Which scores higher with Knicks fans: watching their team hobble through another season, or securing a sweet investment return? Last week, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and the Knicks’$2 5,500 other season-ticket-holders were refunded the cost of the unplayed October and November home games – plus a separate check for interest on their payments, calculated at a generous 6 percent annual rate.
The rate is an NBA-wide policy, meant to temper the rage of subscribers. “Our entire season-subscription staff has been working hard over the course of the last month,” says Chris Weiller of the Knicks.
The quality of the issue is debatable, but with interest rates nosediving, you can’t beat the return. “You might have an open market on those things,” speculates money manager Robert Stovall of Stovall/Twenty-First Advisers. “For people who go to the games and bet on the spreads, I bet 6 percent is better than what they’d do during the regular season.” Would Stovall take a shot at this market? “I never wager off the job,” he says.