Leisure activities will always find a niche, even when the economy is bad. My parents talked about going to weekend matinees even during the Great Depression. People somehow found the money to go to the movies and escape from the drudgeries of that terrible depression.
Other leisure activities like sports did encourage fans to part with their hard-earned pennies in arenas and ballparks across the nation. But attending a baseball game, or basketball game, or a game of football, didn’t cost all that much then.
During those early days you didn’t see players becoming wealthy. Most players had “day jobs” to pay the bills. There were some who did extremely well, like the legendary Babe Ruth, but most didn’t retire on what they made while playing.
Today, if a person is a professional playing in the NBA, NFL, or for the major leagues in Baseball, they need an accountant to handle the big paychecks coming their way. Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars are scattered throughout all professional sports.
The foundation for every sport has been, and will be, the fans who buy the tickets, hotdogs, popcorn, and assorted memorabilia associated with a team or player that is popular. Without them arenas would close, ball parks would be empty, and stadiums silent.
But even the most loyal fan must be challenged right now to attend events, or buy goodies, with the state of our sinking economy. I’ve already noticed that there are a lot of empty bleachers at professional basketball games that I watch on television.
I went to a NBA basketball ticket purchasing site, and found some interesting figures when it comes to what fans across the country pay to see their home teams play. If you plan on attending a New York Knicks game live, the tickets range from $27 to $3,209 each!
California has several basketball teams and the price difference to attend a Lakers game - where tickets range from $32 to $2,675 each - is dramatically different if you go to a LA Clippers game which is played in the same place as the Lakers games - Staples Center. Tickets range from a reasonable $11 to an even more reasonable $535 for the best seats in the house when it’s a Clipper home game.
If you want even lower ticket prices, and still want to see a California team, then the Golden State Warriors Oracle Arena is the place to go with ticket prices ranging from just $7 to $402 each to see the player’s sweat up close.
After comparing team prices, it appears that if you want a real bargain then go to Ford Center in Oklahoma and see the Thunder for as low as $6 per ticket, and as high as $214 a ticket.Getting seats is no problem when attending most NBA games right now, as attendance has already shown signs of dropping off from last season.
Only the big market teams, like the Lakers, Celtics, or the Knicks, are still filling arenas with fans ready to spend their dearly-earned ducats. I suspect that as the season goes on, even these teams will start to feel the crunch.
It’s all just a matter of economics. A $2,675 ticket for a Laker home game, or pay the mortgage? Pay $535 to watch the Clippers get clobbered up close, or the car payment? When people are cutting back on Christmas shopping and holiday activities, can tickets for live sporting events be far behind?
As It Stands, entertainment in various forms is threatened by the economy, but sports team owners are gambling that die-hard fans will keep the games going.
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