I ran into this article, and was stunned. Not by the news that some teams are having difficulty selling tickets, but by which teams, and under which circumstances.
Yes, there are definitely some teams out there that have difficulty selling tickets. That was not news itself. There are plenty of teams in the NFL that suffer from that. Teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars, or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Other teams, perhaps, that generally are not so good, and where fans have grown tired of losing. There games, understandably, are blacked out.
But what makes this different, of course, is the timing. Because, after all, this is an article about how three of the four playoff games coming up this weekend have yet to be sold out.
Included among the teams struggling to sell out? The Green Bay Packers.
Now, the Packers are probably the most storied franchise in the league. Plus, they have fairly consistently fielded a competitive, quality team, through the course of years now. Since the early nineties, I don't think the Packers have suffered a truly horrendous season. They might not always be the best, or even rank among the elites. But generally speaking, they are a solid team that can hold their own and, from time to time, can indeed by among the true elite teams. They made it to three Super Bowls during that time period, and won two of them! Not bad, for the league's smallest market.
A reflection of that success was the consistency of sell outs they enjoyed at Lambeau Field. Just goes with the territory, I think. It's just one of those places that you hear about as always being automatically sold out, with long waiting lists and such. Every single game, for over three decades now, has been sold out, no problem.
Until now. And at playoff time, no less!
So, there is a need to look at how this happened, and then to ask an even more important question: why this happened.
And Frank Schwab, the author of this particular article (see link below), makes assumptions that I personally very much agree with: price gauging. He elaborates:
"A quick glance at Ticketmaster on Wednesday afternoon showed the face-value prices for the Packers playoff game ranged from $313 and $102, not counting Ticketmaster fees. If you've attended a NFL game, you know that the cost doesn't end with tickets. Parking is outrageously and insultingly high at most NFL games. Concessions aren't cheap either. NFL teams have gouged and gouged and gouged, and maybe there's a breaking point."
Yes, I think that's it. Ironically, he makes the point (and the point is definitely well taken), which included outrageous parking fees, while discussing the Green Bay Packers, although Lambeau Field is right in the middle of a township, and most likely, if you drive to one of the home games, you will be parking at someone's home: everyone that lives around there seems to make their property available for parking during Packer home games, in order to make a little cash. I have been to two games at Lambeau. The first time, not knowing what to expect, I got advance parking for what seemed like the reasonable price of $20 online (through Ebay). That was in August of 2009, for a preseason game against Cleveland. The next time, a regular season meeting with the Detroit Lions in 2010, I knew better, and found parking (closer, too) for about $10, if memory serves correctly.
Parking is not outrageous for some other teams, as well. The Buffalo Bills, like the Green Bay Packers, play in a residential area, where people offer their property as parking to make a little extra cash and thus, affordable, and sometimes even cheap, parking is readily available. The Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, and Cincinnati Bengals play in cities where you can find relatively cheap parking in city parking decks as well (I once paid $5 in Baltimore).
But, those are generally the exceptions, not the rule. The Patriots have outrageously expensive parking. I don't know what it is officially, but it is no cheaper than $50, from what I have seen. And when you go up there for a game, you will likely do what I did, and park somewhere on the unofficial lots. The closer you get to the stadium, the more expensive it gets. But I don't remember seeing parking for less than $40 a lot. Washington was also expensive, as were Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As for my two home teams, the Giants and the Jets, it seemed that for a couple of seasons, you could not find parking for under $45, and you absolutely had to have a parking permit. That may have been around the time that they were building that new stadium. They seem to have relaxed that quite a bit since. They now charged me $35 when I did not have a parking permit for a Jets-Raiders game earlier this season, and officially, I think the parking permits go for around that, as well. Still, parking is pretty costly. Ticket prices (which I will get to in a minute) have also gone down, because they began charging season ticket holders extra fees (personal seat license fees, or PSL's, were what they were called: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d809b1a08/article/jets-seasonticket-holders-to-pay-personal-seat-license-fee), and many people stopped paying altogether. That came at a time when the economy was very bad, and people generally were trying to cut back on expenses where they could. So, less tickets were sold. The result was cheaper and more available tickets than had been seen for years, generally speaking. I paid more for the parking at the Raiders-Jets game than I did for the individual tickets, which were around $30 a piece.
Fact of the matter is that going to an NFL game tends to be a very costly experiences, particularly if you have the not outlandish idea of taking the family for an afternoon or evening out - particularly if you are talking about a regular season (let alone playoff) game. Going to see the Giants host the Cowboys will likely cost you anywhere between $350 to $450 per ticket for the cheapest tickets. This last season, tickets for the Broncos-Giants game (Manning versus Manning) were going for no less than $450 per ticket for the cheapest tickets in the nosebleed sections.
