Sports Economics: Where Have the Fans Gone?
The seats are not as full as they were three years ago, and yes, for the obvious reason.
When times are tough the first thing that people cut from their budgets are entertainment expenses. With so many other cheaper options available, Sports teams, movie theaters, play halls, concert venues, and other expensive recreational activities are just starting to see the hit the downed economy has brought on people. As a result, many sports franchises have started to slash prices, offer buy one get one promotions, and yes…even give away free tickets.
THE NBA:
21 of 30 NBA teams have had some sort of drop in ANNOUNCED attendance from 2007-08 to 2008-09. Hardly shocking. Well, except for what the results potentially tell us.
NBA Attendance (Source: ESPN.com)
While the teams at the top of the NBA have maintained their attedance averages, or seen little to no drop, it’s actally the teams at the bottom of the league that have been hurt the most. Of course when a team is successful it is going to create more interest. People love a winner. The problem lies with fans who are unwilling to give up money in a tight economy to see a lousy Kings or Pacers team.
This has lead many of the aforementioned teams to reach out to the league. Yesterday the NBA received a $200 million dollar loan to help franchises that are struggling from lost revenue. One source has said that much of the lost revenue is directly tied to the attendance drops the league has expirienced this year. The NBA on the otherhand, has fought back and said attendance is actually up.
That’s not entirely true. The NBA has a strict rule that doesn’t allow teams to post turnstile number….no, just the number of tickets distributed paid or free. Unfortunately getting turnstile count is borderline impossible. It’s not a publicly available figure and usually they have to come from the actual venues. Despite several emails and phone calls no one has really responded to me yet on this subject. The picture to the right is an actual shot of a game between the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies in December. The ANNOUNCED attendance that evening was 12,088…
Not surprisingly the media has caught on to this problem too. The New York Times wrote an article on this very subject back in December. Richard “Grits” Walker, who covers the Bobcats for the Gaston (N.C.) Gazette, reported that a recent Wolves-Bobcats game with a crowd count of 9,285 had an actual turnstile count of 4,003. How can teams really expect to make money in that type of environment?
Now let me set this straight, I use the NBA only as an example, and I am not trying to bag on it. In fact you could take any league, including the bullet proof NFL and see similar results (Which also doesn’t report turnstile counts). Unfortunately, attendance hits are all over. For the first time in 43 years, the ACC Basketball Championship has put tickets on sale for the general public. While it’s being held in a larger than normal venue in Atlanta, Associate Commissioner of the ACC Karl Hicks was quoted, “no sport is immune to the economy’s tentacles.”
Minor League hockey has come out and said that they’ve taken the brunt too. The lower you get on the totem pole, the harder it is to convince fans to pay to come out…The exhibition games played at the Spring training venues fear the possibility also.
So does this drop mean lack of interest? No. This is the first economic crisis we’ve had since fans have really had the luxury of watching every single game in high quality High Definition. When it comes down to it in this economy, does $100 for tickets, some food, and parking really outweigh the value of watching the game in HD while sitting on your sofa? Probably not. The economy will rebound, but for now, sports leagues and franchises are going to suffer.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Was this planned or because of the thing Simmons wrote?
Either way good stuff trey
/encouragement
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/thread jack
Jen’s Fudgies traded Winslow to the bucs for picks
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3939777
/continue
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the impact has got to mean lower salaries and contracts for players…how long before the bitching and moaning begins because players cant “feed their kids”
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If anything good came out of this sucky economic times, it would be contraction in the NHL and NBA.
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when i first read the headline to this column, i thought it was going to be a golf post about the match play championship now that tiger is out for the weekend
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trey had the idea of this post about a month ago. i was starting to think it was another Duke post.
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they were discussing this topic yesterday on chris meyers on FSR as well
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Another Duke post? Did I miss GITC’s
Chinese DemocracyI Hate Duke post?(Quote)
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what ever happened to that dook post?
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i always assumed gitc would break it out for march madness (if it really exists)
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He likes Duke now, so he’s not going to write it.
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he sounded thrilled from wednesday night’s game, probably had to add another paragraph or two
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/response to threadjack
It sickens me that the Bucs got Winslow. The guy is a tool. Congrats to Jen.
/end threadjack response
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I know gitc posted a couple of pre-game comments about how crazy it was at the game.
Never saw the ones about how loud the crickets were at the end.
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Thanks Johnny.
No I wasn’t trying to make this a Duke post. I was HOPING one of teh several venues I emailed/called would get me some numbers.
Most people aren’t willing to admits fans aren’t showing. Especially since so much public money has gone into these venues.
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as a bucs fan…i am happy winslow is gonna be in tampa…he needed a fresh start
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i bet it will still be impossible to get tickets to the yankees, red sox, or cubs games
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I’d be surprised if anyone released numbers. I can only imagine how crappy it must be to sit in a venue that is only one third full to watch a game regardless of whether my team won or lost. Publicizing low numbers doesn’t project that “you gotta be there, everyone else is” image.
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Supposedly the Red Sox are on the same tickets sold pace as previous years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the sell out streak ended this season. I’ll be curious to see how the Yankees do in the new stadium. I can’t believe they’ve sold out all those million dollar seats and luxury boxes.
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Cubs and Sox will probably be fine. The Yankees have never sold out every game, but they have a much larger stadium. No doubt the first few months will probably be sellouts.
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Knightro, as an O’s fans I don’t have to imagine.
/Fuck you Angelos
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well with everyone in the world having to roll back…its time athletes rolled back a little too…instead of buying three bentlys, maybe they could just get two
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The Fudgies should have gotten rid of Edwards, not Winslow. Dammit. Mangenius at work??? Who knows.
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Seriously – how the hell is New Orleans +15%? Does anybody even live there anymore?
