Been reading a little bit about ticket prices for NFL games around the league. Read a good few comments pieces by older guys who remember how it was generations ago and how accessible games were. The world has changed somewhat since then, though. TV deals, mobile access, online viewing etc. means that a lot of people feel the best seats to be had are the ones at home, at least in terms of cost vs. 'seat'. Still, the general impression I get is that most people would like to go to more games if they could. Even the seats don't give the same view as TV, being there at the game, part of the atmosphere, and being able support the team, are things that can't be replaced. Plus, with big screens in the arenas, the highlight reel perspective of TV is now accessible. Why don't people go more often? Distance and traffic hassle are often mentioned factors - essentially it's more convenient and comfortable to be at home. More than that though, seems to be cost. Tickets prices are now prohibitive for a lot of fans except as one of luxuries, particularly if you want to take family with you. Then on top of entrance fees there's the cost of concessions. It's simply too expensive to do regularly. There are multiple aspects to all this. Growing expectation of players as to their contracts, higher quality arenas, etc. pushing prices up. On the other hand, some feel that extra revenue from TV deals should be used to essentially subsidise ticket prices to keep them more affordable. The question can be asked, should ticket prices be secondary and simply follow other costs considerations, or should they primary and should other considering forced to follow or support ticket prices? For my part, living in Europe, getting out to games is never going to be a regular thing, although the years I did in America I would have loved to go to more games than I did. Nevertheless, it's something that interests me and I'm curious to see what others think. Purely in terms of ticket prices to Dolphins games, or the wider NFL if you like, are you happy with ticket prices as they are? And if not, what do you think should be an average ticket price for an average seat? Please keep it civil too. Everyone's in a different place financially. For some dropping $50 on a seat is big deal. For others it's pocket change. The question is, what should tickets prices look like in relation to allowing fans to go to, and see, games, live. G.
I love going to games but i hate missing an entire Sunday of NFL football. People are so much more invested in other players and teams that being able to watch a full slate of NFL games is a big thing for most. I try to go to thur, sun, and mon night games as possible. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
I'm a season ticket holder and like to go to the games. On the prices, I think the reality is that the market determines the cost of tickets to a large degree. If the team kept the face value artificially low, I think you'd just see people buying them up in bulk and selling them on the secondary market for higher prices. The secondary market is now so big, accessible and "liquid" that for the most that market will dictate the prices. If they offered tix for $20, you'd see people buying them in bunches and selling them for $75 on StubHub, etc. Sure, some people who can't afford tix now would get some, but if cost is such a factor for them, they'll also be very tempted to sell them for a healthy profit on the secondary market.
Personally, the technologies available to me at home, discourage me from going. I can get together with my good friends with a Public Sub and a 6 pack and me humble. The TV qualities are incredible, the replays on Redzone are awesome and of course there are the football packages to help with fantasy. It eliminates an 8 hour day, cutting it to like 4. For me, it would have to be for a unique experience, maybe a playoff game, a chance to clinch or just the result of a home game after a huge win.
Its a sad fact of life that ticket prices, like so many other things, have continued to rise in price year after year while the earnings of many people have not. Thats especially true with sports and entertainment. In 1994, when the league instituted the salary cap, it was set at 34 million per team. Now, its set at 155 million, which is about 4.5 times higher. The owners then pass those inflated costs onto the fans in the form of ticket prices, vendors, Sunday Ticket costs, ect. In the end, the more the players make, the worse it is for the rest of us. My wife and I were just talking about the same thing with movie tickets. Ten years ago when we got married, we could go to an afternoon movie for less than $10. Now it costs almost $20. But when they're making movies that cost 300 million to produce, thats what's going to happen.
It may not be in my budget, but if this team wins a lot, I'll blow my budget out the water - for some happiness
If I lived anywhere near South Florida, I'd be a season ticket holder. As it is, I'll just continue to shell out several hundred dollars a year to watch them on TV.
I meant $20 for two, to a matinee. If it were 20 each, I think we'd be staying home! Going back even further, I remember when it was $3 each about 20 years ago, and my friends would go to at least one movie every week during the summer. Thats why they can claim today's movies make so much more money than older ones of course.
pretty soon the movie theater will be a dinosaur. There is too much technology/availability to see movies as they come out. I spent $40 for four to see Dory, and the theater was dead.
Ticket prices are a little crazy, but it's location dependent. When I lived in the midwest (Cincy and Indy), tickets were expensive but not a backbreaker. I could afford to take my family to a game. Now living in Boston, the tickets are completely cost prohibitive. I'd love to take my family to a Red Sox game, but I'm not laying down $600 for 4 people to go, then throw in the cost of concessions ($13 for a crappy beer). The patriots games are so expensive, I won't take my family there either. It's so expensive, that for a good seat down in front (20 yard line, row 3, costs about $1200) I can afford to buy a plane ticket, hotel stay and same seat in Sun Life Stadium for a similar price. So, I finally get to see a Miami game in Miami.
I have a similar story with baseball. I like about an hour and a half drive from DC, but it was cheaper for my wife and I to drive to Pittsburgh (about 8 hours), including gas and food, stay overnight with my parents, and get great seats down the first base line at PNC, than it would have been to get crappy OF seats at Nationals Park.
I really think the ticket prices currently aren't all that bad. I generally sit in the 437/438 sections for $60-$80 per ticket, and I think that is reasonable. Though when the Dolphins put a winning product on the field I feel that the tickets will become much more expensive and probably push them out of my price range. Personally I feel I can justify up to $100/ticket for me and my family to go to a game. Yeah, Just this past weekend me and my girlfriend went to see the Pets movie, I paid for the tickets while she went to the concessions. $21 for tickets and she ended up paying $24 at the concessions. Mind blowing.
We always, always eat out before or after a movie of a game. I haven't bought anything at a concession stand in years.
In just dropped $700 on two tickets for the Dolphins vs. shehacks game. Tickets were about double normal because its the home opener. It's a LOT of money for a days entertainment but its a once every 10 year thing so I can.
