OKC Thunder Making it Hard for Timberwolves Fans to Buy Their Playoff Tickets

The 6-seed Minnesota Timberwolves and 1-seed Oklahoma City Thunder will play each other in game one of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night, at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Sportsbooks have the Thunder as heavy favorites, not just tomorrow night, but in the series too.

Still, the Thunder are doing their best to make sure that their home-court advantage in this seven-game set doesn’t go to waste. If you are a Minnesota Timberwolves fan (or even a Thunder fan) who does not live in the OKC local viewing area (Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Nebraska), then you are not allowed to purchase tickets through the team’s (and NBA’s) direct ticket sales partner, TicketMaster.com for this series.

OKC Thunder won’t sell WCF tickets to out of town Minnesota Timberwolves fans (or anyone else)

They aren’t hiding it, either. When you navigate to the OKC Thunder Ticketmaster site, you get this ***VERY IMPORTANT*** disclaimer at the top of the page (H/T to @UltimateNBA_H on X for noticing this and putting it on the internet).

All sales to this event will be restricted to residents of Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska will be canceled without notice and refunds given.

TicketMaster – Oklahoma City Thunder Playoff Games

😳🤯WAIT, can I seriously not go support my @Timberwolves in Game 1 & 2 vs OKC Thunder!? I’m trying to checkout and getting a message that my order will be canceled because I’m not a resident!! pic.twitter.com/36gCVblEAR

— Catrell Maclin (@UltimateNBA_H) May 19, 2025

I have never heard of this before. A team telling its official ticket vending partner that it cannot sell tickets to anyone outside of a certain geographical area assumedly that is much more likely to have their own fans in it, as opposed to outside of that area (like Minnesota and the surrounding states).

Related: Shaq Retells Story Proving NBA (Probably) Rigged 1992 Draft Lottery Against the Timberwolves

Just to be sure that this is not an unknown thing around the league, I checked the Minnesota Timberwolves’, New York Knicks’ and Indiana Pacers’ Ticketmaster sites and confirmed that there is no such mention of geographical restrictions when you purchase tickets for any other home venue of the four teams remaining in the 2025 NBA Playoffs other than the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Paycom Center.

Just imagine being that afraid of road fans taking over your arena. Be better, OKC Thunder. Be better.