[HN Gopher] Why buying tickets to a game has become so unaffordable
___________________________________________________________________
Why buying tickets to a game has become so unaffordable
Author : mooreds
Score : 46 points
Date : 2024-02-04 16:28 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lite.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (lite.cnn.com)
| a1o wrote:
| I love that CNN has this lite view. I saw sometime ago someone
| used it to build a bridge to clients using Gopher for really low
| transfer rate access to news.
| charles_f wrote:
| Yeah, I was wondering what personal blog could produce
| something that sounded like a genuine journalistic article,
| then realized midway that I was reading CNN. Kudos to them
| solardev wrote:
| I wish we had a global news broadcast system, like XM Radio but
| for plaintext snippets that they just broadcast everywhere for
| anyone to receive. Would be a cool thing for Starlink to do pro
| bono (and a super enticing target for propaganda and
| advertising).
| RajT88 wrote:
| If not for the slant, I would read CNN lite exclusively. I used
| to actually, but I am trying to keep my news diet roughly
| centrist.
|
| Some other text only news sites:
|
| https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/
| m-p-3 wrote:
| I wish more news websites did this..
| mooreds wrote:
| Instead of pro games, I have started going to college games. Same
| amount of fun for this fair weather fan, better seats, way
| cheaper.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| Not only that, but the fans are much more pleasant to be around
| and even watch on TV. I'd much rather see the crowd shots on TV
| for a college game than a pro game.
| sircastor wrote:
| I had a friend who was adamant that college sports were more
| _real_ due the differing influences of money and various
| incentives.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| at least they WERE. Now with NIL, the transfer portal, and
| national "conferences" that have no relation to geography,
| student tickets will start being as unaffordable as pro
| tickets.
| missedthecue wrote:
| Despite this, total NFL attendance set a record last season with
| almost 19 million fans going to stadiums, and 96.7% of games were
| sold out.
|
| I guess tickets were underpriced before? The demand is clearly
| outstripping supply. Can't even blame this one on the hedge
| funds.
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Supply is also constrained since the league is effectively a
| cartel controlling supply (only so many teams are allowed)
| vidanay wrote:
| Is there a professional sports league anywhere that is not
| the same?
| OJFord wrote:
| GP's not saying it negatively/judgementally I don't think,
| it's sort of a term of art in business finance:
| https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cartel.asp
|
| (I say sort of because you could say it's the same word
| same definition just perhaps used more literally. But it
| certainly has a connotation to most of us that I think is
| how you're reading it above.)
| elygre wrote:
| In many European soccer leagues, the league does not
| control the participants in the same way. You can start a
| club, and start climbing to the top.
| mcny wrote:
| Yes, the fact that there is no relegation/promotion is
| strange.
| charcircuit wrote:
| There are plenty in esports.
| jrockway wrote:
| Didn't Fox start a new football league this year?
|
| I think the NFL is more of an entrenched business with great
| brand recognition than a cartel. College football players
| want an NFL contract because they trust that the NFL will be
| around in 10 years. (Same reason that CS grads want to work
| for Google and not a random startup; Google will be around in
| 5 years.) This means that the NFL gets first pick on the most
| talented players. That is what prevents upstart leagues from
| being successful. Players have seen what happened to
| competing leagues; their counterparts are now unemployed.
| Without good players, nobody is going to watch your thing,
| and thus, the NFL will continue to dominate.
|
| I think that with an infinite amount of money, you could
| probably create a new football league for a new generation.
| You will need billions of dollars to build 32 new stadiums.
| You will need billions of dollars to pay Patrick Mahomes
| $500M a year to switch sides. (x32 teams x53 players on the
| roster = 800 billion dollars a year in salary costs ;)
|
| Because nobody has an infinite amount of money, it's not
| really going to happen that way. I bet you could woo a number
| of viewers over by having a sane online streaming package. I
| want to watch every game in the season for a fixed price. No
| blackouts. No ads. No delay.
