Thunder ticket policy may quiet Wolves fans who hoped to travel for games
Timberwolves superfan Catrell Maclin lives in Memphis, Tenn., yet has been to every Wolves road playoff game this year, and last.
But when he tried to get a seat for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in Oklahoma City through Ticketmaster, he got a message that said sales for the series are restricted to Oklahoma and nearby states.
"It was terrible," said Maclin. "I'm like 'I can't go to OKC?' It kind of dawned on me 'okay, maybe this is the reason why you always see a sea of blue at the Thunder home games. Are they literally only allowing Oklahomans to actually go to the games here?'"
Michael Nowakowski, president of Minneapolis ticket broker Ticket King, said restricted tickets is nothing new.
"You used to have to phone in to Ticketmaster to buy tickets. There were some concerts where your zip code had to be in a specific zip code range in order to buy the tickets," said Nowakowski. "It's comical, it doesn't accomplish anything."
A spokesperson for the Thunder writes, quote: "To optimize ticket opportunities for Thunder fans and to mitigate the impact of ticket brokers and bots, we target Oklahoma and the designated NBA broadcast area."
"I think it's nothing more than a PR move by the team, to say 'hey, listen, we want to put a fence around our venue, and we only want Thunder fans at our venue for the playoff games,'" said Nowakowski.
The Ticketmater dilemma only briefly put a damper on Maclin's playoff excitement. He ended up getting a seat through a ticket resale site.
His optimisim about the team is still as high as ever.
"I think we're good enough to make it all the way," said Maclin. "I can't wait until we get a dub tonight."
