There will be a waiting list for Thunder season tickets.
Just not yet.
Thunder officials announced Thursday night that slightly less than 1,000 season tickets remain. All remaining tickets are $10 upper deck seats that will go on sale at 8 a.m. today.
Featured Video
Advertisement
"We are down to a precious few remaining seats,” said team spokesman Dan Mahoney. "We will be open and encourage fans to keep their Friday appointments. By purchasing them, you become a Thunder season ticket member and enjoy all the benefits that brings, including securing your opportunity for future upgrades.
"And you won't have to be placed on a waiting list.”
Once all season tickets have been sold, remaining select-a-seat appointments will be canceled. Those fans will be placed on a waiting list for future season tickets. They also will be placed on a list for eight-game mini packages, in all price ranges, that will go on sale in approximately two weeks.
With around 1,000 tickets left, the Thunder is all but assured of joining the Celtics, Lakers and Suns as the only NBA franchises with a season ticket waiting list.
"It's nice to validate the NBA's confidence in Oklahoma City,” said Mayor Mick Cornett. "Back in November '05, when commissioner (David) Stern said Oklahoma City was at the top of the NBA's relocation list, some people said, ‘Huh?' This shows Oklahoma City is not only a legitimate market but one of the league's strongest markets.”
Similar to the select-a-seat format for season tickets, eight-game mini packages (maximum four per account) will be offered based on an applicant's original scheduled appointment time. Fans received an unexpected surprise Thursday afternoon when Thunder players Jeff Green, D.J. White and Kyle Weaver showed up at the Ford Center.
For the third consecutive day, the Thunder sold around 2,000 tickets. The team has sold approximately 12,000 season tickets the first four days, halfway through what was originally scheduled to be an eight-day process.
The Ford Center seats 19,100 for NBA games. Approximately 2,500 corporate seats were sold before the process began Monday. Thunder officials also are holding back 4,000 seats for mini packages, group sales, individual tickets and other team needs for the league and media.
A computer randomly selected appointment times for fans to select seats. Since Thunder officials probably could have sold at least 20,000 season tickets, there weren't enough tickets to satisfy every customer. Weekend applicants are expected to have their appointments canceled.
"It was unavoidable,” Cornett said. "The reason I started talking about it last week was I could see this coming. I wanted people to be prepared. Usually, supply and demand resolves itself. But the team would have had to really raise ticket prices to meet supply simply because the demand was so high.”
The most disappointed fans are former Hornet season-ticket holders with weekend appointments, fans who feel they played a key role in Oklahoma City landing a permanent NBA franchise.
"My guess is most of the Hornet season-ticket holders will still be in the arena,” Cornett said. "They either got tickets or will get tickets. They may be part of a corporate structure that bought tickets that haven't been distributed yet. Or they'll find someone who has extra tickets.”
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
I'm not as sure the Thunder needed to offer Hornets season ticket holders their seats back (lots of potential problems there) as I am that they should have limited people to four tickets. That would have freed up a lot more seats for more people, and also made them less attractive to scalpers. I suppose the scalpers had people sign up for and show up to buy tickets, which they are now reselling at higher prices. The Thunder management should be following all these sales, determining precisely what seats they are, and cancelling those people's season tickets. There are already tickets for sale on eBay and craigslist. They've got a stern anti-scalping clause, so I would like to see them enforce it.
Jill, www.okcthunderfans.com - Sep 15, 2008 at 3:36 pm
New Orleans/ Oklahoma City Hornets season ticket holders get no preference in ticket lottery! What a mistake!
The first season the Hornets were in OKC my family bought season tickets for our immediate family (4). That season we also had two birthday parties with 20-30 people at Hornets games. Near the end of the season we bought “group tickets” to one game (30) and distributed them to extended family and friends, some of which bought season tickets in year two.
The second Hornets season in OKC we again bought four upper level season tickets for the kids (ages 17-25) and 2 club-level seats for my wife and myself, as well as 25 of the 12 or 15 (I don’t remember exactly what they were) game mini-plans and sold those tickets to extended family and friends so we could all attend games together. We also again bought two birthday party packages the second season.
When the Ford Center tax vote came around we were very vocal in our support for the tax. My entire family was very, very excited about the NBA coming permanently to OKC. But not anymore, we have been left out. Because our select-a-seat appointment is not until Monday September 15th it is obvious that we will not have any opportunity to buy even 1 season ticket. In my opinion, families like ours that packed the Ford Center every night for 2 years had as much to do with bringing the NBA here permanently as did Clay Bennett and PBC.
The Thunder are blaming the Hornets for not sharing their ticket information, however I called my Hornets ticket rep. in New Orleans and he claims he is receiving 20-30 calls a day from his OKC customers wanting to know why the Hornets would do this to the fans that supported them so faithfully for 2 years. He says that the Thunders claims are completely untrue, that the Hornets offered the information to the Thunder and that the Thunder “never even got back to us”.
