Ticket Demand High for the Heat

Who says the Lakers can’t draw the crowds and rake in the dough without Shaquille O’Neal?

A 44-person suite at Staples Center for a Laker game is available on ticketsnow.com for $36,000. A courtside seat can be purchased for $28,250. In the cheapest section of the house, tickets are for sale at $240. A parking pass is on sale for $85.

On EBay, two tickets on the lower level are going for $1,500 apiece.

Life in the post-O’Neal era seems just grand.

Or is it? The figures quoted above are for one game only, on Christmas Day, against -- you guessed it -- O’Neal and the Miami Heat.

That 44-person suite normally goes for $6,820, a courtside seat is $2,000 and the cheapest Laker ticket is $10.

An unofficial survey of ticket brokers around Southern California showed that several are asking $2,500 for a single seat for the Laker-Heat matchup.

A ticket broker, who declined to be identified, said interest in the Laker-Heat game was off the charts.

“It’s the biggest demand I’ve ever seen for a regular-season game,” he said, “far greater than when Michael Jordan came back, far greater than when Magic Johnson came out of retirement.”

But while the first meeting of O’Neal and Kobe Bryant on the court since their acrimonious split has become the hottest ticket in town, many ticket brokers say overall demand for Laker seats is off.

“I think the demand is substantially lower,” said Eddie Espinosa of Eddie’s Tickets, “as much as 40 to 50%. And smaller demand means lower prices.”

The Lakers have the league’s highest average ticket price for the third consecutive year at $77.36, the league average being $45.28, according to Team Marketing Report’s annual study.

“In years past, prior to their recent championship run,” Espinosa said, “the first third of the season, the demand would be fair to slow. Then, after Christmas, it would take off for the second half. Now we are back to fair to slow and it’s noticeable because people have become used to high demand.”

According to one broker, tickets that sold last season for $350-$500 can now be purchased for $250-$350. Cheaper seats once meant an outlay of $60-$75. The going price now is $35-$50.

Does that mean increased demand for Clipper tickets?

“Nobody,” said the spokesman for A Aardvark Tickets, “wants to see the Clippers.”

The spokesman estimated his Laker business was down 15% “until they prove themselves.”

Another ticket broker, who did not want to be identified, doesn’t believe the Lakers are facing a bleak future at the box office.

“Unless they totally go into the toilet, not much is going to change in terms of ticket demand over the next three or four years,” he said.

Terry Graves of the Al Mutart Ticket Agency agrees.

“Laker fans are Laker fans,” Graves said. “The players don’t make a difference.”