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2700 more fans
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Belichick trading Mike Vrabel to Pioli.
…probably not the last trade between the two.
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It will be really interesting to see how much players’ salaries drop. If there is less revenue, there will be more teams losing money and they are not in business to lose money. The big name winners in the NBA, NFL and MLB will all be OK. I agree that it will be the smaller market teams that will be hurt even more.
However, I would think that people who can’t afford a major league game will go to a minor league game as a much cheaper alternative.
The low cost providers such as Walmart and McDonald’s often do better in a recession, I would guess the same might be true for sports. Then again, sports is not a necessity, food and clothes are.
Also the TV contracts are locked in for several years. I would guess that ailing companies would pull out advertising dollars resulting in lower revenue for broadcasters. It will be interesting to see if TV contracts go down in the next couple of years.
I know that Syracuse reduced the price of football tickets but then again, that is more due to the fact that the team sucks now.
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Oh, Gator, good article, one little typo
luxeryluxury(Quote)
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i have been putting money aside for yankee tickets for a year.
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See, that right there is the problem
Sorry to pick on you here Sparty, but you are the exact reason why teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Lakers, Cowboys etc. will never truly feel the effect of a recession. Because those teams are so beloved by so many, there’s always someone willing to save money for a year just to go to a couple games.
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a couple games? i am saving for a lot more than that!
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the food too…
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I have the money saved for Red Sox tickets, but my problem is it’s friggin impossible to get decent seats to a game without having some sort of connection.
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Fair enough, but you see my point…
When I lived in Boston, if I wanted to catch a game live I’d call some buddies and head for the park. Admittedly, I have a good job with no family to support, so it was easier for me to go scalp some grandstand seats for $100.
But for the average family now, going to the ballpark is a once a year treat – max – because teams keep raising prices to afford players. And they get away with it because they know there’s always somebody willing to jump on that season ticket package if it gets opened up by a fan that can no longer afford it.
Personally, I much prefer sitting at home in front of a bigscreen HD TV, with surround sound speakers and a well-stocked home bar and fridge. The experience is just about the same, especially if you have a handful of friends around. Plus I don’t drop $350 during the day on tickets, transportation, parking & concessions.
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The New York Football Giants have had people on the waiting list for season tickets for years. with the new stadium PSLs and ticket prices, they are already moved up 20K people in line.
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Don’t even get me started on PSLs… That’s a two hour rant in and of itself.
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I don’t mind PSLs for PRIVATE stadiums…publicly owned stadiums though…
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yeah, the Giants funded the stadium, not taxpayers. lucky they set the prices when they did, since the Mara’s and Tisch’s lost a ton through Lehman Bros.
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I hate to come off sounding socialist, especially because I lean closer to Libertarian than anything else, but sports are games that are solely driven by fans. If I could change any one thing in professional sports, it would be this:
Every league has a salary cap, and no professional athlete playing a team game is allowed to make more than $10M per season. Period. Every year the number would go up or down based on the total league revenues. With players’ salaries dropped, owners could no longer justify ridiculous ticket/parking/concession prices and still expect to see sell-out crowds.
As an added bonus, it would increase competitiveness in leagues, because with a hard salary cap teams couldn’t just go out and get 10 guys at the max contracts if they needed to fill 15 spots.
Now, it’ll never happen without some sort of collusion between the teams owners of all four major professional leagues deciding to lock out their players at the same time (in which case ESPN would implode… so possibly another bonus).
And finally, with all of the money that is spent on sporting events freed up for the “average” consumer could be pumped back into other economic sectors. Sure, people might just save more money, or maybe they’d just goto more games. But the money would move around somehow.
That’s my platform for President in 2020 – I’m running on the Sports Ticket.
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THIS GUYS A COMMIE!
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big d, you got my vote
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commie? we’re almost halfway there anyway, we’ll be socialist in no time
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sigh…yep.
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There is no possible way for the general public to make any kind of impact on professional sports. You can ask a stadium full of fans to stay home. So? The season tickets are paid for. You might cause a ripple from single game or walk up ticket sales. So the ownership has basically been paid. Players? Guaranteed contract. Parking and concessions would suffer. Still that’s peanuts in the whole sporting event economy. We have no meaningful recourse or any way to affect the professional sports economy. So we can either put up or shut up. I only own season ticket to UCF football which in the big scheme is not that expensive. I LOVE the Magic. Wouldn’t own Magic/Bucs/Jags/Rays/Lightning tickets. For me, the value is just not there. If someone offers me a single game ticket for free or next to nothing I’ll go, for sure. Otherwise, that money can be spent on so many other things.
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too long of a haul for me to see many of my team’s games in person, but instead of one monster mlb extra innings plan, or mlb.tv, or the sports pack on directv i wouldn’t mind being able to only pay to see my team’s games and most of the money going directly to them
can’t wait to see if my work will still have the drawings for white sox, kane county cougar, and joliet jackhammer games. they’ve cut everything else, won’t be surprised if they gave up the tix too
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I got Rutgers football season tix last season because my brother’s friend had them available…probably wouldn’t do it every season just because I think I’d rather stay home and watch the game, but I do enjoy the occasional football/baseball/hockey/soccer game in person as long as it’s not at a ridiculous cost to me…I usually don’t buy much food when I’m at the games because it’s so outrageously priced so that helps me throw a little extra cash at the ticket price for a slightly better seat.
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I only have season tix to the Gators. I buy them through an old alumni.
I would, however, buy Magic tix if I could afford them AND could make at least 80% of the games.
I have a friend who works for them, so it’s usually easier for me to go that route.
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A down economy means good things for sports bloggers. Due to the fact people are being laid off and not going to game it gives them more time to read sports articles online. Great post!
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