By: Mario Mancini

Everything is more expensive in New York City, especially tickets to music and sporting events! Prime tickets to the New York Knicks’ first playoff game in two years are going for more than $20,000 — with more than $5,000 tacked on in service fees by one popular resale site according to an exclusive report by The New York Post.

A courtside seat on Stubhub — with unobstructed views of Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle battling the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Friday night — is listed at $14,986. Add on another $5,251 in “fees” charged by the site and the total comes to $20,237 for the first-round Eastern Conference matchup. For anyone looking to sit just a few rows from the hardwood, tickets range from $1,800 to $12,547 — not including the fees.

The New York Post reports that resale sites like StubHub and Vivid Seats add on the sliding fee depending on the price of the tickets to help “deliver the most secure ticket-buying experience,” according to StubHub’s site. The lowest priced tickets for the sold-out game on Vivid Seats were starting at $341. But that price jumps to $448.37 after adding in $107.37 in fees.

A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Sports told The New York Post: “This exorbitant pricing is being driven exclusively by ticket scalpers who are motivated solely by making money off our fans.”

“All playoff tickets sold by MSG were sold at face value, with ticket prices starting at $168 for the Knicks with an average ticket price of $326,” the spokesperson said.

“MSG’s mission is, and always has been, to put tickets at their original price directly in the hands of our fans attending our events.”

The MSG Sports spokesperson directed fans to the Garden’s “Fans First” program, which seeks to offer playoff tickets in pre-sale while vetting purchasers so as to ensure the tickets don’t end up in the hands of resellers.

That didn’t stop some longtime Knicks fans from lamenting the high price of cheering on the team.

“How am I supposed to support my basketball team lmao,” said one Knicks fan, who goes by the Twitter handle @bannedyoangel.

The Knicks on Saturday took home-court advantage from the Cavs with a 101-97 victory over Donovan Mitchell’s crew at Rocket Mortgage Field House in Cleveland. They play Game 2 of the best-of-7 series in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, The New York Post and The Jewish Voice were the first to report that team owner James Dolan, who runs MSG, is on the verge of settling allegations that he duped investors and spied on employees as part of a scheme to pay the ballooning tab for construction of the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.

Last month, Dolan paid $85 million as part of a settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by MSG Entertainment investors who accused the Cablevision scion of inflating the purchase and diluting the value of their shares when the company merged with MSG Networks.