SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings are playing the Golden State Warriors in round one of the NBA Playoffs, and Game 1 is on Saturday at Golden 1 Center.
Tickets went on sale to the general public at noon on Monday, and some fans are paying a hefty price to see a piece of history.
Ventrell Dyson and Junior Garcia were outside the box office at DOCO, where they had just bought two pairs of tickets. The friends have been Kings fans since they were kids.
"We got tickets to game 1 and 2, so we're in the building both nights,” said Garcia. “We paid probably about $2,400 for both games, altogether.”
He said he thought the pair would spend a total of at least $4,000, so they were pleased at only paying $600 per ticket.
“16-year drought, We were 10 years old, right? I was born in 1996, so we have to get in the building,” said Garcia. “No matter where we're sitting, we're in the building."
They credit their fifth grade teacher Ms. Williams, of Williamson Elementary in Rancho Cordova, for turning them into Kings fans.
“She was a really good teacher,” said Dyson. “She had Kings stuff all over the walls.”
Asked what he’d say to Ms. Williams, Garcia said, “We're still fans because of you! Hopefully, we made you proud.”
Two other friends - Mikey Torres and Joe Barron – came down to Golden 1 Center Monday, but they did not walk away with tickets.
“Unfortunately, they're a little too expensive. A little more than I thought,” said Torres. “So we're going to wait to see when they release tickets in a couple more days.”
They call themselves lifelong Kings fans.
“Even the bad years, we stuck it through a lot of bad years -- a lot of pain and heartbreak,” said Barron.
“My wife, she doesn't understand how I can love a team so much,” said Torres. “When we made the playoffs, we were crying, you know. Tearing up.”
Right across the street from DOCO – in Ali Youssefi Square at Seventh and K streets – there will be a free fan zone called the Kings Playoffs Playground. It will be open from noon to 8 p.m. every game day – home and away. There will be fan activities at no cost, though a team spokesperson said they will not be showing the game there.
That means fans like Torres and Barron will have to find a local establishment where they can cheer on their team in a crowd. They're holding onto hope for tickets however.
“We're not going to stop looking until the day, even hours before! We'll still keep looking,” said Torres.
Resale ticket prices on Ticketmaster Monday afternoon ranged from about $450 for nosebleeds to $12,000 for courtside seats.
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