Golden State Warriors Enjoy Season-Ticket Sales Surge

A trip to the National Basketball Association playoffs can do wonders to attract fresh waves of fans.

The Golden State Warriors have sold 5,500 more season tickets thus far this season over last year, "only a few hundred shy of the league-leading" Utah Jazz, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The team snapped a 12-year playoff draught last season, and is "one of six NBA clubs with a season-ticket base exceeding 10,000."

NBA officials cite both the Warriors and Jazz as "models for an increasingly effective sales pitch, the differing market sizes and philosophies notwithstanding." The Jazz favor "a mix of traditional approaches such as player images on billboards, buses and buildings" as well as direct marketing and radio, TV and Internet ads.

Photo of Warriors mascot by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

The Warriors have gone "almost completely high-tech," Warriors President Robert Rowell says.

He adds:

"The Bay Area is the fifth-largest NBA market with a large corporate base, and our competition is the entire entertainment business. We have six other professional teams in this market, great weather, major college athletics. It's not the same (as Salt Lake City or Sacramento). We found that what works for us is a lot of telemarketing, sales online, on our Web site. Winning takes your fence sitter to the game."