As the Falcons continue their efforts to replace the Georgia Dome (which has been deemed obsolete despite being used by the team roughly 200 times) with a retractable-roof venue, Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points to a trend that should be regarded as troubling in any city that will be opening a new stadium.
The three new stadiums opened in the past five years have in turn hiked ticket prices. Significantly.
For the Giants and Jets at MetLife Stadium, the Cowboys in their new home, and the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, the three new facilities have experienced a 26-percent average increase in ticket prices.
Specifically, the Jets and Giants increased ticket prices by 32 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The Cowboys increased ticket prices by an average of 31 percent. And the Colts increased ticket prices by 14 percent.
Tucker offers up many more interesting details about the impact of new stadiums on ticket prices. Still, in the end the question boils down to basic economics. Supply, demand. If the tickets will sell at higher prices, so be it. If they won’t, then the prices need to come down.
Of course, the process of jacking up prices can screw fans in more ways that one. Apart from charging more for the privilege of attending the games in person, a failure of sufficient fans to buy tickets at the selected prices will prevent the fans who prefer to watch the home games on television from doing so.
So before chugging champagne to celebrate the end of a 10-plus-year effort to build a new stadium in Minnesota, Vikings fans may be wise to toast with tap water instead. They’ll likely need their Mumm’s money to pay for tickets to the new stadium that the taxpayers already are paying $500 million or so to build.
