cleveland-cavaliers-logoWhen LeBron James made the announcement that he would be returning to his home state of Ohio to once again play basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers, there were tears of joy throughout area. True Cavalier’s fans began to have visions of playoffs and NBA championships in their future.Others had dollar signs in their visions.

Within 24 hours of the news that LeBron was coming back, season tickets for the Cavs games were sold out. To the credit of the Cavalier’s organization, they didn’t hike up ticket prices just because of James. But that didn’t stop the scalpers and speculators.
While the Cavs efforts to keep ticket prices stable so as to not price out a lot of their most loyal fans were laudable, the secondary market is what it is and those ‘reasonably priced’ seats are now long gone.

The CEO of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Len Komoroski, said that the Cavs also will not raise prices for individual game tickets, which will remain the same as they were for major games last season. “We have been very conscious to treat our fans with the same degree of respect and integrity as when we were in our rebuilding mode.”

However, if last year’s fans don’t already have their tickets purchased, they may well find themselves sitting at home, or at their local sports bar, to watch LeBron James play basketball in Cleveland. Average ticket price at StubHub is up about $100 over last year’s prices, now at $184 each, but with a whopping increase in ticket transactions of over 4,000%!

Meanwhile, ticket prices down in Miami have dropped off by around $15 per ticket for the upcoming NBA season. Obviously, King James aka LeBron, is a big draw, wherever he plays. If you buy your NBA tickets through TiqIQ, you can expect to pay an average of $421 per ticket, which is about a 250% upgrade over last season in Cleveland.

From the very first day of LeBron’s announcement, various ‘experts’ have been predicting the amount of money that his presence will bring into the area. One professor came out with $500 million, but he was quickly shouted down by more reasonable voices. Other estimates were in the area of $50 million in increased income to Cleveland which sounds a bit more reasonable.

In any case and at whatever cost, LeBron James is back home in Cleveland and this year’s version of the Cavaliers will likely be a force to be reckoned with in the NBA.