Lakers fans pay top price to follow team to Boston for NBA Finals

The NBA’s dream matchup begins Thursday in Boston where Kobe Bryant and his band of Lakers in purple and gold face off with the new Eastern Conference powerhouse Celtics. But getting a hotel in Bean Town to see this historic matchup could be harder than hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Traveling to Boston: The occupancy rate last June was about 87% so the hunt for lodging will be extra tough this year. First of all, hoop fanatics will have to compete for rooms with 13,000 biology wonks who will be in Boston until Friday, attending the American Society for Microbiology convention. The biologists will likely take up about 5,500 of the 20,734 rooms available in the greater Boston and Cambridge area. On top of that, Harvard University celebrates graduation Thursday and MIT honors its graduates the next day.

Deal or no Deal? Get ready to pay extra too. Rooms in Boston and Cambridge average $226 per night for double-occupancy rooms, among the highest priced in the nation. A round-trip flight from LAX to Boston (BOS), arriving before tipoff on Thursday, will cost you about $520 per person. Still don’t have game tickets? Get ready to pay nearly $400 for seats in the nosebleed section.

Suddenly a sofa in front of your television set is looking at lot better.

— Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Los Angeles Times]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 9:00 am by Hugo Martin and is filed under East Coast, News, Tips & Advice, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.