The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2011/06/miami-dolphins-offer-4-game-flex-pack-of-season-tickets.html


Sounds like a good idea for those who can't afford the entire season or who have other commitments for some of the game days. 

I think their pricing plan is out of whack.  $65 for shitty upper bowl, 30th row next to the clouds, seats is highway robbery.

But, Stephen Ross will still say "the Dolphins are among the lowest ticket prices in the league..." 

Lame ::)

The sad thing is, he's right.   The Dolphins rank at the bottom half of the league in ticket prices.

^^^ show me.  I wanna see a list.

I don't care if they're the cheapest in the league.  The stadium is 20+ years old, its hot as balls, beer costs $9 and parking is $25, and I have a 55" HDTV in my air conditioned living room, and a fridge full of all the beer I can drink.

Its not affordable to go to games when you have to pay $65 just to walk in the door, for the worst possible seats, where you have to climb Mount Everest to get there, and bring oxygen tanks and the Hubble telescope.  Two years ago that seat was $35...  Hell 2 years ago, a seat in the second row was $35...

Hell if they do go to 8 game schedule, it's a full season.... :D
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/NFL-prepares-for-8-game-season-contingency-plan?urn=nfl-wp2407 (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/NFL-prepares-for-8-game-season-contingency-plan?urn=nfl-wp2407)

Here you go sir:

http://seatgeek.com/football-nfl-ticket-prices/

Dolphins rank 27 out of 32 teams in average ticket prices.

I don't disagree about the price of games and this has been a comment I have made for years. Unfortunately the Dolphins do generally have cheaper prices from my own research.

I saw this, and I knew you'd come back with it.

This is misleading.  The list shows AVERAGE ticket prices, and, I believe, includes things like StubHub and TicketExchange.  However, when you rank the teams amongst the "cheap seats" (i.e. the least amount you can pay to get in the door), the Dolphins are 15th most expensive in the league, based on 2010 prices.  This just means there are more cheap seats, or less premium seats compared to places like Dallas, Indy, NY, etc.

Still, not terrible, but the $34 seats are not available as part of this 4 game flex plan.  So, based on that, I still say tickets are too expensive for average joes to enjoy a game. 

15th is pretty average.  But I agree that it's expensive to go to a game.  Maybe I should bring my boat down to Port Everglades and you can haul your 55 inch HDTV to it. 

One guy who lives in Southern NH who doesn't have season tickets, who went to two games one year and broke down his expenses: Mia @ NE and NE @ Mia.  @ NE involved buying after market tickets at higher than face value, parking, gas, tolls and food at the stadium and parking at stadium.  @Mia involved flying, parking at airport, renting a car, gas, 2 night hotel and food for three days.  @ Mia only cost him about $60 more than than @ NE.  Granted he had better seats in NE than in Mia but still. 

This makes a HUGE difference.  And NE is one of the highest-priced tickets in the league...

I think that "average" ticket price is a useless figure.  I think that the number of luxury boxes and all that throw off that number.

What's it cost for an average Joe to buy a ticket to the game on Sunday and sit in an upper deck seat with a reasonable view.  That's really it.  I suppose you could do the same for a reasonable lower deck seat, as well.

It kinda saddens me that I will very rarely, if ever, be able to take my family to a Dolphins game.

My wife and likely my daughter won't be hardcore fans, so it's not worth $60 per seat to go to the game.  After parking and food and everything, a day out at the game is going to cost $300.  There are better ways to spend your money.

That's fine, because the NFL is a business, and they have to make money.  But I question if they're only making their product available to the rich and already established, leaving no room for the seeds to grow.

No one is saying that seeing the Dolphins is inexpensive.  But as compared to a lot of other stadiums it is less expensive than AFCE rivals Jets and Patriots, Bills are less expensive.   

Gilette Stadium - Opened in 2002
Meadowlands Stadium - Opened in 2010
Sun Life stadium - Opened in 1987
Ralph Wilson Stadium - Opened in 1973

If the Dolphins had a stadium less than 10 years old like both the Pats and Jets have, perhaps their tickets would be more expensive as well.

^^^ Stadium age may be a factor, but it is a very small one.

Demand for tickets based on team popularity and population density have a lot more to do with it.  Lot easier to raise prices when your are sold out and the waiting list is more than the stadium capacity then if you are sweating blackouts. 
   

Its not a surprise that Dallas's average ticket price went up enormously when their new stadium opened.  Same for the Giants.  Same fan base, same location, new stadium = higher tickets. 

