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Phil Mickelson finished tied for 19th at the British Open, and he's already made it across the pond in the name of promo...
Tiger Woods' old nemesis might make the British Open a hit, reports CNBC's Darren Rovell.
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See all Sports Biz PostsSports Biz with Darren Rovell
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Apr.16
2:48 PM ET
Wednesday, 16 Apr 2008
NBA Season Tickets For Just $43? Here's How It Works

Imagine going to NBA games for $1 a game. No way, right? Way. Michael Rand's Randball picked off this great nugget.

Apparently, the Kevin Garnett-less Minnesota Timberwolves are so desperate from their horrific season--in which they drew the second worst attendance in franchise history (14,402 fans per game)--that they are doing a "Pay the Pick" deal.

Here's how it works. You put down a $43 non-refundable deposit. If the Wolves get the first pick in the draft, you're all set. Pay no more. You pay $43 for the entire season.

If the team gets the second pick, you pay $2 per game, third pick ($3), fourth pick ($4) and fifth pick ($5). So essentially, the worst you can do is 43 games for $215. For what it's worth, the lowest ticket package we could find for the Minnesota Lynx was $340.

Here's the best of Rand:

"Now, we’re assuming these seats went largely unoccupied this season and that something is better than nothing (especially when concessions and merchandise are factored in), but it’s just hard to fathom a team selling its product for so little. Seriously, and not to get all Superbad on this thing, but, no offense, this isn’t some [redacted] fly by night league. Sorry for cursing. This is the National Basketball Association. This isn’t home ec."

For those who are interested in how it apparently works, I just went to the Ticketmaster site. If you go to "Pay the Pick," it apparently charges your credit card $215 (as if the Timberwolves got the fifth pick). I assume then it will deduct the amount if they do better than the fifth pick. If people really want to see the Timberwolves up close, the $9,460 seats are still available!

UPDATE: The Timberwolves have confirmed that this promotion is definitely very real and that the promotion is limited to the first 500 to place the $43 deposit. There is a limit of 10 tickets per person.

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