Raptors Comment on Ticket Prices For Next Season

The Toronto Raptors will be raising prices for next season despite the organization heading into a rebuild

Ticket prices are going up.

There’s no easy way to say it. Sure, the Toronto Raptors aren’t raising it as much as they have in the past, but there’ll reportedly be about a 4 percent increase since last year, the Sports Business Journal reported last month.

It’s simply the reality of the business, Raptors president Masai Ujiri said earlier this week. Ticket prices across sports have increased steadily for years now and the Raptors say they’re trying to keep up.

“I think we have to look at market prices everywhere,” Ujiri said. “We have to look at the NBA. I think we have to consider our market and we have to consider the fans too in every way. So it's been looked at in every single possible way that it can be looked at and studied as much as we can.”

Toronto had come into this past season expecting to be among the playoff contenders, but a rough start to the year forced the organization to pivot into a rebuild. The expectation is next season should be better, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the Raptors are once again on the outside looking in.

That’s what makes the increase in ticket prices disheartening to some fans.

“When these kinds of moves are made … you feel for the fans sometimes, you know, but this is how business works and we have to find a way,” Ujiri said.

Scotiabank Arena is currently undergoing a $350 million renovation that should see a fully remodeled concourse level ready for the start of next season.