Ticket sites blamed for insane NFL prices

Today in New York, my driver was not happy. He is a New York Giants fan. The new NFL season begins tomorrow, with the Giants hosting the Washington Redskins. Despite being on the waiting list for season tickets since 1984, Tony has given up hope of ever buying a ticket.

"The Giants are moving to a new stadium in 2010," he told me, only one eye on the Lincoln Tunnel crawl. "And they're charging people $20,000 for the privilege of buying season tickets at the new stadium."

The $20,000, Tony explained, doesn't pay for the ticket. It pays for the license to buy the ticket. As for the actual ticket, well, depending on where your seats are, it could cost many times the current price.

I asked him why the Giants (and others) thought they could get away with this obvious personal foul.

"The Internet," he said. "All those sites like StubHub that let you buy someone else's season tickets at crazy prices."

These seats are not for sale. Yet.

(Credit: CC dherrera96)

Many people like Tony feel that buying a season ticket is not something a family does anymore. It is something an investor does. If your team is doing well, then you can make splendid cash by giving up your seats for an evening and selling them to the highest bidder on sites such as StubHub or TicketsNow.

The Giants ownership has admitted that the new arrangement isn't affordable for everyone. It says there are cheaper seat licenses elsewhere in the stadium. May I translate? If you can't afford our gouging, we can show you a worse seat for which we gouge a slightly shallower crease in your wallet.

But to blame the Web is an interesting argument.

What StubHub and others have done is allowed for the impulse purchase at highly impulsive prices. Simultaneously, these sites have shown that there exists a market that is prepared to pay what to some are quite lunatic prices for sporting events and concerts.

So NFL teams want to price their wares to this new market, not to the sad, old, loyal one.

Of course, Web entrepreneurs have not been slow to create markets for the personal-seat licenses. Please welcome SeasonTicketRights.com. Oh, yes, a site where you can trade your license to an even more munificently insane bidder.

I understand that at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, some personal-seat licenses cost $150,000. The proximity of so many impoverished oil companies will surely bring market pressures to bear in order to reduce such a ludicrous figure. Unless, of course, SeasonTicketRights.com ferrets out some bottomless wells.

The sad inevitability may well be that all the best seats in NFL arenas will be bought by corporations. Not for enjoying the game, but for that loosey-goosey concept called entertaining. Those who used to be called fans will stare down from the cheapest seats just below the roof, if at all.

This will merely make every NFL game resemble the Super Bowl. And it will make everyone who buys a seat license merely an investor, ready to put that seat on the Web market in the hope of making an occasional killing.

Perhaps this is just another example of the Web exposing the true nature of humanity. It's just that there's something so very sad about games being watched by those who really aren't fans at all. While Tony watches on TV, resentful.

[manualfunky]

you losers... its a bunch of men wearing lycra throwing a ball around...

and you've all let it come to this??

ha ha. no wonder america is so messed up!

[joetesta70]

I agree. And the local govt subsidies for stadiums are insane. I'd like a subsidy for my business too.

[meisaj]

I'm from Buffalo. I think the Bills would fold if they tried anything like that. Well, fold or move to Toronto. Which is probably what they want to do anyways. I have a lot of friends and co-workers who buy season tickets and use them for every game, because they're not that expensive. But then again Buffalo doesn't have the same economy that the New York City or Dallas does.

[Renegade Knight]

It seems that any corporation that pays that much for entertainment is disrespecting their investors. Imagine that.

[kcimming]

And, if they're allowed a tax deduction for it, disrespecting us taxpayers. If there isn't, there should be a limit ($100?) to how much can be deducted as an expense.

[jture]

Ticket sites have nothing to do with it. The prices are skyrocketing because the economic trickle-down process is in full gear. Player salaries are higher, stadium construction and maintenance costs are higher, subsidiary expenses related to games (e.g., subcontracts for concessions) are higher - and the owners pass those expenses along to the fans. It's the same in the other major sports. The team owners aren't about to swallow those expenses themselves. As much as a professional sports franchise is worth, if ownership tried to pay for all those costs themselves they'd go bankrupt in a few years.

[barken2]

Boycott 'em. Buy a big screen HD and a sports package.

[cmstratton]

Hey, if there's a market for something, prices will rise or fall based on what the market is willing to pay. Sports are a business, and as much as I wish tickets were less expensive so I could actually go to games, I can't fault the businesses for maximizing their profits.

With the quality of home theater systems and HD TV, sometimes I don't feel like it's such a bad thing. I can watch from the comfort of my home sofa, with all the friends, food, and drinks I want, with a visual and sound that is pretty comparable to being at the game.

[ikramerica--2008]

football is better on TV anyway. :)

[jimcass8]

Hey, I figured I would share a little tip for any fellow NFL or college football fan looking to go to a game this year?
If you are looking to save some money but want to see a game then wait till the Wednesday night or the Thursday before the game. These are the days when ticket holders start to reduce ticket prices big-time on sites like StubHub, RazorGator and eSellOut? Why? Because many of the guys still holding tickets live outside of the state or area the game is being played and have no chance or ability to attend the game BUT they would much rather take $50-$100 for their tickets instead of nothing. Think about it this way?If you tried to get tickets off a scary scalper on game day your walking around with at least $300-$500 cash without any idea of what you might get. Being from Norwin in Pittsburgh I always use eSellOut because it is locally owned by a fellow IUP alum. Check them out: http://www.esellout.com/ResultsGeneral.aspx?kwds=Pittsburgh+Steelers or use who you are most comfortable using BUT try this method sometime and notice how much money you will save the next time you head off to a game!

~Mark Guilles

[elurrule]

Tickets should be priced at whatever the market will bare. If the NFL were completely dependent on ticket sales, it would be out of business. The local crowd isn't responsible for most of the revenues that the NFL generates.

I would say if idiots what to part with $20 - 150,000, let the redistribution of wealth continue.

Many winning college programs ask for a "donation" of $10,000 or more to get on a list to be able to buy season tickets. So if you are not in this money league, you are forced into boycotting the tickets, LOL.