NBA Opening Night 2026 tickets: what Knicks banner night and Thunder-Spurs cost

NEW YORK — Oct. 15, 2026 — Five days before the 2026-27 season tips off, the hardest ticket of opening week is still the one at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks raise their championship banner before hosting LeBron James and the 76ers on Tuesday, Oct. 20, and the cheapest resale seat for that game was listed at $1,210 in a USA Today Network ticket check published Oct. 13.

That is a slight dip from the peak. When the Knicks opened single-game sales to the general public in mid-September, the get-in price hit $1,363 and then settled at $1,251, according to TicketData.com figures reported by Reuters on Sept. 17. Even the lower number was higher than the get-in price for any regular-season game in 2025-26. During the presale for Knicks Fan First Chase cardholders earlier that week, it had spiked as high as $1,408.

The three Opening Night games at a glance

Game	Tip (ET)	Arena	TV	Cheapest seat reported
Celtics at Pistons	3 p.m.	Little Caesars Arena, Detroit	NBC/Peacock	On sale; see our Opening Day guide
76ers at Knicks	7 p.m.	Madison Square Garden, New York	NBC/Peacock	$1,210 get-in (Oct. 13)
Thunder at Spurs	9:30 p.m.	Frost Bank Center, San Antonio	NBC/Peacock	$380 get-in (recent listing)

All three games are on NBC and Peacock. Resale prices move daily and usually exclude fees until checkout, so treat every figure above as a snapshot rather than a quote.

Banner night at the Garden: $1,210 to get in

The Oct. 13 check put lower-level seats near the floor and the celebrity row at $1,854 and up, starting in Section 102. Supply is thin because the game is close to sold out, which is why the price has barely moved even as the date approaches. The banner ceremony comes before the 7 p.m. ET tip, so anyone buying for the celebration should plan to be in their seat well before the game starts.

For context on the face-value side, the Knicks paused individual sales in September after a pricing mistake and said single-game prices would return to last season’s level plus an average increase of 12%. WhyNBA explained what that meant for buyers in our Knicks ticket checklist.

Thunder at Spurs: the West finals rematch for about a third of the price

The nightcap at Frost Bank Center (9:30 p.m. ET) is the first meeting between Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder since San Antonio won last season’s seven-game Western Conference finals. A recent Sporting News listing check put the get-in price at $380, with plaza-level seats around $930 and lower-bowl seats at $5,200. In August, a USA Today check had the cheapest seat at $439, so the entry price has eased as the date nears.

Celtics at Pistons: the early window

Detroit hosts Boston at 3 p.m. ET to open the tripleheader, and the Pistons have built a full day around it, from a morning blue carpet to an afternoon Fan Fest on the plaza. Times and gate details are in our Pistons Opening Day guide.

Before you buy

• Start with official sellers. NBATickets.com is the league’s official ticket directory, and each team sells and verifies resale tickets through its own ticketing partner, which is Ticketmaster for both the Knicks and the Pistons.
• Compare the all-in price. A listing that looks cheaper can end up costing more once service fees and taxes are added at checkout.
• Check the time zone. Every tip above is Eastern time; the Spurs game is 8:30 p.m. local time in San Antonio.
• Tickets are digital. Expect mobile entry through the team app or the ticketing account, and transfer tickets to friends in advance rather than at the gate.

If you are watching instead, the full opening-week TV slate is in our Tip-Off 2026 TV schedule, and the rest of the season’s checkpoints are on WhyNBA’s key dates page.