| rsync wrote:
| The NFL has an exemption from the Sherman antitrust act.
|
| Therefore, we need not argue about whether they are or are
| not a cartel - or are engaging in anti-competitive
| behavior: our government has already defined them as such.
| jrockway wrote:
| It's somewhat unclear if they even need the exemption.
| It's only relevant to TV licensing deals, and TV ain't
| what it used to be. The NFL mostly exists to keep the
| dying TV business alive, but nobody actually wants to
| watch the NFL on TV. If the TV deals were ruled illegal,
| the NFL would live and the TV stations would die.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| > You will need billions of dollars to pay Patrick Mahomes
| $500M a year to switch sides.
|
| You are off on his salary by an order of magnitude. ;)
|
| He's also the number one paid NFL player, so extending his
| salary to the entire roster is just hyperbolic fiction.
| jrockway wrote:
| Well, I don't think "you can be the headline in our new
| league for your current salary" is going to work. He has
| to break a contract. He's burned his bridges with the
| NFL. That's going to require compensation.
|
| Yes, you don't pay your backup defensive linemen the same
| as your quarterback, but the point is, people won't watch
| if those players are bad, and people aren't going to jump
| ship for free. You will have to build the league out of
| talent that somehow won't play for the NFL. It's going to
| be costly.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| In the fan fiction land of make believe you've laid out
| here already, can't we make the suspension of disbelief
| go just a tad further? Maybe every fan gets paid $1M per
| game they attend?
| brvsft wrote:
| Just to state the potentially obvious, there are fewer NFL
| games than MLB or NBA (by about an order of magnitude, 272 NFL
| games per year vs. ~2,400 MLB games and ~2,400 NBA games), so
| the supply of seats is far more limited.
| singron wrote:
| NFL games are also overwhelmingly on weekends.
| echelon wrote:
| When you spend every week watching football, it probably means
| more to a lot of folks than a nice laptop or new smartphone.
| It's a major part of some people's lives.
|
| Modern sports has mastered the art of storytelling and rivalry.
| They immerse you in the players' and coaches' lives, and fans
| begin to find their favorites to root for and against.
|
| It's not surprising fans will pay $500, $1000, or more to see
| an especially memorable game. Or pay top dollar for a signed
| jersey.
|
| This is no different than any other hobby. Lives are short and
| people want to immerse themselves in the things they love.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Then there's also fantasy sports and gambling that encourage
| you to keep up with every game that is going on in the
| league, not just your own local team.
| babl-yc wrote:
| It seems more and more that sports tickets are exclusively
| available on Ticketmaster, who charges pretty significant fees of
| around ~18%. If you need to resell the ticket, they take their
| 18% again.
|
| I've also seen A/B tests where they experiment with higher fees.
| Using a different browser sometimes gets you a different price.
| bts89 wrote:
| > It seems more and more that sports tickets are exclusively
| available on Ticketmaster
|
| For US pro sports, I think it's actually trending away from
| Ticketmaster. Baseball (MLB) tickets are now directly sold
| through the MLB. At least some (all?) American Football (NFL)
| teams have started partnering with SeatGeek. Basketball (NBA)
| and Ice Hockey (NHL) still seem to be through Ticketmaster.
| solardev wrote:
| As someone who didn't grow up with spectator sports, can someone
| explain the appeal of these? Why would you want to be trapped in
| a loud, uncomfortable place for like 4 hours to watch someone do
| something, when you can watch the highlights for free at home a
| few hours later?
|
| I don't think someone could pay me to go sit through one of these
| (well, maaaaaaybe for $9000). What's the draw? What am I missing?
| spencerflem wrote:
| Being in a crowd is energizing and fun for a lot of people
| fullshark wrote:
| The adrenaline rush of participating in tribal warfare by
| proxy.
| esafak wrote:
| That is, it is a social phenomenon, which is why watching it
| _alone_ at home is not good a substitute. Watching it with
| friends is better.
