For two straight seasons one of the biggest stories in the NBA season has belonged to the New York Knicks. Last year, it was The Melodrama and Carmelo Anthony’s trade to New York after months of rumor and speculation. This year, it’s Linsanity. While the two stories couldn’t be any different–one, a disgruntled superstar forcing a trade; the other, a classic underdog tale— they both have had a significant impact on the Knicks home ticket price average.

As shown above, in the week following the Carmelo trade last season, the average price for Knicks home games jumped 25%, from $204 to $256. This year, Linsanity has had an even bigger impact, raising prices an average of 33%, from $229 to $304. While fans in New York love their superstars, the above comparison clearly shows that they love a great Cinderella story even more.

The Knicks brass are also thrilled at the being back in the center of the basketball universe. The 2012 edition, however, has come at a significant discount to 2011. With his salary of $18 million, the buzz generated by Caremlo ‘s trade cost the Knicks $805,000 for each percentage point of price increase. This compares to just $23,000 for each percentage point increase that Linsanity has driven.

For those looking for score a deal Knicks games the rest of this year, there are only a handful of games left with tickets under $100. If Lin can continue to help the Knicks win, come Spring, the current average of $304 may be as distant a memory as Lin’s spot at the end of the Knicks bench.

Between the Knicks early season struggles and Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony both sidelined, ticket prices for Friday’s game vs. the Lakers took a major hit. The average price for the game fell from $544 in mid-January down to $400 on Tuesday, a drop of over 25%.

That all changed when Jeremy Lin burst onto the scene and Linsanity took over The Garden this week. After three great games by the Harvard grad–and three straight Knicks wins–prices have begun to climb, rising 26% since Tuesday from $407 to $514 (as of 11 AM today).

It’s amazing that a guy who wasn’t even part of Mike D’Antoni’s “plans” now has a bigger effect on ticket prices than the absence of the Knicks two superstars. Lin was sleeping on his brother’s couch a couple weeks ago, and now he’s the biggest show on Broadway.

If you’d like to be there on Friday and take part in the next chapter of Linsanity, click on the view tickets button below.

Super Bowl XLVI lived up to the all hype and then some as the Giants and Patriots faced off in another classic. Four years removed from their 17-14 win in Super Bowl XLII, the Giants once again got the best of Brady and the Pats, this time winning 21-17.

Based on the above chart, fans that waited to buy until the last minute were rewarded with bargains. The get-in price dropped over 56% in the 5 days leading up to XLVI with the average price dropping 32%. At game-time, upper level seats were selling for right around $1,000, which was 56% below the get-in price last year.

For XLV, Steelers and Packer fans alike flocked to Dallas. This year, however, interest was lopsided. In the days leading up to the game, we saw 500% more traffic from the Tri-State area than from Massachusetts. Perhaps it was the shorter drive (12 hrs vs. 15 hrs), or just a case of championship fatigue in Boston (poor Bostonians), but Patriots fans were significantly less interested in the game than Giants fans.

As for the most active buying windows, we saw 61% of tickets sell in the 5 days after teams were set and 27% in the 48 hours before the event. Because so many brokers attend the Super Bowl themselves, last minute logistics were easy to manage.

We’re already looking forward to The Big Easy in 2013, and can’t wait for opening kick-off in September.