Can You Buy NBA Tickets at the Door?

If you’re an NBA fan and lead a busy lifestyle, it can be easy to forget to buy tickets in advance. If you want to attend a game and don’t have tickets, can you buy them at the door?

You can buy NBA tickets at the door, but only if they’re available. The organizers usually stop selling tickets at the door 90 minutes after the game starts or when they sell out. You can also use apps like StubHub to buy NBA tickets at the door.

In this article, I’ll explain the different methods you can use to purchase NBA tickets. Aside from exploring how to purchase NBA tickets at the door and some of the potential drawbacks you might face, I’ll also provide some information on how you can use online tools to secure cheap tickets. 

Here Are the Different Ways To Purchase NBA Tickets

You can buy tickets to an NBA game using one of two ways: 

Buy NBA Tickets at the Door

While it might seem unusual, you can purchase NBA tickets at the door as late as 90 minutes after the game starts. However, this is only if there are still tickets available. If there are no tickets available, you’ll be turned away. 

Unfortunately, most NBA games sell out of tickets on the day. You can reliably purchase tickets at the door if you arrive at the right time, but if you attempt to buy the tickets too late, you may need to rely on digital resellers.

Buy NBA Tickets Online

If you don’t feel like taking your chances with buying NBA tickets at the door, you could always buy them online. This is the most popular method and the more in advance you buy your tickets, the more likely you are to pay a reasonable price and get good seats. 

You can buy tickets from an online ticket broker once they’re released. Alternatively, you can buy your NBA tickets online by using a third-party seller, such as SeatGeek or StubHub. These marketplaces allow sellers who have tickets to reach buyers who want tickets directly — and these apps will make it extremely easy for you to buy NBA tickets for the game you want to see, even if you’re right outside the door. 

Unfortunately, because of how these marketplaces work, the prices for tickets are often driven artificially high by the resellers as the game approaches. However, some online users have reported that the prices on apps like StubHub drop in the thirty minutes leading up to the game. This could work in your favor if you want to buy tickets just before the game. 

In fact, you actually have 90 minutes after the game begins to buy and use an NBA ticket. One of the best apps for purchasing late tickets is GameTime, which makes purchasing last-minute tickets simple through its LastCall feature.

Final Thoughts

It can be incredibly fun to lean into your spontaneous side and purchase NBA tickets at the door. Depending on your luck, however, it can vary whether or not they have any tickets available. It’s worth keeping alternative approaches like purchasing tickets through apps in mind as you attempt to secure the tickets to your next NBA game.