LeBron James and Steph Curry-less NBA Cup pinching Adam Silver where it hurts

Without Steph Curry and LeBron James, the massive decline in ticket prices for this season's NBA Cup is raising concerns for Adam Silver.

LeBron James and Steph Curry-less NBA Cup pinching Adam Silver where it hurts

Adam Silver is staring at a loss of revenue without Steph Curry and LeBron James in this season's NBA Cup

In last season’s inaugural NBA Cup, Adam Silver handed the trophy to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. This season, they are not part of the finals and neither is Steph Curry, whose Golden State Warriors were booted out in the quarterfinals.

The teams left competing in the semifinals on Saturday are the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The common factor among them is that they are all small market teams.

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The result has seen average ticket prices drop to $98 for this year’s NBA Cup finals in Las Vegas. As per Tick Pick, last year’s average ticket prices were $237. The Sporting Tribune’s Arash Markazi gave details of how low the prices have fluctuated.

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Tickets for the NBA Cup in Las Vegas have plummeted since the teams were set. They were hoping for Lakers, Warriors, Suns, Clippers, Celtics or Knicks but no dice. The current get in prices:
Dec. 14: Bucks-Hawks – $29
Dec. 14: Thunder-Rockets – $39
Dec. 17: NBA Cup Final – $79

Arash Markazi wrote on on X

The $29 cost for the Eastern Conference semis is extremely low even by NBA regular season standards. It goes to show that the demand for such tickets is lowering the price to a level that NBA commissioner Adam Silver won’t be excited about.

The lack of big market teams is hitting the league where it hurts the most — revenue. For the networks investing millions, it would be an embarrassment if fans do not show up in Las Vegas.

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Adam Silver needs to find solutions to stop the decline

Ever since last season’s NBA Finals, it was evident that the lack of superstars had affected viewership ratings. That carried over to this season’s opening week as ratings fell by nearly 42% on average across all networks.

Adam Silver blamed the US Presidential elections and the MLB World Series as factors for the decline. But such factors did not matter when games saw more millions of viewers on average. Shaquille O’Neal suggested that the increased reliance on three-point shooting had made the game boring.

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Silver shot back at that suggestion with proof that social media engagement was at an all-time high. Now, the lack of superstars, big-market teams, and lack of exciting play is also showing that the league has made some mistakes in banking on the likes of Steph Curry and LeBron James for far too long.