Wednesday (Pay the pick) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on April 16th, 2008 – 8:10 AMBy Michael Rand
The most startling revelation from last night’s local sports scene didn’t come from the up-is-down Twins pitching staff (strong starters, shaky relievers) or the Wild playoff game, of which we will not speak. Instead, it came from the fact that next year one might be able to spend $43 for SEASON TICKETS to see an NBA team. Maybe this has been out there for a while, but the “Pay the Pick” deal advertised during last night’s televised Timberwolves game at Detroit was a new one to us. The deal: Your season ticket per game price is equal to whatever pick the Wolves get in the draft. They pick No. 1? $43 for 43 games, or $1 per game. Seriously. $86 for the No. 2 pick. And so on. Perhaps this underscores our insanity or our love of a great deal, but it intrigues us. It’s a huge risk-reward — the cheaper the ticket, presumably, the more reason you would want to watch this team because they would be bringing in a higher-caliber pick, presumably either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley in the case of the under $100 options. They take a tumble in the lottery and end up with a stiff and you’re stuck with a couple hundred bucks worth of tickets in the cheap seats to watch a still not ready for prime time squad. Then there’s a part of us that — and granted, we have never taken a business class — wonders what the impact of such a huge and desperate price cut will be. Granted, the people paying close to $10K for one season ticket in the prime seats don’t want to sit in Section 220, Row T, for $43, but that disparity for what amounts to renting a chair for 43 nights in the same building has to mean something. Same goes for folks paying $1K for good but not great seats. Now, we’re assuming these seats went largely unoccupied this season and that something is better than nothing (especially when concessions and merchandise are factored in), but it’s just hard to fathom a team selling its product for so little. Seriously, and not to get all Superbad on this thing, but, no offense, this isn’t some [redacted] fly by night league. Sorry for cursing. This is the National Basketball Assocation. This isn’t home ec. No offense. In any event, one more loss by the Wolves will clinch the third-worst record, which ensures absolutely no worse than the No. 6 pick. Assuming the odds this year are the same as last year and that they wind up with the third-worst record, the Wolves will have a 15.6 percent chance of picking first, a 31.3 percent chance of picking in the top two and a 46.9 percent chance of picking in the top three. Even if they pick sixth, a season ticket would be $258. Again, a rather intriguing gamble, and shame on the Wolves for making us intrigued. We just wish this kind of thing had been around 7 or 8 years ago, when our interest in the NBA and gambling were at their highest; then again, at that time, the Wolves didn’t have any first-round picks with which to play this game.
What else?
Tiger Woods is having knee surgery. … MLB.com is cursing the Twins. That’s right, two consecutive nights we’ve become frustrated with the ESPN.com game tracker and switched over to the much better MLB.com tracking feature, only to have the bullpen implode minutes later in both cases. Yeah, only an irrational person who has been wrapped up in sports far too long would make any sort of connection between the two.
Fasola-link! Soccer coach of the day.
16 Responses to "Wednesday (Pay the pick) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
I, too, remember when the Twins set-up guys were reliable. Wasn’t that a time? Nickel egg creams, phonograph records, that dastardly Kaiser Wilhelm…
Anyway, of much more importance, I fried up some fish last night and made a beer batter with RandBall reader-approved New Belgium 1554 Black Ale. Highly recommended.
Regards,
Rachael Ray
@Stu
We also wore onions on our belts- that being the style at the time.
Also, why waste a perfectly good beer on fish?
Correction hootie. Why waste perfectly good fish with beer like that? My grandpa swears by 3 beers for beer batter fish:
1. Pfeiffer’s (When it exsisted)
2. Premium
3. Schmidt
The Hootie: my liquor store had a sale. Plus, I only used a half cup, which means there were leftovers that had to be consumed. Terrible luck, that.
Sorry to interrupt this fish-n-beer chat for an on-post-topic question: are the Target Center nosebleeds worth the presumed $100-200? How’s the view?
Brandon:
What we did was sit in the nosebleeds for the first half, watching the game on the Jumbotron, then took our ticket over to Rock Bottom Brewery and cashed it in for a free beer and watched the second half.
I am assuming you have to buy these tickets before the lottery, is that a good assumption?
I am also intrigued by this, this team is almost assured of sucking again next year. You can buy these nosebleed seats and then just move down because nobody is going to be at these games. Plus when the Celts come to town you can sell your tickets and cover the cost for the season.
I think the Wolves may be getting a call from me in the next week.
The one positive about the Wild giving up 3 goals in the first, I was in bed by 10:30. My Boss thanks you Wild.
jama - I’m wondering the same (waiting until after the draft order is announced to purchase). Anyone know the answer to this?
Even if the seats you get are crap, I’m willing to bet there will be a few open seats with a better view. There’s probably a worse way I could spend my money. Aren’t we due for a top pick anyways? I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
Let me get this straight–the worse they do in the lottery, in theory the worse the player they get (multipled by the McHale factor, of course), the more I have to pay?
Where do I sign up? I need to do it fast, as I’ve got to go look at a bridge that some guy is trying to sell me this afternoon…
O.J. Mayo is the pick
I think we are due a top pick. Most definitely.
I think all the Randballers should buy seats. That way we can make fun of Rand to his face, but that might get old during game #35 of the season.
Making fun of Rand can get old? Huh.
Upon further research the Twolves have capped the price at $215 per in the nosebleeds, so either that is what the seats are worth, or they figure they are going to pick no worse than 5th.
I am getting more and more intrigued as well. Plus, the way I figure it, I will have more than 43 opportunities to catch a T-Shirt shot out of the air-cannon.
Do the Wolves have a $1 dog night? We could start one hell of a food fight and nobody would even know.