Why?

Because owners build newer stadiums with the intent to charge higher prices along the lines of premium seats, skyboxes, and luxury experiences.  Why else would they spend a billion dollars do build a new stadium?  This is why football is beginning to price itself out of reality for Average Joe.

^^^ egg or chicken?

Teams don't build new, larger stadiums unless their old stadium is selling out and hey have a waiting list.   

As for the cost of tickets -- the real price is set by the market.  In NE, Greenbay, Pittsburgh  the real price of a ticket is significantly higher than the face value. 

I have no problem with ticket prices being set such that the teams, NFL, and stadium owners get 100% of the revenue with scalpers and folks who buy tickets for the purpose of resale unable to make a profit. 

There are only so many seats in a stadium.  If folks are willing to pay $200 to see the show, the folks who put on the show should get the entire $200, not the folks who put on the show gets $50 and a scalper getting $150 for doing nothing other than having been a STH for a long time. 

On a Jets board one person was complaining at one time they could pay for all of their 10 game season tickets by selling the Pats @ Jets game and Fins @ Jets, basically got 6 games for free (plus gave away the preseason games).  Now with ticket prices going up to almost the actual demand price they can't. 

The ticket price should reflect actual demand not a profit for scalpers.     

And this is why Sunlife Stadium is over 20 years old.

The Bucs didn't start selling out until after they built a new stadium and changed their uniforms. A few years later they won the Super Bowl.

Just for arguments sake Raymond James is a publically funded stadium but nothing says Buccaneer football like that thing!!

And if folks aren't willing to pay $200?  Then what?  Move the team to a place where they will?

Law of supply and demand.  There are 32 NFL teams each have 8 home games, multiply that by the number of seats in each stadium...that is the supply.  There are millions of football fans. Sell the seats to the ones who are willing to pay for them. 

I am okay (in fact support) socialized medicine and giving people food stamps.  But when it comes entertainment I am pure Adam Smith.  Absolutely zero tax dollars to pay for the stadium and sell the tickets to the highest bidder.   

^^ you're over-simplifying it.  Not all seats are created equal. 

The pricing is varying, the most on-demand seats are more expensive, and thus unavailable to a portion of the demand simply based on cost.  So, you'd have to adjust your "demand" on an individual seat-location basis, as well. In addition, the demand in Dallas is not equal to the demand in, say, Buffalo.

Regardless, your ideal-world happy place doesn't speak toward my original point that the basic lowest price is too high.  There are endless articles on the web that agree.  Google "NFL ticket prices" and see what you come up with.  In the age of rising player salaries, franchise tags, etc, coinciding with the age o HDTV, 3DTV, and surround sound, how do you make it so that people want to spend $500+ every week to go to a game and sweat your nuts off?

Is it?  Unless the team has a TV blackout, then in fact the ticket prices are not too high as demand has outstripped supply.  I would argue that for any team with a ST waiting list that is more than 1% of stadium capacity the ticket prices are too low and should be raised until the waiting list vanishes.  Those with blackouts should lower ticket prices.  If a team needs to lower the ticket price significantly to avoid blackouts -- move to a city that will buy tickets. 

OK, so basically, it sounds like you're saying that if I'm not in the top 10% of my city's earnings bracket, I don't belong at a football game?

Because there are people richer than me who can afford to spend that kind of money, then I don't deserve to go?  So, price the tickets at $1000 a piece because people who are rich enough will still buy them. 

That's how I am understanding your point.

Yes, basically.  Like with most items there is a finite supply.  This is true of petroleum, this is true of milk, this is true for steel, this is true for football tickets and for BMWs, this is true for health care, this is true for Broadway tickets,  this is true of oranges, this is true for wheat. 

For somethings like milk or oranges -- I have no problem with the government intervening with tax dollars to do two thing -- keep the  farmers in business and keep healthy food affordable for the children of low income families (and even upper income families). 

For other things like football tickets or luxury cars -- Let the market set the price, with no intervention.  Using tax dollars to fund stadiums which basically subsides the entertainment of the middle and upperclass is a very sick and perverted form of socialism.  Socialized medicine -- I support, socialized football -- I oppose. 

Expecting that you will be able to go to a football game for a price lower than market value based on length of time the tickets have been in your family is a form of feudalistic royalty.  In Greenbay those people whose families purchased tickets decades ago get to go to the game for less than market value or sell their tickets for a profit despite doing nothing to earn that income (unlike the Packers who provide the entertainment) to someone willing to pay full market value. It is a form of royalty that this country revolted against over two hundred years ago. 

