MLS 2007 average ticket price: $22.47 NFL 2007 average ticket price: $67.83 NBA 2007 average ticet price: $48.83 NHL 2007 average ticet price: $43.13 ------------------------------------ MLS 2007 average attendance: 16000 NFL 2007 average attendance: 65000 NBA 2007 average attendance: 17000 NHL 2007 average attendance: 16486 ------------------------------------- MLS 2008 # of Home game: 15 NFL 2008 # of Home game: 8 NBA 2008 # of Home game: 41 NHL 2008 # of Home game: 41 -------------------------------------- Reference: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/other/5488159.html http://andrewsstarspage.com/NHL-Business/ Looks to me just for the attendance and ticket revenue area, MLS can do OK for the future comparing to other leagues. I think near term goal for ticket price should be around $30 and average attendance around 22k Long term goal is to come close to be on par with NBA and NHL. ticket $40, attendance 30k.
Here's the Chronicle's per-team listing: MLS 1. Los Angeles Galaxy $32.50 2. Toronto FC $30.29 3. D. C. United $29 T4. Chicago Fire $24 T4. New England Revolution $24* League average $22.47 6. New York Red Bulls $21.83 7. Houston Dynamo $20.50 8. Chivas USA $19.40 T9. FC Dallas $18.50 T9. Columbus Crew $18.50* 11. Real Salt Lake $18.25 12. Colorado Rapids $17.90 13. Kansas City Wizards $17.50 Source: MLS teams * Estimate (team declined to provide data)
based on season ticket prices I also didn't include the field level expesnive seats. Chicago http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/t100/stadium/bridgeview/seating/ $45-20 $15- Supporters Section Chivas USA https://secure.mlsnet.com/t120/tickets/2008/season/index.jsp $40-20 $10- Supporters Section Colorado http://www.coloradorapids.com/Tickets/SeasonTickets.aspx $35-18 Columbus http://columbus.crew.mlsnet.com/t102/stadium/ $35-15 DC United http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/t103/tickets/plan_pricing.jsp $50-20 Dallas https://secure.mlsnet.com/t104/tickets/2008/season/plans/index.jsp?plan=full $45-20 Houston http://houston.mlsnet.com/t200/tickets/season_info/ $40-15 Kansas City http://kc.wizards.mlsnet.com/t105/tickets/season/ $25-15 LA https://secure.mlsnet.com/t106/tickets/2008/season/ $65-25 New England http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/TicketPackages/index.cfm?ac=Seasons $30-15 New York https://secure.mlsnet.com/t107/tickets/2008/season/order/ $65-22 $18 Supporters Section Salt Lake https://secure.mlsnet.com/t121/tickets/2008/season/ $40-20 San Jose http://web.mlsnet.com/t110/tickets/plans_pricing/ $50-18 Toronto http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/t280/tickets/seating/ $70-20 There is no way the average ticket price is $22 in MLS. Its probably way closer to $30. The really cheap seats are smaller in section size that the midfield seats that are more expensive.
I think the figure's probably pretty legit. The expensive sections in many of those venues are pretty small. Besides, I think Fallas asked the team FOs and these are the numbers given, with the exception of NE and CLB which didn't answer. In DC, I have one of the nicer sections for my season tickets, and I pay less than $20 a game.
That is some Arthur Anderson accounting if our average ticket price is less than our general admission ticket price.
Actually if you do some quick calculations I think this makes sense. If you take each season ticket category and divide by the estimated # of games (I assumed 20 which is the number of games that RSL tries to provide their season ticket holders each year), and then take a simple average of these ticket categories then you come up with $23.87. Ideally you would weight this to take into account how many seats are available in each category -and you would expect the more expensive categories to have fewer seats available. Also this is 2008 prices, I assume the data reported is based on 2007 prices. The other option would be that they took data on actual tickets sold which would include packages, promotions, etc.
Well not all are 20 games, here its 16. Also the largest sections of season ticket sales tend to be the midfield seats (which are more expensive) and the most numerous. If thats what the clubs are claiming so be it.
how many kids tickets are sold, and how much cheaper are they? It could make a difference to the overall average. Similarly, are free tickets counted? e.g. did they work this out by taking the ticket income and just dividing by the total number of spectators?
Well, you also have to take into consideration the group ticket prices, because those are less then the regular ticket price. Also when some teams bring out really big goups, say with a big youth club or entire league they lower the prices even more. You need to take into consideration all tickets sold.