MINNEAPOLIS — It's hard to describe the current market for Timberwolves playoff tickets in Minneapolis, even for industry veterans.
"Insane would be the first word that comes to mind," said Michael Nowakowski, owner of Ticket King in Minneapolis.
"I've never seen the demand for a ticket like there is for the Timberwolves playoff tickets. We have been in this market for 30 years and I have never, never seen anything close."
Though he's certainly sold some expensive tickets, and saw the recent impact of Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark, Nowakowski says the suddenness and intensity of demand for the Friday and Sunday games against the Denver Nuggets have led to non-stop sales and price increases that don't show signs of retreating.
Nowakowski: "They win the first game in Denver and the faucet just turned on. Our website was just like churning out sales, and it literally hasn't stopped. I think the thing that will only actually stop it is when we run out of tickets."
Kent Erdahl: "What are we talking about here in terms of the dollar figures?"
Nowakowski: "It has gotten to the point today where the worst seat in the house is $350 for Friday's game. I'm talking back against the upper wall."
If you want to sit in the lower level, a few rows up from half court, he says prices are up to about $2,500 hundred a ticket. He said courtside seats are harder to price because of VIP clients, but he believes many will end up selling for between $10-20,000.
"We did sell a couple of court sides for $20,000 each," he said. "Usually the VIPs have fake email addresses, so you have no idea (who is buying them) until you see them on tv."
Season Tickets Sales Soaring
Fans can score face-value tickets for this weekend if they are willing to commit to buying full - or half - season ticket plans for games in 2024-25.
"That's probably the one opportunity that people have right now," said Jake Vernon, the Timberwolves VP of ticket sales. "We don't have a lot of seats like that left, but yesterday, today we've seen a spike in season ticket sales because of that exact reason."
Vernon says that offer has been extremely popular as the playoff prices have jumped in recent days.
"We've sold hundreds (of season tickets) yesterday and we expect that number to continue today," he said. "I think at this point - for next year - we're at about 2,500 new, full, season tickets.
Of course those aren't the only calls they're getting.
Jake: "We've definitely gotten an uptick in what I would call celebrity/VIP requests. We don't have a lot of seats - to be frank - we don't have a lot of room to take care of them,"
Kent: "Have you had to tell any VIPs, 'Sorry.'"
Jake: "Not yet, but we may not have been able to fulfill the exact seats that they wanted, but we've been able to accomodate most folks."
Kent: "No names though?"
Jake: "No, yeah, I can't share that. You're going to have to tune in on Friday or Sunday."
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