Before Zohran Mamdani was mayor of New York, the Knicks sent him a cease-and-desist letter. In October 2025, still a candidate, he ran a campaign ad during the team’s season opener that featured an orange-and-blue logo reading “Zohran” where “Knicks” should have been. The team said it did not endorse him, and the ad was pulled two days after it aired. On the Sunday before Election Day, he watched the Knicks from Section 212 in a Josh Hart jersey. However, less than a year later, the Garden has given him another problem, a recurring one.

Mamdani was just asked whether he expected the defending NBA champions to repeat their title run. Crossing his fingers with all of the city’s hope, the mayor offered a witty proviso: “Come on. Hopefully at cheaper ticket prices.”

When the conversation turned to whether he would personally be in attendance at Madison Square Garden on October 20, when the franchise hoists its first championship banner in 53 years, Mamdani made it clear that even city leadership is not immune to the ticket market’s shock!

“Brother, I do not have $2,000 ready for that ticket,” Mamdani stated directly.

When the NBC New York interviewer countered by asking whether he might consider settling for a cheaper seat in the upper deck or the nosebleeds, Mamdani replied, “That’s what I’m talking about.”

The clip began circulating on social media as the Knicks’ ticketing controversy has recently intensified again. Single-game sales opened in three stages. Chase cardholders in the Knicks’ Fan First program went first on Monday, September 14. Then other Fan First members followed on Tuesday, and the general public got access only on Wednesday.

That afternoon, a Section 418 seat, one of the farthest from the court, was priced at $1,039.50 on Ticketmaster for the opener against LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers. Seats in the 300s ran about $1,550, and the 200s topped $2,000.

PIX11 noted that those were primary-market prices set by MSG, rather than resale listings, while secondary-market tickets were already listed for $2,000 or more in August. Meanwhile, courtside seats ranged from $27,000 to $53,000!

Ticket Data put the get-in price for the game at $1,408 when Fan First opened, above the get-in for any Knicks regular-season game in 2025-26.

But on Thursday, MSG Sports suddenly reversed course…

Its statement cited “a mistake in our pricing,” said individual-game prices would return to last year’s levels with an average 12% increase, and promised refunds of the difference to anyone who had already bought. Sales, it said, would restart shortly. The company, led by executive chairman and CEO James Dolan, said it never intended to overcharge loyal fans.

MSG declined to say how the error happened, how many purchases it affected, or how much it will refund in total, and Ticketmaster told Front Office Sports it does not set prices. The New York Post’s Stefan Bondy reported that a source close to the situation called it a first-time mistake and said gouging fans after a title was never the intent.

While ticket prices generally rise after postseason runs, Dolan has not raised them when the Knicks miss the playoffs. Still, while the opener was pulled from Ticketmaster Thursday afternoon, tickets remained listed at the higher prices on other ticket sites.

That said, ticket costs are familiar ground for the mayor. As a candidate in September 2025, he pressed FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup, cap resale prices and reserve 15% of tickets at a discount for residents. In April, Mamdani also blamed New York’s NBA ‘villain,’ Trae Young, for surging prices.

That was more lighthearted banter, but what he said next was dead serious. Mamdani revealed he strongly believes that sports have become “more and more of a luxury commodity.” He didn’t say it because he was asked to talk about it. Mamdani is a sports lover, and obnoxious pricing has affected his experience too.

Before Game 3 of the NBA Finals on June 8, he said he had paid nearly $1,000 for a standing-room ticket at MSG! The mayor and Dolan have also clashed in public for reasons beyond pricing. On June 10, the planned watch party outside the Garden for Game 4 was canceled hours before tipoff amid a public dispute over added security, with Dolan blaming Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

In a statement, Dolan also went so far as to say Mamdani was not a real Knicks fan, while an MSG Sports statement dubbed Mamdani and Tisch “party poopers.”

The spat was still fresh eight days later, when the Knicks’ first-ever ticker-tape parade ended at City Hall. Mamdani, wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit jacket, delivered a nearly 10-minute trip through the franchise’s history, name-dropping everyone from Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier to Charles Oakley, John Starks and Patrick Ewing. Dolan followed with a much shorter message of his own: “I don’t need your vote,” he told the crowd, adding that real Knicks fans already knew what had happened.

Then came the ceremonial Keys to the City. Mamdani handed keys to players, coaches, staff and the organization’s leadership, including Dolan and his son. But the Dolans appeared visibly uninterested in lingering for the photo op, with James accepting his key and shaking Mamdani’s hand from across the table rather than posing with him.

Although the NBA season is over, Mamdani is still working to bring back the joy of going to watch sports live. He responded to complaints about high ticket prices at the U.S. Open by securing 1,000 “affordable” tickets to distribute on a first-come, first-served basis to locals after a zip code verification.

The Athletic reports that NYC residents can buy $100 tickets to main-draw matches between August 30 and September 8, but, crucially, these tickets will not be eligible for resale on Ticketmaster.

When asked why he took action, Mamdani said he and his team were only “doubling down” on making sports more affordable for New Yorkers.