|
| If you are asocial, it will seem pointless to you.
| Solvency wrote:
| "As someone who didn't grow up with computers, can someone
| explain the appeal of spending hours alone staring at a screen?
| Why would you want to be isolated in a dark room for extended
| periods tapping on a keyboard, when you can step outside and
| experience real-life activities with people you share a passion
| with? I don't think someone could pay me to spend my free time
| glued to a computer (well, maaaaaaybe for $9000). What's the
| draw? What am I missing?"
|
| See what I did there.
| solardev wrote:
| It's fair, but sorry, I should've been clearer... I wouldn't
| want to sit there and watch this on PPV either. Or stream
| esports from Twitch, for that matter.
|
| It's not just the indoor/outdoor or introvert/extrovert
| thing. I think it's the idea of passive spectating (that you
| pay money for) that weirds me out. Even for the things I
| love, I'd much rather try to do it myself (however poorly)
| than pay money to watch someone else do it.
|
| Am I just really unusual in that regard?
| lupire wrote:
| Do you also dislike reading and watching movies?
|
| Why are you reading HN instead of doing the things people
| are writing about?
|
| Going to a game isn't passively spectating. It's
| interaction with other fans, and being part of the show for
| the TV audience too. It's also something do out in the
| weather. It's a cultural artifact to observe and inspect
| like the Eiffel tower.
| solardev wrote:
| Heh, funny you mention it. I enjoy reading but I have
| hard time finishing anything. I have probably started a
| dozen books in the last year or two and finished... none
| of them? Same for movies, it's really hard for me to
| finish one instead of falling asleep or walking away.
|
| > Why are you reading HN instead of doing the things
| people are writing about?
|
| I'm probably one of those people who spends more time
| _writing_ than _reading_ on forums. Being longwinded like
| me doesn 't help... sigh. But it's a way to bounce ideas
| back and forth between people, discuss, debate, get
| insulted now and then, etc :) HN is one of the more
| socially interactive things I do, actually.
|
| It feels like many of the IRL things I end up doing with
| friends are of the "let's do something individually,
| together" variety... like whether it's a hike or a rock
| climbing or karaoke or trivia games, most of it is
| centered around each person being in their own little
| world and doing their thing and only occasionally making
| smalltalk about nothing in particular. It's hard for me
| to do that for very long, vs the concentrated dose of
| interesting things to discuss on HN. Maybe I'm just bad
| at real world interactions.
|
| Good points though. Now you've got me wondering if I have
| some sort of adult ADD, lol. Might be worth reflecting
| on...
| SirMaster wrote:
| I don't think it's that unusual. I don't care to watch any
| sports. Neither do my parents or my sister or her husband
| or his brother.
|
| Some of my friends that I can think of also don't watch any
| sports.
| telesilla wrote:
| Have you actually tried it, with sympathetic friends? I
| also used to think I hated such things but when I went to
| an easy game (not on a super crowded day, not a critical
| game) I really enjoyed just the camaraderie.
|
| I can't handle large arenas when they are completely packed
| or there is too much tension in the crowd, so I'd recommend
| starting small and with a friendly game if you feel the
| same. Having said that, I found I absolutely hate watching
| baseball, golf and cricket (edit for reasons: not
| interested in drinking alcohol all day) but have grown to
| love sharing intense games like basketball, tennis and
| football with friends.
| philwelch wrote:
| Going to a baseball game is, in my experience, 90% an
| opportunity to sit outside on a nice day drinking beer
| and maybe 10% an opportunity to watch a game. Of course,
| stadium beer is fucking exorbitant.
| sadjad wrote:
| Your perspective isn't unusual; it's a valid approach to
| engagement with hobbies and interests.
|
| I play a lot of Counter-Strike, but I also find lots of
| value in watching professional players compete. Observing
| pros can be incredibly insightful: it showcases the
| _pinnacle_ of skill and strategy within the game (literally
| the same game I play), serving as both inspiration and a
| learning opportunity. It 's fascinating to see how far one
| can excel in a game, providing ideas and setting benchmarks
| for what's possible.
