Jordan Inspires Slackened Sports Market

Will a returned emperor of basketball, Michael Jordan (38) be `a magician of hope` for the Washington Wizards?

Jordans`s team Washington Wizards has not been appealing the fans for a long time. There has been no superstar, and it drafted the college basketball heroes such as Chris Weber and Juan Howard, but they have created nothing but a scandal from time to time. The Wizards never won a victory in the playoffs for the past 13 years, and was ranked in the last place of the Atlantic division with the poor record of 19 wins and 63 losses last year. Although the team changed its name from the Bullets associated with the criminal image in 1997 and it set up the new home at MCI Center, there has been no improvement in team`s atmosphere. Under such a worst situation, the fans turned their faces away and the team always had to play in front of very small fans.

However, it is forecasted that Jordan`s comeback will boost his team Wizards to one of most popular teams. A day after Jordan announced his return, the phone calls asking for the ticket sales flooded in the Wizards` office. The office was almost paralyzed by the phone calls. The 1,850-dollar season tickets have been sold like hotcakes, and all 10 or 20 game package tickets were sold out.

A Wizards official said that they sold 1,000 season tickets within just two days since Jordan`s return came true. Such a fever is expected to enable the sales of over 13,000 season tickets to break the 1997 most season ticket sales record (12,000 tickets).

The situation has been the same for other teams. The indifference of fans to the Wizards now a history. The Boston Celtics sold out all tickets of two games with the Wizards, and the Jordan`s former team Chicago Bulls is concentrating on selling the expensive package tickets rather than day tickets in order to increase sales.

The `Jordan fever` certainly turned the heads of TV broadcasting companies toward the NBA wanting to televise the games Jordan plays.

It may be doubtful whether the 38-year-old superstar Jordan will lift up the record of the struggling Wizards. However, the heavy-blowing `Jordan fever` sheds a ray of light on the Wizards, which has fallen into the slump.

Kim Jong-Seok kjs0123@donga.com