http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba-281040

Really?????

When Mike Miller comes back I think Lebron officially becomes our PG. I could see it happening any day now if James Jones or Eddie House looks like they can temporarily fill that role of a spot shooter.

I've posted this before re:Rays attendance, but I'll say it again. Florida has been decimated by the recession. I'm not trying to make excuses here, but like, gee, the entire state income is based on tourism and the service industry, I wonder how that's doing.

They held back some tickets until today or yesterday. They sold out about 3/4 of the arena on season ticket packages the day Lebron signed and then stopped all season ticket sales. They sold out on multi game ticket packages, but held back a limited amount of single game tickets for each game. I'm not entirely sure why unless they were making money off the resale market or something, it doesn't really make sense.

Yes, but not in this case. Tickets have been going for a lot of money on the resale market.

The seats in the top section are going for $178 per. I have a pair in my cart but forget that lol.

Edit: Apparently they put the remaining tix up a few weeks ago. But with the rafters going for $178 and then subsequent pricing levels to over $400 there are still some tix left.

Okay, that's a little pricey.

I don't blame anyone for not paying that much.

ugh. what bosh says is true, but man, that guy needs to learn that when you have nothing nice to say, just shut up.

btw, i'd love to see the raptors win a title, someday.

Florida is your typical redneck, backwards ass southern state, though. Aside from the wealthy retired folks from the Northeast, the state is pretty much full of poor, crazy-ass stupid people. I mean, you guys watch "Cops," right?

(no offense to anyone who lives in Florida, I know that there are plenty of nice ordinary people living there; I'm just stating some generalities based on its public school system, jails, etc.)

I hope you're planning on living for a long time.

???

Miami is not anything like what you described. Central and North Florida? Yeah, that's part of the south. South Florida isn't. It couldn't be further from what you described. Multi-ethnic, racial, 99% urban and suburban. Basically no rural/redneck areas to speak of. Oh yeah, and the tri-county area is full of upper, middle-upper, and middle class people, not that it matters. I'm sure there aren't any stupid poor people in the Northeast. Besides wtf do any of your ridiculous assumptions have to do with Miami Heat ticket sales at an arena three minutes away from South Beach?

Have fun shoveling snow this winter with your wealthy, hard working, sane, rich, smart friends while I'm enjoying the beach with all the poor rednecks. Oh and the poor blacks and Haitians too. Maybe you'll see me on Cops.

thats such an exaggeration. Yes we have plenty of rednecks and white trash but you never see them. I don't know where they hide most of the time. They seem to hardly ever leave their double wides. I only see them on the rare occassion when I go to theme parks or something and they walk around wearing their fanny packs with retarded lifeless looks on their faces. Compare Florida to Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas or pretty much anywhere and there is just as much if not more rednecks and white trash. Our schools don't suck unless you live in a shitty area but the same pretty much goes for anywhere else. Its as if you guys magnify everything bizarre that happens down here like it doesn't happen anywhere else.

Yeah c'mon Coach I love you but that was a pretty terrible post.

really? was that harsh?

Just wildly inaccurate.

even with the shitty economy people in most areas here seem to do what they want. The Heat are charging that because they can and they know people will pay it. They sold out season tickets and multi game packages so I think that says plenty. Same with the Magic. They have that brand new arena, season ticket sales are huge and they are selling out games like crazy. I didn't read that article but I guess it was about the rays shitty ticket sales and although the economy has an effect on that, there are other reasons. The ballpark is located in a really inconvenient and shitty area and people here who do care about baseball are loyal to other teams like the yankees and red sox. The yankees spring training here seems to attract more attention than the rays playoff games.

The heat are a bit of an anomaly though a lot of teams in the east are excellent and the Magic are as good a watch in the regular season as anyone. Personally I find it a little crazy to spend that kind of money to have to fight traffic 40 something times and spend all that time IN the arena for a team that will DEFINATELY be on TV somewhere every night. At least it's not worth it in the seats I could afford anyway.

That said, if you're going to purchase season tickets to support your squad, it's going to be fun to watch Lebron and Wade regardless. If you can swing the money for lower level up close. Has to be awesome.

I don't think it's hard to sell interesting. I think what we're going to see in the smaller economy is that it's much harder to sell mediocre. The NBA is fun and there are a lot of teams with stars so I think we will see a lot of sellouts some nights and vacant arena's on others.

I don't see how the bottom of the barrel (non playoff teams) manage to sell games that aren't against any of the top teams. I mean Atlanta vs Memphis. Yeah I'm not watching that.

I disagree, but this isn't the News and Debate forum, so extending this discussion is meaningless.

Yeah you're right you probably do know more about Florida than people who have lived there their whole life. I'm convinced.

Go have a cup of chowduh.

I don't put memphis in the top tier but they are a team on the rise and have some talented guys. OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay are good and the younger Gasol is making huge progress. Zach Randolph can be huge when he's motivated and Memphis seems to be a great fit for him. Don't be surprised if they make the playoffs. I know the Hawks don't sell very well in general but I would go watch Atlanta play Memphis if I lived there. That would be a good game. I'm goin to see Memphis play the Magic in a couple weeks in Orlando and can't wait. I bet on basketball quite a bit and I since early last year I hesitate to bet on games with Memphis.