Weather 
President Donald Trump plans to be at Madison Square Garden for Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, June 8, but he doesn’t seem to have much sympathy for New York Knicks fans that can’t afford a ticket.
“You can watch it on television,” Trump, 79, said while meeting with reporters on Friday, June 5, when told the get-in price for Game 3 was over $8,000. “It’s sort of semi-free to watch it on television. That’s the way life goes… If the team wasn’t a big success, tickets would go very easily… but that’s the way life is.”
As of Friday afternoon, the cheapest ticket listed by SeatGeek for Game 3 was $10,539.
The Knicks won Game 1 of the NBA Finals over the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday, June 3, in their first Finals game since 1999. They will play Game 2 on Friday night before the series shifts to New York.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has also been asked about the outrageous ticket prices for Knicks playoff games, jokingly blaming the problem on former Knicks nemesis Trae Young during their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, Young’s former team.
“I do wish, however, that all of these tickets were far more affordably priced,” Mamdani, 34, said in April. “When the Knicks do well, you feel it across this whole city, and it’s not just for those who can afford to go to the games.”
Mamdani has also weighed in on Trump, an avid New York sports fan, making the trip for Game 3.
“I will be in a very different section of the stadium,” Mamdani said, according to NBC4, though he added, “I think we look forward to welcoming any New Yorker who is excited for the Knicks to have the chance to win that championship.”
When New York Knicks superfan Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, took their seats in Cleveland for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the power couple were noticeably removed from their usual courtside vantage point. As it turns out, the Cleveland Cavaliers organization took preventive steps to help make sure Rocket Arena didn’t […]
The NBA Finals aren’t the only tough ticket to hit the New York area this spring. Fans are facing similar problems scoring tickets to the men’s FIFA World Cup, which will be played across the United States, Mexico and Canada. The first game in New Jersey takes place June 13 when Brazil faces Morocco.
Trump struck a slightly different tone in May when asked about World Cup tickets, which, at the time, averaged around $13,000 each.
“I did not know that number,” Trump told the New York Post at the time. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
He added, “If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success. I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go.”