|
| This blend of "active participation" and "passive
| spectating" offers new angles to better appreciate and
| understand the game. It's not just about watching (which I
| find pretty entertaining on its own); it's about learning
| and pushing the boundaries of my capabilities by observing
| the best in the field.
| SirMaster wrote:
| I play a lot of video games myself. But I don't see the
| appeal of watching someone else play them.
|
| To me that seems similar to not seeing the appeal of
| watching sports.
| j7ake wrote:
| Do you also attend music concrete? Or attend a conference?
|
| They are analogous. You go to watch people you admire do
| what they're good at, in a crowded atmosphere.
| SirMaster wrote:
| I don't get it either. Especially football. There's like on
| average something like 11 minutes of actual gameplay and it
| takes like 3 hours to watch the whole game.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| Its not like nothing is happening during the dead ball time
| in football. It's easily the sport where coaching is most
| important. Baseball by comparison has very little down time,
| but the game is so boring that the entire game can feel like
| down time.
| SirMaster wrote:
| How about comparing american football, to the football of
| the rest of the world?
| pests wrote:
| In chess, the two players only are touching the pieces for
| maybe 100 seconds a game that can go on for hours too.
|
| So what makes chess fun to watch?
|
| It's what happens between those periods of movements.
|
| Football is a game of strategy played out by two coaches. The
| players are their pawns.
|
| Half the game is coming up with a plan and strategy. The
| other half is trying to perform that strategy.
|
| You are only paying attention to the latter half.
|
| For jocks and athletic people the latter half is interesting;
| I'm surprised the strategy and planning aspect isn't more
| acknowledged and appreciated by us nerdy types.
|
| Maybe there is a reason most of the game is not live play.
| SirMaster wrote:
| I don't find watching chess entertaining in the slightest
| either, so that example doesn't really help me.
|
| >It's what happens between those periods of movements.
|
| Commercials? Players standing around on the field, or
| walking to a huddle or walking back to the line?
| pests wrote:
| I feel ya, I felt the same way too. I find chess a bit
| boring too.
|
| Commercials do suck. They do hide some of what is going
| on in the sidelines and a lot are forced for the TV
| netwroks.
|
| But players standing around the field or walking around
| because they have nothing to do - the game is not in
| their court right now. The coaches are making the next
| play. That is the game. Its coach vs coach. The players
| don't do anything without the coach directing them.
|
| Maybe it would help more if the cameras zoomed into the
| coaches in a heated battle of what play to run next and
| the game was advertised or listed as coach v. coach that
| this match up would be more obvious.
|
| It's like the Madden game. The player avatars on the
| screen are just robots, going through the motions. The
| actual brains or interesting action is going on with
| whoever holds the controller. The plays or lines or
| formations they run and who they put in the game, etc.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| I'm not a sports guy. But I did go to a big ten college, and
| purchased season tickets as all my buddy's were sports dudes.
| There is an energy in a stadium, like there are at concerts,
| some churches or when hearing someone you admire give a good
| speech. There is something primal in the moment that I feel is
| baked into the human experience to varying degrees in all of
| us. I haven't been to a game since then, but I do remember them
| fondly (I was also drunk).
