Seeing sports in person is getting more expensive

Scroll a ways down in the latest consumer price index report, and you’ll eventually get to this nugget: Admission to sporting events in the U. S. went up 10.3% in the past year. That includes single and season tickets to everything from pro football games and college basketball matches to amateur dog shows. It also takes into account tickets sold by the team as well as those sold on the secondary market.

Why have costs been moving faster than an Olympic sprinter?

A sports stadium only has so many seats. And those seats have been getting nicer, said David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University.

“So the image that we used to have of stadiums that were really large and had cheap bleacher seats,” he said. “That’s going away. The seats are increasingly premium seats, and they are priced to people who have lots of money.”

Among sports fans with plenty of money, demand for those seats remains high, said economist and sports consultant Andrew Zimbalist. 

Plus, some fans aren’t there just to watch — they’re also there to gamble. And they don’t want to deal with any kind of television delay. 

“They’re betting on plays. They’re betting on, is the next play going to be a pitchout to the halfback, or is it going to be a pass down the left side of the field?” Zimbalist said. “In order to do that, you want to be there.”

Zimbalist said another factor is that the fan market is growing, thanks in part to the popularity of women’s sports. Think the Women’s National Basketball Association and the National Women’s Soccer League.

And for events across the board, fans can increasingly turn to the secondary market. “And resale ticket prices usually are a good deal higher,” he said.

Teams have also become really good at figuring out how much fans are willing to pay for particular seats. Sun or shade? Afternoon or evening? Playing against a big rival or someone you’ve never heard of? 

“There’s an entire industry, let’s say, of companies that are focused on dynamic pricing, which helps any live event extract the highest value from every single person,” said Nola Agha, a professor of sports management at the University of San Francisco.

Agha said it’s a myth that ticket prices are driven up by the team’s payroll. In reality, pricing goes the other way.

“They’re going to pay a player what they’re worth, but they’re happy to charge you more first,” she said.

Even so, for many people, supporting their team in person is a must-have. In that way, live sports have an edge over other kinds of business. Fans may go away disappointed, but they’ll still pay to come back for more.