I find it miraculous that teams brag about not changing their ticket prices. When they do this, they’re trying to convince the public that they are trying to make attendance affordable for everyone. Anyone who has been to a game knows that’s not true – the price of food is ABSURD (and we all know that even Andrew Demetriou thinks so).
The point I’m making is: if you’re trying to make it affordable… why don’t you try lowering your ticket prices?
A few weeks ago, I went to see the St. Kilda/West Coast game at Etihad Stadium. I had a great time (if we ignore the fact that I was so cold that I couldn’t feel my toes for about 3 days afterwards).
But there was something that almost ruined the whole experience (and I am very enthusiastic about improving the game day experience): the ticket line. It was sooooooo long.
We got to the stadium about 45 minutes before the game started but because of the ticket line, we missed the first few minutes or the first quarter. We weren’t the only ones of course – there were many, MANY people behind us in line.
Now, you may be thinking, “Serves you right – you should have bought your tickets online. ” And you know what, I thought the same thing. But why would I? There are several reasons I wouldn’t bother buying my tickets online.
Today… math.
DON’T BE SCARED. IT’S JUST ADDITION.
You’ll live, I swear.
This is nothing new – I have seen dozens of posts and articles that add up the cost of going to a sporting event. But, if I’m remembering correctly… none for Australia. And since I want to talk about competition in the sports industry, we need to know about money.
So here we go.
Last weekend I was in Melbourne (which was lovely… AND FREEZING) which meant I went to an AFL game. Shout outs to boyfriend, Kelly and Col who came, too! And here is the breakdown of what we spent (approximately – I don’t count pennies).
Tickets: $72 (3 adult full-price and one concession)
Beer: $46 (2 each for me and Col, 3 for Shannon)
Food: $17 (a pie each for Shannon and Col, a large hot chips for me and Kelly)
Transport: $28 ($3.50 each way for 4 people)
Merchandise: $SO MUCH – I didn’t actually purchasae anything, but that’s only because the boys didn’t want to stop and look at the booths with me for twenty minutes (can you blame them? Not really)
Total: $163, or about $40 per person
Now, tickets were pretty cheap. I’ll give you that.
But we also have to factor in the anarchy of public transport to the game, and the fact that everyone basically froze to death during the game (our fault, but still – that temperature displayed on the big screen was a LIE!), and the opportunity cost (you remember when we talked about that, right?). In this case the opportunity cost was a nap – the people we were with earlier that day (shout out to Nomes and Lucy!) got to go home and rest before dinner while we did not – which made us (or at least me) more irritable later that night. It also meant not spending time with Nomes and her boyfriend, who we all wanted to get to know better, and it meant that Kelly missed her train and, as a result, had to stick around for couple extra hours because of a cancelled train.
See what I meant about opportunity cost?
In the next post in this series… we’ll consider competition. Because there’s a lot of it.
I'm Kayla Ramiscal. I don't like wine, curling up next to a fire, or long walks on the beach. But I do like grand slams, buzzer-beaters and a good tackle-turned-punch-up.