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| College football games are one of the only moments in the US
| where you can experience over 100,000 people screaming in
| unison. They don't build any other sort of stadium or event
| space as large as some of these college football stadiums in
| terms of attendance.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| Most of the 100,000+ person stadiums arent actually larger
| than NFL stadiums. The trick is they use bleachers which
| take up less space per seat, so a smaller stadium is able
| to fit a lot more people. I went to Michigan and now have
| season tickets to the Chicago bears, the big house fits 45
| thousand more people, but the bears stadium feels much
| larger. I think everyone being so close together adds even
| more energy to college games.
| pests wrote:
| Does it maybe feel larger because there is half as many
| people?
| CapcomGo wrote:
| The first part of your sentence sums it up.
| ptmcc wrote:
| It's a huge social event with a shared interest, there's energy
| and excitement in the shared experience, and the emotional
| rollercoaster that games often can be. It does seem to speak to
| something tribal within us humans.
|
| I'm not even a "sports guy" but going to games of most sports
| is often a lot of fun because it's about more than just the
| game.
|
| When I was a know-it-all teen/young adult I had some of that
| "sportsball is dumb and for idiots" mentality but as I got
| older I grew out of that and appreciate the simple fun of it
| all. Plus it's easy small talk fodder.
| foobarian wrote:
| I wonder if it's an evolutionary adaptation having to do with
| battles. I can see getting into this kind of frenzy state
| definitely being helpful for survival.
| brianwawok wrote:
| Rather save my frenzy for important stuff like tabs vs
| spaces
| gred wrote:
| Regular frenzy, or reckless rage?
| the__alchemist wrote:
| Sagan likened football in particular to hunting, in the
| prehistoric sense.
| SirMaster wrote:
| I'm still a "sports ball" person at 36 I guess.
|
| I just don't remotely understand or feel any connection
| whatsoever to anything watching any sports in person or on
| TV.
|
| Which is fine, I'm not complaining or anything, it's just
| what it is.
| prpl wrote:
| I feel basketball, baseball and soccer are much more
| enjoyable from a social perspective than football, especially
| for a comparable price. Maybe at $300 football is enjoyable,
| but the stadiums are massive, and the cost means you're much
| less likely to bring your own friends - so I guess you have
| to make new ones.
|
| College football is a bit different though (probably with
| exceptions to stadiums over 65k)
|
| I personally think baseball, with the slow pace, is actually
| the best in social terms.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| I'm a basketball fan, and think that going to a game live is
| one of the most exciting sports events there is, not
| comparing to seeing it on TV. My partner and stepdaughter
| agree too, though they are certainly not basketball fans as
| such.
|
| Many years ago, I got tickets to a wrestling event (WWE, I
| believe) at a corporate box. We went (coworkers and I) only
| interested in drinking in the box, but found ourselves
| getting very into it. Being there definitely has that energy
| and experience.
| sys_64738 wrote:
| Ask yourself why you're passionate about the things you are.
| There's your answer.
| SirMaster wrote:
| But I don't really know "why" I'm passionate about the things
| I'm passionate about.
|
| I like the things I like because of how they must affect my
| brain, but I'm not sure exactly why they affect my brain the
| way that they do.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Its just from exposure. If you were exposed to as much
| football trivia minutae as you are with whatever hobby you
| like, you'd probably be able to appreciate a football game.
| BobaFloutist wrote:
| Even if they're not specifically for you, do you understand the
| social appeal of cons? What about large parties? A boisterous,
| rowdy, church? High energy lan-party, or coding jam? A concert?
| A club?
|
| If you do, then you understand the appeal of doing something
| exciting with people that share that excitement in a loud,
| uncomfortable place for hours, even if you don't personally
| find football exciting.
|
| If you don't, then you've learned something about yourself: you
| have an unusually low tolerance for noise and crowds, which is
| valuable information. There's a lot of people like you, but
| even more that aren't.
| preommr wrote:
| Because it's what people grew up doing. Go back 50-80 years,
| what kind of father-son activities are available?
|
| There's a lot of snarky responses to your comment, but I do
| think your question has a lot of merit. Watching
| football/baseball/soccer/basketball isn't like watching an mma
| match (there's something very primal about how brutal those
| fights can be), nor is it like watching video games where
| someone has a shared connection with an activity they do
| frequently. And the data backs this up. Sports viewership is in
| decline, and there's a drop in how important sports is to each
| subsequent generation. And people, imo rightfully, blame things
| like video games, and social media.
