These days, you can take the word inflation and attach it to just about anything. “Tipflation,” “gasflation,” “foodflation”- all these words and more are all part of the lexicon now. Just how bad is inflation right now? Hard to say because the official government statistics for core inflation deliberately exclude food and energy costs.
What we do know is that this is a common cycle in economic history. Egregious rises in the cost of travel and event attendance naturally occur whenever an economy re-opens in the wake of a pandemic. It makes perfect sense. Once the lockdown is over and businesses re-open fully, people naturally want to get out more, and the demand to attend live events surges.
We certainly saw that in 2021, and demand has continued to surge here into mid-2023. According to ExpressVPN, some fans are literally paying well over 2,000% markup on some of this yearโs most in-demand games, concerts, and shows.
Ticket Brokers Remain Undefeated; Consumers Stay Winless
Mid-July brings the biggest event on the tennis calendar, the men’s final at Wimbledon. The face value is 255 GBP or $310 USD. Pretty pricy, right? Well, the lowest, and we repeat that for emphasis, the lowest, resale market tickets come in at a ridiculous 5,870 GBP ($7,150). That is an absurd markup level ofย 2,202%.
You don’t have to go to the resale market to find eye-popping prices in the world of sports, though. You can also be gouged by purchasing directly through official team box offices as well. The Chicago White Sox, who haven’t won a playoff series since 2005, and are currently on pace to finish 56-106 this season, are charging $144 + fees for mid-level quality, first-level seating to the July series against the Chicago Cubs (themselves on pace to finish 71-91).ย
Once you factor in all the fees and taxes, getting eight tickets to that game at that price tier costs well over $1000. You can’t even get in the door to this series, which falls on a weeknight, mind you, for less than $44 per ticket.
Endless Middle Men and Inconvenient Convenience Charges
There is a reason that ’90s grunge rockers Pearl Jam took Ticketmaster to court; they are indeed a monopoly. Polls show that Ticketmaster is one of the world’s least popular companies, and with good reason. They engage in both monopolistic behavior and ticket scalping.
However, you also have companies like Stub Hub, Vivid Seats, and SeatGeek out there scalping the tickets they purchased through Ticketmaster, so the added middlemen lead to even more fees and additional surcharges. It’s a situation similar to Grub Hub, Door Dash, or Uber Eats in that the actual price you pay doesn’t even remotely resemble the original base price you were originally quoted.
What are “convenience fees” and “processing fees” anyway?ย
Nothing other than just nonsense they made up in order to charge you more money.
The Way Forward?
It’s clear that the status quo does not work for anyone except those in the ownership class. So what can be done to combat egregious price gouging?ย
A new product, just launched this month, could provide the blueprint for a potential solution. It’s called Box Office by Sports Illustrated Tickets, and it’s the first platform to combine an NFT ticket option alongside more traditional tickets for sports, concerts, and theater.ย
The product, developed by web3 specialist ConsenSys, and working on blockchain technology, will contain a strong marketing and promotions component.
Box Officeโs new Super Ticketโข product will kick off their new partnership with The Association of Pickleball Players (APP) at the league’s crown jewel event, The New York City Open, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, May 23 โ 28.
“Welcoming SI Tickets into the APP family as Official Ticketing and Marketing Partner is truly groundbreaking for our organization, and the sport of pickleball overall,” commented Tom Webb, Chief Marketing Officer of the APP.
“The Sports Illustrated brand has a storied history and is now building the future of ticketing. This partnership allows the APP to create one-of-a-kind tickets for our events, connect with fans better than ever before, and add value to their event experience.”
On a symbolic level, the practice of NFT ticketing has the perfect partner in pickleball, a sport that took off during the pandemic and has seen consistent, steady growth since re-opening. A 2021 article in The Economist declared pickleball, a sport referred to as “half court basketball for elderly people” by Actor/Comedian Jeff Daniels, the fastest growing sport in America.ย
Said David Lane, CEO, SI Tickets. โThe explosive growth in popularity and participation of pickleball over the last two plus years has been truly remarkable, and we look forward to teaming up with the APP as an anchor partner for our all-new Box Office primary NFT ticketing platform.”
On a practical level, advertising already ingrained in NFT ticketing could ultimately serve as a cost-savings to the consumer. At least in theory, because the ticket companies would have additional revenue streams to get their beaks further wet.
Let’s just hope it’s enough to satisfy all the companies involved in staging and promoting events. And that they will thus feel compelled to tone down the price gouging.ย ย
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. Heโs also the author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ and โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
Heโs written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.