If Greenbay (and other stadiums with a long waiting list and huge mark up in the secondary market) raised their prices to reflect the actual value of the entertainment they provide their would be a larger pie for the owners and players to share.  And shouldn't the players and owners be the ones profiting from the entertainment not scalpers?

Never once, in any post, did I mention scalpers.  Yet you seem to keep bringing that up as a primary content of your point of discussion.  I don't understand that.

The most loyal fans are not the ones that make a million dollars per year.  Sure there are some, but there aren't 80,000 of them in Miami.  The most loyal fans are the population subset that makes $45,000 and comes to games loyally and screams the loudest.  I'd think those would be the ones you'd want to attract to the stadium, to maximize the homefield advantage and give your team a better chance to win.

But, at the end of the day, its clear that they'd rather attract billionaires, collect their checks, and have a silent stadium on Sundays.  After all, its more about making money than it is about winning trophies.

::)

Maybe instead of "selling" tickets, the Dolphins should have a voice test.  The 80,000 people who scream the loudest get tickets the ones with weaker voices watch the game at home on TV.

Football is a business.  The entertainment business. 

Yep - sorry from looking at it as a fan...

You'd think that owners would be interested in winning championships.  Maybe I expect too much.

In a word, yes.

If they can fill the stadium at $1000 a seat, they should.

I think you are way overrating the 12th man.  Loud stadiums don't win championships.  Great players and coaches do.  If you have a team that is saving money my hitting the salary cap floor, under spending on coaching and training facilities then you have a legitimate beef the owner is putting $$$ over championships.  Raising ticket prices so that a slightly less loud stadium occurs is not a legitimate complaint that the owner is not dedicated to winning. 

Its not for the loudness - that's a side effect.  Its like the dude that has a crush on the hot chick in high school that gets laughed at when he grows enough sack to ask her out. 

People pour their allegiance into the team, loyalty and support, buying gear, wearing, spending 10 hours a day writing on message boards dedicated to the team, sometimes fighting other people about it.  But, its obvious that the team doesn't want them there, cause they're not rich enough?  The allegiance should go both ways.

Why am I the only one that has a problem with that?

I think you're oversimplifying. Your argument would be sound if the gate was the only product the business sold. It isn't, and I'm not convinced that the other products are completely independent. If fans feel they're getting gouged, will fan numbers drop? If parents can't afford to take their children, will it affect fan numbers long term? Will lower number of fans affect merchandising sales? Will a lower "level of fandom"?

Will overall lack of support in the local population (those most affected by ticket prices) hurt the chance the team has of securing public funding for a future stadium?

Profit maximization is about maximizing the whole enchilada, not just gate receipts. I'm convinced team owners have a very good reason to keep fans at least reasonably happy.

Businesses often fail to take a long term view, focusing instead on short term profits. The NFL as a whole is exceptionally popular and this has allowed the business an unprecedented amount of freedom in raising prices for everything associated with it. Total revenue has more than doubled over the past 10 years (and that's not including massive amounts of public funding for stadiums) and, don't kid yourself, there's only one source of revenue. The NFL could easily be undercutting its future fan base without it showing up in current profits.

You aren't. I've just been staying out of this. I've complained about the cost of NFL games for quite some time.

You are right the gate is not the only thing being sold.

Who is more likely to:

A) Get drunk in the parking lot on beer bought at the store and then try to sneak some beer in 

or

B) Pay for the overpriced $9 beers at the stadium.


Who is more likely to

A) Buy a $20 fake jersey that the team makes no money on

or

B) A $289 jersey from the stadium store

Who is more likely to

A) eat in the parking lot before and after the game

b) buy the over priced stadium food.

Who is more likely to

A) get into a fight forcing the team to spend more money on security

b) quietly file in and out of the stadium

The new wealthy fans OR the fans being priced out. 

In general, I would think it would be bad business practice to price your product at a point where 95% of your target audience can not afford it.

But, hey, I'm not a billionaire, what do I know?

99.999% of your target audience can't fit in the stadium!

As much as I kill Stephen Ross, this is actually a pretty good deal. $100 ticket in the lower bowl is not unreasonable. And you get a full refund if a game you pick isn't played. Give Ross and the front office credit this is a good marketing strategy

This is not a selling feature.  This is expected. 

It's not like that in every city. Some will give you a ticket to a future game and no refund

Indeed