New Yorkers blasted the 76ers and their fans for trying to block Knicks diehards from buying tickets to Philadelphia playoff games — saying that’s not how things are done in the Big Apple.
“They want to have a hometown crowd, but they’re doing it artificially, forcing it,” 60-year-old Long Island resident Chris Roy said Monday as Game 1 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals series between New York and Philly was set to tip off. “The Knicks don’t have to do that.”
Locals were fired up as the rival Sixers issued a ticketing policy that required buyers to have home addresses in the “greater Philadelphia area.”
“Orders by residents outside Greater Philadelphia area will be canceled without notice and refunds given,” taunts the NBA’s website.
Philly star Joel Embiid even begged Sixers fans not to sell their playoff tickets on the resale market to New York fans, over fears the Knicks faithful would turn Xfinity Mobile Arena into MSG South when the series moves to Philly for Game 3.
“It’s absolute bull—t. Why would they do that?” lifelong Knicks fan Joy Cambe told The Post at Plaza33.
New Yorkers said the city of Rocky should Rambo the policy because they’re only hurting themsleves.
“The (Philadelphia) businesses downtown definitely want the New York fans coming,” Gehm, 54, said. “If you’re selling [cheese]steaks, you want the New York fans spending their money.
“But it’s a second city,” he added. “They’re just too fragile!”
Knicks fan Anil Melwani, of Miami who attends both New York and Florida games, said “people will find a way to go.”
“Everyone who has a friend or family in Philly, they’re still gonna show up,” he said, adding that, despite the new policy being “unfair” to Knicks fans, “there’s still gonna be a lot of New York fans.
“You know how resilient New Yorkers are.”
This isn’t the first time the Sixers have used tricky tactics to avoid an orange-and-blue flood in their home city.
In 2024, the Philadelphia team’s owners bought over 2,000 tickets during a first-round playoff series to thwart Knicks fans from grabbing them.
The same year, the Detroit Pistons limited sales to ticket buyers within the Michigan area using geo-fencing restrictions.
But when asked if they’d support a similar policy at the World’s Most Famous Arena, New York fans resoundingly shook their heads.
“No, because it brings us down to their level, and it doesn’t make sense,” Roy said. “That would become the new normal and it would be absurd.”
“New York would never do that,” Gehm said. “I guess Philly’s just too fragile of a city, too fragile of a team: ‘oh no, New Yorkers cheer too loud!’”
Cambe said real basketball fans don’t want a prohibition like the City of Brotherly Love is trying to adopt.
“I get that you want to protect your players,” she added. “But if they’re not gonna buy the tickets, it’s not our fault that we have this level of intensity.”
