New Orleans Pelicans: Fans react to increased season ticket prices

The email hit the inbox over the weekend: It’s time to renew our season tickets to the Pelicans games.

I still feel like so much of this season is yet to be played, but we have to commit by Wednesday, which is the end of the early deadline, to get the “discounted” price for our seats. I use that “discount” term loosely as the ticket prices are increasing for the 2021-2022 season.

While I don’t mind the price increase, it does kind of sting. Let’s face it, the past year has been tough for us all. Adding in an additional cost with no guarantees that the fan experience will be as good as it was pre-Covid is a tough ask.

We paid for our season tickets last year around this time, not knowing how things would play out with the games. Since we’ve been unable to get tickets for all of the games, any unused funds in our account will roll over to next year and we’ll pay the difference. This is something the Pelicans ticket office has been very transparent about, and I, and my bank account, are appreciative of it.

The Pelicans’ front office is doing what they can to continue the high interest in this team and sell as many tickets as possible with the hope the arena can be at full capacity next season.

The way the tickets have worked this year is vastly different than the usual. It’s all due to Covid, including the spacing and the overall amount of fans allowed inside the Smoothie King Center.

Instead of the tiered prices based on who the team is playing, we are paying a set price per game. As I’ve mentioned before, the location of our seats is not the same as what we normally pay for. Some games, they are a tad better while others are not.

We still don’t have tickets to all of the remaining games. Overall, though, we are very fortunate to be able to go to nearly 80% of the home games this year. If you had told me we’d be able to go to that many games before the season started, I would’ve thought you were crazy.

New Orleans Pelicans: Raising ticket prices seems unfair

This season, the overall fan experience is significantly muted due to the restrictions in place. I get it. It’s hard, and I know the group behind the fan experience for the Pelicans is trying to make the best of a very difficult situation.

However, it’s just a little more difficult to swallow an increased ticket price coming out of a pandemic. Some fans are a little more vocal about it than others.

As much as the price increase stings, I do understand.

While the extras involved for the fans is great, the bottom line is we are there to support and cheer on the Pelicans. Right now, it’s nice to see the team playing with some passion. Hopefully that translates into some more wins by the end of the season. That will help with the justification in my mind over the increased ticket costs.

With our seats secured for next season, my friends and I are looking forward to getting back to a little more normalcy and hopefully a playoff run by the Pelicans in the very near future.