Meaningless money-maker: Tough to get All-Star tickets

The Las Vegas event has the feel of a big fight.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Even a city that spares no expense for a good time has never seen anything like this.
The NBA All-Star game today may be meaningless, and after three nights of parties might be sloppy. But try telling that to people paying top dollar for a chance to see it.
"This is the biggest event that ever hit Las Vegas," said Gavin Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings and the Palms, where the players are staying. "No question about it, bigger than any fight. Let me tell you why. The tickets, they're brokering the tickets 10 rows up, five rows up for 27,000 a ticket.
"There's never been an event that I know of in the history of the world that goes for 27,000. I don't care if it's World Cup, I don't care if it's the Stones, Super Bowl. There's never been an event that a broker has charged that kind of an amount for any ticket, not that I know of. It's just incredible."
Promotion
Maloof has had a big hand in it. He said he and his brother, Joe, were talking about the idea of a neutral site All-Star game and pitched the thought of it being in their city to commissioner David Stern, who told them to bring it to Mayor Oscar Goodman on one condition: No betting on the game in the sports books. Being an exhibition that doesn't get heavy action anyway, that was no problem.
"If you bet the NBA All-Star game, you might as well get a life," Gavin Maloof said.
Besides, after all those parties -- Maloof said his casino will host about a dozen, featuring everyone from Shaquille O'Neal to Dwyane Wade to Diddy -- who can predict which players will have energy left to play well?
"There ain't going to be no sleep, I'll tell you that," Wade said. "There's going to be a lot going on."
Good timing
The timing of this experiment couldn't be better. After an occasionally rocky first half that featured headaches from the ball to the brawl, the NBA could use a few days away to blow off some steam.
Is there a better place for that than Sin City?
"I got married in Vegas a couple of summers ago and it was pretty crazy, so I can only imagine what it is going to be like with all the celebrities and an event this big," said Washington's Caron Butler, a first-time All-Star.
Goodman called the combination of NBA all-stars and his city's entertainers "a perfect honeymoon." The players were to share the stage with Las Vegas entertainment fixtures Wayne Newton, Danny Gans and performers from Cirque du Soleil, all scheduled to perform.
Imagine if the game was relevant.
Game doesn't matter
In an age when baseball utilizes its All-Star game to determine home-field advantage for the World Series in an attempt to make its game matter, the NBA readily acknowledges its game doesn't matter. Its weekend is all about putting on a show, which makes Las Vegas a natural for the first time the league is bringing its showcase outside of one of its own cities.
"We're in a time when a place becomes the basketball capital of the world for an extended weekend, and our primary concern is the entertainment of our guests," Stern said. "The basketball, we want to put on a great show in the arena, but there are lots of arenas that can do that. The primary [concern], after the game and the event, is entertaining our guests."
The predictions for the weekend are staggering. Besides the prices for a ticket at the Thomas & amp; Mack Center, Las Vegas officials estimate there will be 25,000 visitors who will generate more than 26 million in non-gaming economic impact, as the NBA shares the holiday weekend crowd with a fashion industry convention and the Chinese New Year.
"There aren't many cities where the All-Star weekend would be a relatively small event in terms of the number of people involved, but Las Vegas is such a city," Stern said. "That said, I understand that in terms of the demand for tickets and the like, it's been the biggest event in their history."
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