In a statement to Double Clutch UK, the NBA has responded to fan criticism regarding the NBA London game’s ticket selling process, saying that it will “continue to explore ways to enhance the overall experience”.
The full statement, which can be seen below, comes days after tickets to see the New York Knicks and the Washington Wizards on 17 January reportedly sold out in just 11 minutes.
The sale procedure was handled by an independent website called AXS. Many UK-based NBA fans complained that within minutes of tickets selling out, a huge amount of them were available on secondary buying websites at a vastly increased cost.
On our social media surveys – Facebook (left) and Twitter (right) combined – just 14.4% of people who participated said that they managed to get tickets for the NBA London game. Of those who managed to get tickets, 26% said they had to pay extra via a secondary website.
AXS apologised to those that did not manage to get a ticket on Twitter and said: “There was an extremely high demand for this release and unfortunately it was not possible for everyone to get a ticket.”
One Twitter user replied “Stubhub apparently got a good number of seats” and posted a screenshot of some costing £1,850.
A source at the NBA UK London office provided us with the following statement:
The NBA has no control over third party ticket sites, though we are working with AEG, our partner for the London game, to monitor third-party sites in order to ensure the authenticity of the tickets listed. That said, fans can be sure that we are mindful of their comments as we continue to explore ways to enhance the overall experience we provide to our fans.
Fans are still invited to register at NBA.com/London to receive exclusive offers and the latest news on the NBA London Game 2019.
Make sure you check out the latest Double Clutch podcast, to hear what some of our roster had to say about the NBA London ticket problems.
Mike Miller, Matthew Wellington and Huw Hopkins contributed to this exclusive.
