The dream of splashing out the big bucks to follow your favorite sports team around might sound like a crazy idea, but one guy managed to make the whole thing crazier by spending $25,000 of his life savings to attend every single one of the New York Knicks’ 82 games this year. The team is currently 5-35 for the season.
After losing his job as a lawyer at a commercial litigation firm, the lifelong fan pulled $25,000 from his savings and pledged his life to the Knicks for the 2014-15 season, reports the New York Post.
That includes 41 road games, including a London game last week against the Milwaukee Bucks, which the Knicks lost.
“Absolutely, I never thought it’d be this bad,” he told the Post of team with the worst record in the NBA right now, which includes current a 15-game losing streak for a franchise record.
“Nobody did. But it reached a point where I know the losing is only going to be helpful in the long term. I actually find myself less upset. If they’re losing or getting blown out, I only know it’s going to help with the ping-pong balls,” he said, referring to the team’s chances in the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery for the first overall pick.
While you can’t judge happiness in monetary terms, let’s just say that he spent 25,000 “happiness points” for 82 games worth of potential happiness. Rounding up, that should mean he gets about 305 happiness points per game attended. That works out to losing 10,675 happiness points — not dollars! — so far (out of a possible 25,010).
Of course, some games cost him more money than others, and all happiness isn’t in your team winning but in the experience of going to a game, enjoying the company you’re with: In actual financial terms, he says he’s spent $3,500 for a full Knicks season-ticket plan and $4,000 for road games.
But yeah, you better hope for that No. draft pick if this is your plan next year too, bud.
Despite all those losses, he’s refusing to quit, despite what will surely be a season of disappointment.
“I brought this on myself,” he says. “Nobody’s fault but mine. Part of this experience is also seeing what they go through with travel and develop some empathy. It’s tiring.”
Basket case blowing $25K to go to every Knicks game this season [New York Post]
A Season With The Knicks
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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