man i think that goes for any sporting events. look at the NFL colts, pre luck&manning they would give away tickets to the colts games. tickets were cheap as long as they stayed the 1-15 to 3-13 (always one of the worst teams). Manning came, we started having 13-3 seasons.. not many tickets given away, and the prices yep skyrocketed.
its nice having a winning team in the backyard, but it comes at a cost of high prices. and with them high prices it gets harder to sell tickets.. (the IND-KC playoff game was almost blacked out cause they couldn't sell out. why? people couldn't really afford it, they ended up giving the extra tickets away.)