It could be an oversight, but Boston Celtics season ticket-holders are irked that the franchise seems poised to charge them in the midst of a suspended season during a pandemic.
With many out of work at least temporarily due to the impacts of closures resulting from quarantine orders and social distancing practices, receiving an email alerting them that Celtics season ticket holders would have their first payment for the 2020-21 season processed today was not well-received.
One such fan is Denyson Tavares, interviewed by the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
“It just rubbed me the wrong way,” said Tavares to Himmelsbach. “It’s not like the financial burden about it. It’s just like, we don’t even know when we’re going to play this season, and they’re already extracting money for next season.”
“The optics of this are really terrible,” he added.
New: The Celtics are processing payments for next season's season tickets today, and that's rubbing some fans the wrong way given the worldwide financial unease and the NBA's shutdown.
"They're asking us to double-down in a time of crisis."https://t.co/XCCMXQdj1y
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) March 20, 2020
At a time when Boston has had to take extraordinary steps to support their own game-night arena staff due to the lack of games for them to work at, Tavares questions the wisdom of not suspending the payment schedule as well.
Noting the financial crunch increasingly bearing down on fans, the architect relates how rapidly things are moving for some financially.
“Two weeks from now we could all not have jobs,” he explained. “And that $220 they charge me a month, that’s groceries. So you kind of have to put things in perspective. I just think, let’s hold off.”
With many seeing jobs they’ve held for years disappear almost overnight, and private businesses finding the clients they depend on out of money — or a sense of safety — to do business with them, it’s a reasonable perspective on a catastrophic situation unlike anything in living memory.
“The NBA is canceled until whenever,” added Tavares. “At least come to an agreement where once we know this season is going to start, then we’ll start charging you again.”
“I don’t think people would have an issue with that.”
In times like this, it’s hard to argue otherwise.