Father: “Son, you are 18, and old enough to make important decisions.”
Son: “Thanks for the respect, Dad.”
Father: “Don’t mention it. So here’s my question. Do you want me to buy you a ticket to the best seat for the NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, or do you want me to pay a year’s tuition at Ohio University or Kent State? I can afford one, but not both.”
This is no stop-the-presses bulletin. But the cost of tickets to sports’ biggest games has become so outrageous the common fan who has supported his team through bad and good times can’t afford to see them cross the finish line.
Before writing this column, I looked up the cost of in-state tuition for one year at Kent State. It came back $11,923. Then I checked Ohio University. $12,840 was the answer.
Then I checked Stubhub.com for the cost of a ticket to the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 20. Full disclosure, you could get a standing room only ticket for $730. But if you want the best available seat in the FieldHouse to watch the best basketball players in the world for a couple of hours, sitting in Section 119 in the lower bowl — not midcourt but in a corner near the baseline — it would cost $12,000 per ticket. And who buys only one ticket?
And if you think paying $12,000 for one NBA All-Star Game ticket is absurd, would you want to take a guess what Super Bowl LVI tickets on Feb. 13 are going for?
The nosebleed seats in So-Fi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., up where the California smog might be so dense it would obscure the view of the field, are going for $4,439 apiece on vividseats.com. That’s the cheapest ticket. The best seats (hurry, only four left!), Section VIP 131, Row 10, cost $50,245 apiece. And if you really want to impress your buddies, you can fork over $83,741 a ticket to sit in the owner’s suite. Eighteen of those babies are still up for grabs.
The secondary ticket market is legal scalping. They can ask outlandish amounts for tickets because they know somebody will be foolish enough to spend the money.
Personally, I miss the days where some scruffy-looking guy would stand on a street corner near a stadium and tell customers walking by, “Psst. Hey, buddy. I got a couple great seats on the 30-yard line. I’ll let you have ’em for $50 bucks each. I’d go to the game myself, but the kid is at home sick and I gotta get ’em some medicine. Wha’ d’ ya say? It’s almost kickoff so I guess I could go $45 apiece. But I can’t go lower than dat.”
Prices for some tickets to the All-Star Game or Super Bowl might decrease if they aren’t sold as the start of the event draws nearer. It’s a game of chicken. Would-be customers could wait for cost to come down and then see the seats they crave get sold. But the seller could get stuck, too.
Celebrities galore will be at both events. They might be the only ones who can afford it.
