Back in the day, I worked at the Camelot Music store on Independence Boulevard for a year. And yes, we sold tickets, including Charlotte Hornets tickets. One thing I quickly learned working in the ticket window was that who the Hornets played and what day of the week it was mattered greatly in how interested people were in buying tickets to a particular game. So Rick Bonnell’s article that the Hornets are now (and have been for the past four years) making use of “dynamic pricing” — letting demand determine the determine the price of a specific seat for a specific game — comes as little surprise:
Individual game tickets can vary in price based on opponent, day of the week or, in the case of the opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, the first regular season game in Hornets uniforms.
A top-row seat at Time Warner Cable Arena could typically sell for as little as $16. But that same seat is on sale for about $70 for the season opener and about $82 for a home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers featuring superstar LeBron James.
No, what I do find surprising is that it took the team until 2010 to move to having demand for tickets to a particular game influence the price — it’s Econ 101 in action.
