The Sports Professor Rick Horrow, in conjunction with promotional partner Northern Trust, reviews some of the most recent issues regarding fan behavior and expectations.
Last night, I finally got around to watching “Fever Pitch” on HBO. While this 2005 hit is technically a love triangle story that forces Drew Barrymore’s “Lindsey” to compete with the Boston Red Sox, Jimmy Fallon’s “Ben’s” first love, it’s ultimately a celebration of the diehard fan in all of us, a very funny look at the lengths to which a true fanatic will go to support his or her team.
While not all sports fans are as severely tested as Red Sox followers were up to October 2004, the fan experience can be a frustrating one, as performance on the field doesn’t always match up to the increasingly large amount of money patrons shell out for tickets, seat licenses, parking, $10.00 beer, $6.00 hot dogs, sweatshirts, programs, and bobbleheads.
According to the Sports Business Journal, American consumers spent nearly $15 billion on sporting event tickets in 2005, an increase of more than 30 percent since 2000. Yet in a recent poll by Turnkey Sports of 400 sports industry executives, 81.67% of respondents expressed concern that “the average fan is being priced out of professional sports.”
It’s time to examine the sports business from the fans’ point of view: pricing trends for professional sports as compared to other forms of entertainment; recent lawsuits over fan giveaways; takeaway home run balls; and rising fantasy gaming lawsuits.
Sports Tickets: Are Fans Getting Priced Out of the Game?
This weekend, “The Da Vinci Code” became the second largest worldwide movie release ever after "Star Wars: Episode III," earning some $224 million worldwide ($77 million in the U.S.), according to Sony Pictures.
The average ticket price nationwide will set you back $9.00 (up to $11.00 in pricier theatres in New York City and Los Angeles), and moviegoers are trending toward the same advance purchase model as sports tickets, buying tickets online weeks in advance.
“The Da Vinci Code” clocks in at about two and a half hours. That’s roughly the same duration as an NBA game – unless you attended one of the record nine overtime playoff games so far this season, which bagged you a five-minute bonus. But the Playoffs are costing fans plenty in the secondary ticket market: on Monday, the StubHub range for Los Angeles v. Phoenix was $86.00-$1,921.00 per ticket, $95.00-$3,429.00 for Dallas v. San Antonio. That brings the cost of the Mavericks–Spurs Game Seven, averaging $450 per ticket on StubHub, to $9.36 per minute in regulation, $8.49 per minute with the overtime.
The NFL, with an average season ticket price of $58.95, will cost you almost exactly the same as a day at Walt Disney World ($59.75) or nosebleed seats to see Madonna at the San Jose HP Pavilion on May 31 ($60). San Diego Chargers fans are complaining loudly about a $30 parking increase at Qualcomm Stadium; the Vikings increased their terrace suite tickets to $4,500-$4,800 for the 2006 season, and the team expects to gross $1 million from the 243 total seats.
The NHL is less expensive at $41.19 per ticket, but they’re making up badly needed revenue during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. StubHub has Buffalo-Carolina tickets at $190-$777; Sabres’ Chief Operating Officer Dan DiPofi claims that each home playoff game is worth about $500,000 in new net revenues for the team. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, meanwhile, sold out the first two games of the Edmonton series in seven minutes (average attendance of 15,131 for regular season games was the highest in seven years). The Ducks are also delighting local businesses recovering from the lockout: JT Schmid’s brew house right across from the Pond is jammed with 600-700 hockey fans before every game, and hundreds more are turned away.
All these tickets still too rich for your blood? Try minor league baseball, which averages a single game ticket price of $8.00 nationwide, and is leading the industry in all-inclusive ticketing. The New York metro area has eight minor league teams alone; ticket holders were even offered 40 percent discounts off late season Knicks tickets (some would argue that the discount wasn’t nearly deep enough). The Frisco Texas Rough Riders, the Rangers’ AA affiliate, charge $2,485 for a 71-game all-inclusive ticket; that price covers food and drinks at the park’s sit-down restaurants and VIP parking.
Some people, however will pay almost anything to get as close as humanly possible to the action. Just call it the Jack Nicholsonization of sport. In Minneapolis, the Timberwolves are adding 16 new courtside seats at the Target Center, at $64,500 per person for the season. The seats will come complete with “free food and drinks at NBA City…valet parking, and a locker for personal belongings.”
