There are two things about this season that stick out a lot. The first thing is that the Knicks are—not surprisingly– losing at the highest of clips, holding a 5-28 record. But despite the consistent losing basis, Madison Square Garden continues to pour in fans like it’s soda coming from a fountain. This shouldn’t be a revelation.
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According to Basketball-Reference.com, the Knicks have the 5th best attendance league wide, amassing 316,992 people through 16 home games. While this may only be based off of ticket sales and not people actually showing up to the games, there are still a ton of people that show up to the games, including celebrities 99.9% of the time. Sellouts are happening for one of, if not, the worst team in basketball (the Sixers and the Knicks are interchangeable). Numbers are definitely subject to change later on, but the attendance numbers through more than a quarter of this season equate to more than last season. Last year, the Knicks ranked 3rd, trailing behind only the Mavericks and the Bulls. I’m pretty convinced that this could happen again for a second consecutive year.
While looking at these numbers, I immediately thought of the Cavaliers in their first season post-LeBron James after his departure for Miami. The mass hysteria within the Cleveland area was everywhere. It was obvious that they totally missed LeBron’s presence and still sold out the Quicken Loans Arena like he was still there. The 2010-11 Cavs ranked 3rd in attendance that year, only behind the Blazers and the Bulls, the same year Derrick Rose won MVP and was last seen as a fully healthy man. The parallels are definitely there.
Of course, the Knicks’ situation is different with the Cavs; their superstar left, instead of returning at that time. But the point I’m trying to make here is that even through the crappiest and toughest of times, the Knicks’ ticket sales are thriving. And, as Richard Bertin said in a recent article here on the site, as bad of a season this year is, it certainly isn’t the worst by any means.
These attendance figures shouldn’t really be surprising. No matter the state of the Knicks, James Dolan will continue to file his nails in his MSG/Cablevision headquarters looking at the NBA attendance pie chart, always looking to jack up ticket prices instead of lowering them and still manage to lure people. The spotlight is here in the biggest sports media market, MSG is the world’s most famous arena, there are all of the Spike Lee’s, Taylor Swift’s, Ben Stiller’s and Emmy Rossum’s (marry me) of the world that they have to offer, you name it. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. People of all statures will be there. They want to be there and I don’t blame them, unless the Knicks are actually winning, which they certainly are not, but that besides the point. Maybe the “actual people” part of the attendance conversation will come to life again when the Knicks have a top 5 lottery pick and bountiful cap space after this tankeriffic season ends.