|
| So that's my 2c, it's familiarity.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| Because you seemingly never went to such a game looking forward
| to it, with bunch of friends, and just yelled and drank a lot
| of beers. Like going to pub but way more active.
|
| I generally don't do it neither, but oh boy did you grow up in
| a plastic bubble? Such an experience is almost impossible to
| avoid literally anywhere in the world, and folks enjoy it
| tremendously.
| johnnyanmac wrote:
| >but oh boy did you grow up in a plastic bubble?
|
| Bubble, broke, bad environment. It happens. The closest I had
| to that before high school (where I'd at least take a few
| field trips for national competitions) was playing card games
| or Pokemon battles or whatnot. But this was an era before
| people would watch other people play those things and see how
| much strategy building there can be in those things.
| sixo wrote:
| It's an emotional experience. You cannot rationally derive
| human emotions, and you won't be able to rationally justify the
| things people have come up with to serve emotional needs (see
| e.g. military drills, which look nuts to observers). So you
| might as well take other people's preferences for activities as
| evidence that there is a reason to prefer them.
| paulcole wrote:
| Think about your hobbies. Can you imagine how they'd be of no
| interest to someone with a different background than you?
| amerkhalid wrote:
| I don't care about sports much. Grew up in society where
| cricket is religion. I suffered through too many boring live
| matches at home.
|
| Never understood the appeal of live sports or watching games in
| person. Some teams I followed, I just looked up if they won or
| not, next day.
|
| Went to a random soccer match a few years ago. That was one of
| best experiences of my life. The energy of crowd gets you
| really in the game. Everything else in your life doesn't matter
| for a few hours.
|
| It changed my perspective on watching sports in person. Same
| thing with watching sports at home or in a bar with really
| passionate fans is a lot fun and way better than watching it by
| yourself or with not very passionate fans.
| stevenicr wrote:
| Being at an event is very different than watching on a screen,
| from a not-so-recent hockey game experience: during the breaks
| certain song snippets or chants caused thousands of people to
| stand up, move in a seemingly synchronized movements and speak
| / yell, sing whatever..
|
| You may feel compelled to stand up when others stand.. to move
| a bit.. you feel it's normal to move and make noise, it's
| okay.. you expel energy.. if you go enough you learn the songs,
| the words, you jump at the chance to exclaim..
|
| which is not normal in most people's day to day I think /
| feel..
|
| There is an energy, and an expelling of energy in these group
| gatherings..
|
| Something that is not allowed in our normal day to day - that I
| appreciate exists with these sporting things.
|
| I often ask, what spaces exist in our modern society where it
| is okay for men to (and yes others not just men) shout, cry,
| touch each other, to cheer, to (word for opposite of cheer? -
| express sadness / loss).. together or even as individuals..
|
| Some of this can be done with associates watching the game at
| home / sport bar, etc to a lesser degree and depending on your
| local conditions -
|
| Yet there is something about being in the group place where
| everyone has to be a certain class to be there, and others are
| expressing..
|
| I guess it's similar to some church type events, where being
| there can make you feel empathy easier then just watching..
|
| I'm also wondering what other types of experiences / places /
| events allow for these expressions in modern day life.. perhaps
| there are more of these outside the US? or outside what I know
| to be 'normal' ?
|
| Closest I've seen is bonfire / drum circle kind of thing maybe.
| orthoxerox wrote:
| I've been to a single football (association) game in my life
| and I prefer the TV version of it as well.
|
| At home I get to see the action from multiple camera angles,
| there's a guy who knows what's going on narrating the game for
| me, I can watch replays of the best moments.
|
| What can the stadium experience bring to the table that beats
| all that? The feeling of unity with other fans? Well, I didn't
| root for any team in particular, and the loud crowds of people
| around me only made me uncomfortable.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| For many it's not uncomfortable, and neither is loud any kind
| of a downside.
