http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/soc/5488904.html A very good article on quality of experience at sports games in Houston vs $$. The Astros are considered the best with the Dynamo at number 2. It also lists the ticket prices for ALL teams in ALL leagues. That info can be found here. And here is an interesting tidbit: Here is Bernardo's take on the subject. Enjoy and debate.
Not to rain on this parade, but I would think back-to-back 'Cups has more to do with that "140%" figure than does the $2 hike-at-gate scheme. That said, I felt pretty low for not being able to get season tix this year, as I know that that is really the number one way to support your home team, but this 140% increase over last year helps me to feel a little better about it...
Yeah but what is with the high ticket price increase? Astros player salaries $200 million NFL Salary Cap $250+ million (not exact I don't have those off the top of my head) NBA $100+ million MLS Salary Cap $2.2 million Now why is it that we have tickets only a few dollars away from Astros ticket prices?
Astros play way more games than the Dynamo. Do Astros pay anything/as much to play in Minute Maid Park as the Dynamo have to pay to play at Robertson? When's the last time the Astros won back to back championships? Brian Ching Dwayne De Rosario
All I know is that I'd rather spend my money seeing the Dynamo than those other teams. And I think it's more than just back to back championships. People are realizing that the atmosphere at the games is incredible. The 30+ Dynamo fans that went to the Aeros game on Friday made an impact. Every single person that has gone to a game with me has enjoyed it, and would come back to another game.
The thing I took away from the article was that ticket prices are much more a function of supply and demand and have very little to do with team expenses. Dynamo - $20.50 for 20 home games, payroll is around $2 million Aeros - $21.47 for 40 home games, payroll is around $1 million (actually higher than that but the Minnesota Wild pay 40% of player's salaries) Comets - $24.00 for 17 home games, payroll is $700,000 Astros - $26.90 for 80 home games, payroll is $88 million Most teams charge around $20 to $25 on average even though they have wildly different payrolls and different numbers of games. Especially when tickets are pretty much always available which they are for those teams. Which leads me to believe that's about the amount that fans think the tickets are worth. The Rockets and Texans charge more because they can and still sell tickets. I think it can be shown that team payrolls have very little to do with ticket prices and the public's perception of the worth of the tickets has everything to do with it. It's the same as movies. Do you pay more for a huge action blockbuster with big stars that cost $200 million to make or a small scale romantic comedy with no big stars? Nope, you pay about the same for your ticket to each. Because the ticket price is a function of what people are willing to pay, not a function of the cost of producing the movie.
Case in point, TorontoFC has the second highest average ticket price in MLS and the worst record last year, but also the team that sold out its stadium consistently.
These kinds of things are interesting, but you have to go into more then just the raw numbers to say anything about money earned verses spent. In fact I'm wondering if the average prices quoted was the average of all available tickets or the average for tickets sold. That would difference could be huge depending on what the numbers of tickets at each price level and the accompanying price breaks. I'm not posting my value list here, because I just dropped one hell of a long response on Bernardo's blog post. You'll have to go there to see it. I hope my html doesn't get screwed up when it gets posted to the comments section.
You don´t have to buy the full season package, they also have a 10 game package and a 5 game package. Many have lots of things to pay, or unusual expenses that they don´t have every year, that´s why a 5 or 10 game package is a good idea, you get some nice games and you can also buy single tickets later for some (or all) of the other games if you have extra cash just before the games.
I'd do that, except if the FO does the same thing they did the first two years, I don't want to be locked into the particular 5 or 10 games offered on those packages. I'll simply go when I can, without being limited. I just liked the season ticket idea, because that is pretty much a solid indicator of what the FO needs - why the team needs to stay here in Houston. Imagine, if season ticket sales were down - just say 60%, for example - instead of up? What would have led to this? I think obviously, ticket prices would not have been as much, and in all likelihood, we would be down one, if not both, MLS Cups. Again, I think the price increase is due more out of the quality product on sale, or, as newtex said, what the market will bear. I DON'T think it has that much to do with a price increase on same-day ticket sales.
I get the $20 for 10 games pack from the Astros every year and that is the best package in town. At the same time, I just bought Dynamo season tix but the experience is way better here b/c it's more about the game. You get the feeling if you leave your seat you're going to miss something important. I get so disgusted when people get louder for the three hummer race on the Jumbotron at Astros games between innings than for the product on the field. While I do have fun, most of the time, you can ignore the action and you don't miss anything.
Not to go too Econ 101, but technically "supply" includes team expenses. The production costs of the product, as well as how much competition there is among sellers and how much product is being sold (how many seats are in the stadium and how many games are played) all go into "supply." It seems to me you're saying that the market is driven more by demand than supply, which I think is basically true. (Except in Toronto and LA, where supply is pretty limited). It has to do with a phenomenon called "elasticity." The buyers generally are more flexible about how much they buy when the price changes than the sellers about how much they sell.
I was trying to avoid Econ 101 as well. I stopped teaching that a while ago. I probably over simplified my explanation and I was a little lose with the terminology but I was trying to point out that production costs cannot be directly correlated to market price. People always seem to want to do that with sports but it's not that simple. Anyway, it still looks to me like consumers think spending about $25 for most sports entertainment is about right but at least some of them will spend more if they have to. I think the Dynamo will have to increase sales before they are able to increase prices above that range. Increasing the payroll will only do that if consumers think it is worth it. Increasing season tickets sales by 140% tells me that at the current prices a lot more people think that the product is a good value. If I'm the FO, especially one that is trying to sell the team, I think I would be reluctant to increase costs (payroll) unless I see a problem if I don't. Winning two titles and increasing season ticket sales don't look like problems to me. As always, I could be wrong and all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
BTW, TFC raised ticket prices by an average of 13% for 2008. They have already sold out the 14,000 season tickets that they made available and reportedly have 2,000 more on a waiting list. And this year's season ticket is only good for 19 games unlike last season's 20 game package. I'd expect at least some TFC tickets to increase in price again next season.
The last 3 games sold out with 30k each time. It just shows that when the games matter Houston will come out and support the men in orange. But I can't help but think that maybe they should lower the General Admission on some of those mid-summer games that really don't draw well. On the big games we get 20-30k but some of those mid-summer June/July games get 12-14k. Last year I went to the opener, an early season game v Chicago, then later in the season was Columbus Crew, LA, and then the play-off games. As a student I run on a very tight budget and believe going down from $15 to $10 would help out for us students.
With Liverpool rumoured to be the All-Star game I'll bet you will see some wanna-be scousers buy the season tix put them on ebay just so they get that ASG tix.
The All-Star game is not included with the TFC season ticket but I'd guess you would get some priority in buying the All-Star game ticket. However, I think that pretty much all 14,000 season ticket holders from 2007 renewed their season ticket for 2008. They were never put up for public sale from what I understand. So Liverpool fans were probably not able to work the system that way.
Personally, I think the MLS ought to aim a bit higher if they're looking for a quality opponent for our All Stars.
I agree. But I would love to see all the plastic scousers who started following Pool when they went to the Euro final in 2004 to see their team lose 5-0.
Seattle and San Jose have done on Season Tickets as well. I think that the NA has threads about it but both teams have sold several thousand season tickets. I think we are talking about 5K or more each. I'm curious what they are charging for their tickets, too, especially San Jose since they are playing in several different stadiums across Cali.
How many season tickets (not holders, but seats) do we have? I haven't heard a figure since sometime early in year 1 when it was less than 2,000 seats - I figure we are at 4,000 - 5,000 for full seasons.