Pages: LABron

WHEN our family visited Los Angeles late last year to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday, one activity was not to be missed: watching the LA Lakers.

Seated at the seventh row just behind Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma were my dad Bunny and brothers Charlie, Randy and Michael. (Jasmin and I had to fly back that same night.)

Ticket prices? For a prime seat at one of the world’s most famous houses (Staples Center), it was expensive but not outrageously pricey. Each ticket cost $286.

Fast forward one year later and that ticket fee has skyrocketed. The same seat at the much-awaited Lakers vs. Houston Rockets game will cost a whopping $1,500.

The reason for this extraordinary shift can be blamed on one human being: LBJ. Soon after he announced his transfer, everything became more expensive in La La Land.

“Only a handful of athletes in the world can have an effect on ticket demand like LeBron James can,” said Scott Jablonski, the GM for online seller StubHub. “It’s still early but trends are already showing that this upcoming Lakers season with James is going to be one of the hottest sports tickets on StubHub.”

In an NBCSports.com piece entitled, “NBA’s hottest ticket? Lakers demand surges after LeBron James signing,” Kurt Helin wrote: “LeBron James has the largest global brand of any NBA player, and is one of the most recognized and followed athletes in the world. The Los Angeles Lakers are the NBA’s biggest brand. Combine those two and ticket sales surge — demand for Lakers tickets increased by 427 percent over last season on StubHub, the online secondary ticket market’s leader told NBC Sports.

“How much has it blown up? The Lakers outsell the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks, StubHub’s next top-selling teams, by 130 percent and 160 percent, respectively.”

How big an increase did StubHub experience? Their site traffic increased by over 7,000 percent compared to the same time last year. And this isn’t applicable only to the Staples Center games. Whenever the Lakers visit another city, the sales for those games skyrocket.

LeBron’s influence has extended to the whole Western Conference. For the previous five years, there was a higher demand for teams from the East. Now, thanks to LABron, it’s the West.

“The LeBron effect isn’t just limited to ticket sales, eBay — the popular online marketplace — has seen a spike in LeBron and Lakers merchandise sales,” said Helin. “It has seen more than 200 LeBron Lakers’ jerseys sold a day since July 2. Also, LeBron’s shoes — specifically the LeBron 15s — lead the sales of all shoes on eBay as well since July 1.”

For Los Angeles, a study came out that his presence will have a $396 million economic impact on the city; with 3,000 additional jobs and $29 million in added state tax revenue.

Imagine next season if Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant or Anthony Davis join LeBron and they win the NBA trophy?

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