|
| Sports is unique as a form of drama in which the outcome isn't
| known (to anyone) in advance. (Conspiracy accusations aside.)
| There's a type of suspense possible with sports that doesn't
| exist in any other kind of entertainment.
|
| And it's not just the outcome that's unpredictable, there's
| random feats, drama, narratives, entertainment that can come
| out nowhere that no one would have ever written. A pitcher
| hitting a bird in mid air. A baseball bouncing off a wall,
| hitting the ground, then a player's thigh, then going over the
| wall. In the late innings of a close playoff game. The game has
| to be stopped while it's figured out what that means because it
| hasn't happened in decades, if ever. A football player running
| into the butt of his teammate with his face, falling down and
| fumbling.
|
| Many games are mundane but the exciting or funny moments arise
| from the vast hours and repetition, there's a lot of
| opportunities for the unexpected. Again, other forms of drama
| are more predictable not just in their outcomes but in where
| and when the beats will happen.
|
| That itself isn't enough on its own, you also need to care
| about the outcome in order for that suspense to be enjoyable.
| Like religion, it helps to have been indoctrinated by family or
| geography when you were young. I don't think I'd have been able
| to start caring as an adult.
|
| It's also dependable in a way your favorite shows, books,
| movies, musicians aren't. It's reliably been there for every
| year of my life, for over 35 years. That's meaningful.
|
| (Though there's the occasional strike, and some people are
| unlucky enough for their team to leave their city.)
|
| It's not reliably exciting, any one game can be boring, any one
| year (or decade) can be fruitless. But it amounts to something
| much more than the sum of its parts.
|
| Some fans are more drawn to the strategy and mechanics of the
| game, but for me it's more about the history and mythology of
| the team and the sport in my own life.
|
| And I haven't even touched on the social aspect, or the off-
| field drama that can be its own kind of meta entertainment.
| __turbobrew__ wrote:
| I'm the same way. Hate crowds, hate noise, hate getting drunk.
| My hobby of choice is doing outdoor sports like mountain
| biking, trail running, hiking, camping with 1-4 friends at a
| time. Sportsball has basically 0 appeal to me. On the flip side
| I am also really into magic the gathering and I can see how
| others would see that is unappealing as well. Why spend
| thousands of dollars on cardboard? For me I think I mostly
| enjoy being an active participant instead of an observer, which
| also lends itself to not liking crowds or large groups because
| it is much harder to participate and usually there is a subset
| of people who dominate/monopolize the situation in larger
| groups.
| lazyasciiart wrote:
| Do you go to any live events? Music? Improv?
| D13Fd wrote:
| This article boils down to "demand exceeds supply so prices are
| going up."
| epistasis wrote:
| It's amazing how hard it is to get people to understand this
| simple fact sometimes. Especially when it comes to building
| housing.
| tnel77 wrote:
| When owning a house is the primary source of wealth for such
| a large percentage of Americans, it's political suicide to
| want to build more housing.
| ncallaway wrote:
| Except for the part of the article where it notes that there
| are unsold cheap seats, which the venue refuses to sell at the
| market price, as that might lower the overall price.
|
| Which means, the article actually boils down to "supply is
| being artificially constrained to increase the price, and
| maximize profit"
| D13Fd wrote:
| Many supply constraints are "artificial". It's not surprising
| that the producer optimizes for maximum profit.
| charles_f wrote:
| And except for the part where they explain that teams collect
| all the money from thr expensive seats and have to share the
| revenue from cheap ones with NFL, so they remove cheap seats
| and build expensive ones
| D13Fd wrote:
| Thus impacting the supply.
| charles_f wrote:
| If you want to dumb down all arguments the reason why it's
| so unaffordable is that tickets are more expensive. But
| you're still allowed to look for why, which the article
| did, and one of the explanation is this one.
| drewdevault wrote:
| Ah, yes, the free market is the unquestionable discussion-
| ending answer to all things good and moral in life. All
| pleasure in life shall be allocated to the highest bidder, and
| that shall be good and just according to the inalienable
| principles of Social Darwinism.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Im surprised it's only talking about supply demand dynamics. In
| my experience, the ticket selling mafia is half the cost in
| tickets. Recently I was looking for NFL tickets and the fees on
| a $280 ticket were almost 90-120 range depending on the site
| you used. That's almost a 40% inflation for no reason.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Fix the [dupe] url: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/04/business/its-
| not-just-the-sup...
