Wanna see half the Dolphin's home games?

[Brian Fein]

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.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^ 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.     

[Landshark]

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

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

[CF DolFan]

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!!

[Brian Fein]

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

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

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.   

[Brian Fein]

^^ 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?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

the basic lowest price is too high. 

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. 

[Brian Fein]

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.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

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?

[Brian Fein]

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.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

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. 

[Brian Fein]

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.

[Spider-Dan]

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.

In a word, yes.

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

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

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.

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.