Why Are Music Fans Cheaper than Sports Fans?

By in Entertainment,

Here's an interesting question. In a time when everyone is tightening up their belts and trying to cut down on spending it is understandable to not want to buy top tier tickets to any event. My issue is when you start comparing music to other forms of entertainment, specifically sports. A significant number of people I know would never pay more than about $30 to see a concert, whether it was their favorite band, or just a run of the mill show.

For this example we will use the New York Mets because I have first hand knowledge of their ticket prices. The average Mets home ticket price is about $35 per seat per game. Ticket prices go way up from there with some being as high as $300. Again, for this example we are going to use the New York area and the month of June. During the month of June there will be thirteen opportunities to see the Mets at home.

Switching back to music, if we take a tour that will be traveling through the New York area there will be one, or in some rare occasions, two chances to see the show. We can use No Doubt as an example, who will play just one show in New York during the month of June, and that will be their only appearance in the area for at least another few months. The average ticket price for this show is $72.25.

Yes, this is quite a lot of money on average but again, you have to look at the circumstances. The show is at Jones Beach, in Wantagh, NY and the worst seats in the house are probably at about the mid range tickets at a baseball game. To use the actual numbers, the worst seats at Jones Beach ($29) are about equal (distance to the entertainers) as the "Caesars Club," (Mezzanine to those familiar with Shea Stadium) in which the lowest cost tickets to the average game around about $80.

So what have we learned, the average ticket prices for similar seats are not that far off, $72.25 at Jones Beach and $80, at Citi Field. Now to see the big problem with this we must venture back to the number of games in a month. There is one chance to see a band, but there are up to 15 chances to see any given team at their home ballpark in a month. Why then are concert goers offended by tickets that float anywhere over the $50 range?

This whole situation was in my head all night and I had to get some feedback on it. Please let me know what you think about this. Are concert and music fans cheap? Why are we unwilling to fork over $40 for a concert, but don't blink to attend a few baseball games a year?

The idea of passion has to come into play. People have raw emotions towards sports that are simply not there in the music world. The only thing that we can hope for in moving forward is that people stand up and support live music the way it needs to be supported. Without live music, the only remaining way for musicians to profit, the industy as a whole could begin to crumble the same way the recorded music industry has already.

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