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Baseball seems like its priced well. In markets that don't fill
| the stadium you can usually get a $15 ticket. In markets that do
| fill the stadium the ticket is probably 4x as expensive but the
| stadium fills anyhow.
| prisenco wrote:
| Minor League baseball is especially fun. You sit closer to the
| game. Depending on the team and location, snacks are
| reasonable. Players may not be MLB level, but they're certainly
| no slouches. And tickets can go as low as $6.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| I think this is where VR can really be a game changer. There are
| so many experiences that have become crazy expensive due to their
| inherently limited supply in the face of increasing wealth. I
| think most of them could not be replaced, but supplemented by
| experiences that are able to scale with zero marginal cost. This
| would also have the advantage of reducing the price of the real
| experience as some of the demand shifts to the virtual one. See
| also the Taylor Swift fiasco which started a whole political
| thing about ticketmaster when the problem was really just that
| there were 5x as many people who wanted to go as tickets. Yes
| ticketmaseter sucks, but when faced with that supply and demand
| imbalance anyone who wants a ticket is going to have a bad time.
| notahacker wrote:
| Feels like the opposite of a case where VR can be a game
| changer.
|
| TV coverage already has better viewing angles than going to the
| game. People go to the game for a day out, to actually be there
| when it happens, to make noise the players hear and to
| celebrate with tens of thousands of other people. You don't get
| that with a headset.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| Why not? The headset experience can imitate being at the
| game, allowing you to interact with other headset viewers and
| experience the roar of the crowd. I think it would be very
| different from watching on TV if executed correctly. Watching
| on TV is inherently a bit of a lonely experience unless youre
| at bar or the like, but a headset does not have to be at all.
| notahacker wrote:
| You can experience the roar of the crowd with any decent
| audio system, but it's not the same as participating in it.
| Not really seeing how the headset helps me interact with
| other viewers either: I can't high five them, hug them, buy
| them food and drink [because they're my friends or family
| I'm meeting at the game] or even see what they're doing.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| I mean the whole point is that you can high five or hug
| the other fans youre sitting next to. Obviously its not
| the same as physically doing it, but its still better
| than sitting on your coach alone. I dont think most fans
| enjoy paying 4x prices for food and drink at games, but
| maybe thats just me.
| notahacker wrote:
| You can't high five or hug people with a headset, and
| frankly I'd feel less lonely watching on my TV than
| donning some sort of haptic feedback suit so I can
| interact physically with simulated friends
|
| I think quite a lot of people enjoy buying their friends
| and family food and drink, even if it is overpriced and
| not that tasty. Beats buying lootboxes for fake people at
| any rate
| windexh8er wrote:
| People generally watch sports with family and friends -
| same as attending a game in person. VR is very antisocial
| for an event like a game. I can see how it would solve for
| folks who want to share the experience remotely with each
| other, but I'd gather that's a very niche / small market.
| I, personally, don't want to experience a game with
| everyone in the room wearing a headset.
|
| The only thing I want a strong VR headset for is so I can
| have large screens with me when I travel. I really have no
| desire to engage with AR through what the current state of
| VR headsets is.
| bsdpufferfish wrote:
| Low supply, high demand
| hulitu wrote:
| > Why buying tickets to a game has become so unaffordable
|
| Greed ?
| TheAngryCanuck wrote:
| I would rather watch sports at home. Friends can come over.
| Better food. Cheaper beer. No line for the bathroom. Plenty of
| parking.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-02-04 23:01 UTC)