Government subsidies to corporate fat cats raise your ticket prices

Yeah, the headline was a bit much, but I like saying “fat cats” whenever I can. This is a story about why tickets to ballgames cost so much:

There are many reasons for the price explosion, but a critical factor has been the ability of businesses to write off tickets as entertainment expenses -- essentially a huge, and wholly unnecessary, government subsidy.

These deductions have led to higher ticket prices in two ways. On the demand side, they have fueled competition for scarce seats, with business taxpayers bidding in part with dollars they save through the deductions. On the supply side, the large number of businesses bidding for expensive seats has driven the expansion of luxury skyboxes and a reduction in overall seats in new ballparks.

Of course any politician who tried to repeal tax breaks for luxury boxes would be attacked for trying to “raise” taxes on business. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to use tax dollars to provide basic medical care to poor people is a godless socialist who hates America and everything for which it stands.

I sat in a luxury box for a baseball game once. It was interesting in both good and bad ways. I don’t begrudge their existence. But I never once felt like it was something the government should be subsidizing.