FANS WARNED OF TICKET SCAMS
Businesses hope for deep runs for Celtics, Bruins
Businesses around the TD Garden are hoping for long playoff runs from the Celtics and Bruins so they can soak in as much economic productivity as possible, while police are warning fans to “be wary” of counterfeit tickets.
Playoff season returns to Causeway Street when the puck drops Saturday night as the Bruins take on Toronto, and the Celtics start their championship run Sunday afternoon against either Chicago or Miami.
With both teams chasing championships, business and tourism leaders expect massive gains for the economy in the days and weeks ahead — as long as they don’t bail out early.
This weekend’s games may provide an accessible option for fans who are looking to get in on the playoff action but are unable to afford the hefty prices in the later rounds. Tickets are starting at $172 in the balcony for the Bruins-Maple Leafs Game 1, and $126 for the Celtics on Sunday, Stubhub listings showed yesterday afternoon.
The Boston Police Department is urging fans to take caution and “be wary” of counterfeits when purchasing tickets to playoff games. In an alert yesterday, the department encouraged fans to only buy tickets from authorized ticket agencies.
“Officers want to proactively curb such activity and encourage buyers to only purchase from official vendors,” the alert states. “Purchasing via other means creates the potential for possessing an invalid and/ or counterfeit ticket.”
Factor in how more and more people are working remotely, the playoffs are sorely needed to spark productivity as local businesses are being “killed” due to a lack of lunchtime or post-work rush, said Gregory L. Stoller, master lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
“The fact that we have two teams that are going to be in the playoffs has to be a boon not only for restaurants but Uber drivers and to all the small- to medium-sized businesses that we walk by on a regular basis and just assume they’re always to be there but they can’t always be there if they’re not making enough rent to pay for the storefront,” Stoller told the Herald.
“It’s great that those businesses are going to get a shot and let’s just hope that the Bruins do better than they did last year,” he added.
The longer the Bruins and Celtics stay in the playoffs, the economic impact multiplies substantially. Analyses of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals found that each game contributes nearly $5 million, said David O’Donnell, vice president of strategic communications for Meet Boston, the region’s primary tourism bureau.
In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the crowd is more local and regional compared to the Conference Finals and Finals when hordes of fans, media and league presence come to the city and stay overnight, O’Donnell told the Herald.
“Given the success of our local teams over the past decade, these businesses would love to get the additional 4-8-12 or so home games,” he said in an email. “The Bruins early exit last year, after an historic regular season, deprived those businesses and the overall economy of tens of millions of dollars. Same for the Celtics, they went deeper but losing to the Heat meant no NBA Finals, which would have been such a boon for the local economy.”
With the Garden hosting the NCAA Men’s Basketball Sweet 16 and Elite Eight last month, local businesses have already started to feel the gains of the playoff atmosphere. The tournament games delivered more than $18 million in direct spending and nearly $25 million overall, O’Donnell said.