Needless to say we are heartbroken. I am a life-long resident of Oklahoma City and I would never wish anything bad on the Thunder for that reason, but they have lost what would have been a very loyal family of fans. I will not root against them, but also will not root for them. As far as I’m concerned they don’t exist. How could this lottery have been fair when already, days before our select-a-seat appointment the “ticket brokers” (crooks) are advertising hundreds of tickets at 3-5 times the face value.
Thanks a lot Thunder, so nice of you to take care of the fans that got you here in the first place. I have already made preliminary arrangements for our family to travel to Dallas to see our HORNETS.
I hope that the lower level is completely just season ticket seats.I wont buy season tickets,but for the 10 games or so I plan on attending,I want lower level seats.
I was there Thursday afternoon late. There were a few club level seats available. On the upper deck, I got lucky and found three on the side with a nice view that we left just because there were three rather than two or four. I'm looking forward to the season. OKC is blossoming into a major league city thanks to MAPS and the generosity of the Oklahoma City taxpayers. I give them the credit. I appreciate the OKC Thunder coming to town and the ownership but if it wasn't for MAPS and the taxpayers we would not be getting ready to enjoy our own NBA team.
Our season tickets cost more and aren't as good as what we had with the Hornets but I'm still very happy to have them and feel like the team tried to be as fair as possible with everyone.
OKC has done a lot to prove itself and land a team. I feel the state will and should support it, regardless of the "city" tagged onto the name. Get over it. OKC is the largest city in the state so it makes sense. Hornets season ticket holders, it's a bad situation, however, Shinn wouldn't give the information over. It's a different team!
We were Hornet's season ticket owners and do not have tickets yet....I can not tell you how mad I am! I doubt if we will by the season ticket in the upper deck....
Randy - By contract the team must be associated with a city. Besides, Oklahoma City sales tax payers are bearing the brunt of the cost for repairs, upgrades, and new arenas. The team belongs to OKC, and don't you forget it!
OKC Thunder agree to deal with 7-foot-1 Swift... 09/12/2008 The Oklahoma City Thunder have re-signed restricted free agent Robert Swift, a 7-foot-1 center who has been plagued by knee injuries. Terms of the deal were...
Thunder sell remaining season tickets, will have... 09/12/2008 The Oklahoma City Thunder will have a season ticket waiting list. Team officials sold the remaining 1,000 tickets on Friday.
“It's one thing to feel...
17
Featured Video
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
New Orleans/ Oklahoma City Hornets season ticket holders get no preference in ticket lottery! What a mistake!
The first season the Hornets were in OKC my family bought season tickets for our immediate family (4). That season we also had two birthday parties with 20-30 people at Hornets games. Near the end of the season we bought “group tickets” to one game (30) and distributed them to extended family and friends, some of which bought season tickets in year two.
The second Hornets season in OKC we again bought four upper level season tickets for the kids (ages 17-25) and 2 club-level seats for my wife and myself, as well as 25 of the 12 or 15 (I don’t remember exactly what they were) game mini-plans and sold those tickets to extended family and friends so we could all attend games together. We also again bought two birthday party packages the second season.
When the Ford Center tax vote came around we were very vocal in our support for the tax. My entire family was very, very excited about the NBA coming permanently to OKC. But not anymore, we have been left out. Because our select-a-seat appointment is not until Monday September 15th it is obvious that we will not have any opportunity to buy even 1 season ticket. In my opinion, families like ours that packed the Ford Center every night for 2 years had as much to do with bringing the NBA here permanently as did Clay Bennett and PBC.
The Thunder are blaming the Hornets for not sharing their ticket information, however I called my Hornets ticket rep. in New Orleans and he claims he is receiving 20-30 calls a day from his OKC customers wanting to know why the Hornets would do this to the fans that supported them so faithfully for 2 years. He says that the Thunders claims are completely untrue, that the Hornets offered the information to the Thunder and that the Thunder “never even got back to us”.
Needless to say we are heartbroken. I am a life-long resident of Oklahoma City and I would never wish anything bad on the Thunder for that reason, but they have lost what would have been a very loyal family of fans. I will not root against them, but also will not root for them. As far as I’m concerned they don’t exist. How could this lottery have been fair when already, days before our select-a-seat appointment the “ticket brokers” (crooks) are advertising hundreds of tickets at 3-5 times the face value.
Thanks a lot Thunder, so nice of you to take care of the fans that got you here in the first place. I have already made preliminary arrangements for our family to travel to Dallas to see our HORNETS.
Okla st 39 Wash st 13
OKC 1 NBA Seattle 0 NBA
Oklahoma #1 Oklahoma #1
Washington LOSER Seattle LOSER