just love the atmosphere of every single game,” Katie Fleming said. “So, I’m really just excited to be a season ticket holder and enjoy every game we can.”

Rob Erwin, the director of ticket sales for the Mavericks, said Nowitzki has been great for business. And that his generosity behind the scenes is just as impeccable as his performance on the court.

“He comes in the office routinely," Erwin said. "He’ll just walk through and come and say hello.

“He was there a couple of days after the season ended just for our staff. How is anybody going to get down about anything? You’ve got a future Hall of Famer walking through the office, everybody get a little more excited about doing your job. It makes it easy. He’s great.”

Coronado was inside AAC on March 7 when Nowitzki scored 25 points to surpass 30,000 career points during a 122-111 victory over the Lakers. He expects that same electricity whenever Nowitzki plays his last game, which is why he bought his season ticket package.

“It’s a piece of mind just to know that every night you have to look online or just find individual tickets, it’s already taken care for the rest of the season," Coronado said. "I’ve just got to get ready for game night and just come out here and support the Mavs.”

The Flemings wound up purchasing a season ticket package that consisted of 22 games. They hopes that will include the final game of the season.

“We don’t know, obviously, which games we have because the schedule doesn’t come out until August,” Jared Fleming said. “But we’ll get every Western Conference team and then split the Eastern Conference.

“But I said you’ve got to get me here to see LeBron (James). I want to see Isaiah Thomas and LeBron.”

And Nowitzki, of course.

While also taking time to bring on new customers, Erwin and the rest of the Mavs sale staff have also spent this week renewing season ticket packages. He reiterated that tickets prices range from as little as $10 per game to as high as over $2,000 per contest.

"Everybody wants to ask us how can I sit on the floor, how can I sit next to (owner) Mark (Cuban)," Erwin said. "Once somebody has a season ticket it’s their option if they want to come back next year, and we always give them that first choice.

"So we’ve been renewing people since February leading up to this event and giving them those options on their seats to kind of give them basically that first choice. Usually what happens is somebody will take that seats, renew it, come to this event and say I can get a little closer, I can get a little better, I can shift and move around, and that’s exactly what this is for."

Erwin added that season ticket holders receive perks, such as a blowout event that the Mavs put on every year that’s attended by the players and the coaches.

“We just try and give them a little extra value for more than just coming and having a good time and having an entertainment experience when they come to a game,” Erwin said. “It’s more than just a sport games -- it’s having an awesome time.”

And part of that “awesome time,” Erwin concluded, involved being able to watch Nowitzki in the twilight of his historic career.

“People that left being a season ticket holder years ago might try and come back and kind of re-live those memories that they used to have, knowing that we’d love to have Dirk for 10 more years,” Erwin said. “At some point he’s going to let us know when he’s done, and we don’t want anyone to miss out on that chance.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Fans buying more tickets in case this is Nowitzki’s last year."