Who can afford that?
You can't bring your own food or drinks to the game, and you have to take out a mortgage to buy such stuff at the concession stands, or to buy your son a nice little souvenir. The prices are outrageous, and you feel you are being fleeced. This is general knowledge, an "everybody knows" kind of a thing.
And perhaps people are getting tired of it, finally.
When individual tickets, even playoff tickets, begin at well over $100 apiece, it is an investment, and you should at least stop for a moment to think about it before going ahead. With the price of everything going up, and fast, you hesitate to spend your hard-earned money on an event that generally will not last longer than three hours, and which is done and over with afterward. It is not like, say, purchasing some valuable thing for a similar price, and at least then having that in your possession. All you will have at the end of it are used ticket stubs and memories. Perhaps some overpriced souvenirs if you so chose to purchase them, and maybe even heartburn, if you chose to buy some food at the concession stands.
That's it. A lot of money, for not much in return. The feeling that you are being mercilessly fleeced if you go ahead and get tickets just won't leave you.
Still, at least for now, many people go. Hell, I went to a couple of games myself in December, the first time I had done so in December in years. But it was cold and miserable -so cold and miserable, in fact, that it actually greatly detracted from the ability to simply pay attention to and enjoy the game. I saw my son at some point shivering, and just decided that we should go home. I had bought some hot chocolate, but it only went so far towards keeping us warm.
So, when you couple that with outrageous prices, it really is no wonder more people are opting to stay at home, where you generally get a better overall view of what's going on, in any case.
But what about if you really love to go to games? I do. I love going to events, generally speaking. And there have been times, admittedly, when I have spent too much, even way too much, most likely, for events. Concerts and sporting events and such. Love that feeling of a night out.
Is there a limit? At what point do you say, "You know what? That's just too expensive, and I won't be going!"
This is actually a topic that I could spend a lot of time on, because it goes far beyond football games, or even sports in general. I mean, who's willing to spend hundreds of dollars to see the Rolling Stones or Madonna or some other huge name acts? Often, even after spending a small fortune, you still have not so great tickets, and you can't help but wonder just who the hell those people are with the front row tickets, anyway?
Before I get ahead of myself, though, I will restrict this to the NFL.
Now, personally, I still go to games, but do it differently. Some people that I know do not like my approach, although I find their take on things akin to a strange form of snobbery. I will load up on preseason tickets, and generally, try to get good tickets for those games, which generally speaking, are far more affordable, as well as readily available. Again, some people don't like that idea. They aren't real games, they say. They don't count for anything, and the starters don't even play the entire game.
Maybe so. But you are at an NFL game, and you more often than not will see starters for some time. And you are close enough to appreciate the action. You can begin to really see just how huge and muscular these guys are. You can see how fast, how agile, their movements can be. And yes, I suppose you hear how hard they are playing, with the hits.
The last preseason game I went to take my son to a preseason game was up at Buffalo this past summer. I got seats somewhere between the 20 and 30 yard lines, and we were maybe five rows or so up. Excellent seats, and I got them for around $25 or so per ticket. Paid $10 parking at someone's house nearby. The whole thing was around $60 or so for an evening out with my son. That I can afford. Many other people can, too. If tickets more commonly went for around that price, more people could and would go.
Now, if you are wondering, no I do not live anywhere near Buffalo. What I did was merge this with a trip. Or rather, I made a small vacation out of the deal. nothing too huge - a couple of days or so at most. Took him to see Niagara Falls, and we spent some time in Toronto - even took him to his first baseball game, where we saw the Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals.
Preseason tickets can be found usually for quite cheap. It will not cost you anywhere near as much as regular season tickets will (let alone playoffs), and you can often see decent match-ups at a fraction of what it normally might cost you. Some people do not like it, but that is the route that I have generally taken these last few years, because it is all that I can afford. I might splurge and go to a game or two in the regular season, but more and more, that is the exception, and not the rule.
The reason is that the NFL, whether they admit this or not, is obsessed with mindless, knee jerk price gauging. The more short term profits, the better. Even if they might begin to lose their loyal fan base, and that is just what the news that those three playoff teams struggling to sell their tickets translates to.
The games are too expensive. Purchasing tickets, buying food or souvenirs, and hell, even paying for parking. Think about it: I paid $35 for the privilege of parking in a parking lot for a few hours, and not even really close, or anything. That really is outrageous!
Then, you add the stress of the traffic, and the often obnoxious behavior of fans (often drunk), and the idea that you really are being ripped off won't leave you, which itself detracts from your enjoyment of the game. You paid a lot of money, and that money is where everyone else is getting their money from. The stadium and grounds, the organizations, and the players. All making their enormous profits from you. And the league is going to lengths to make it even more glaring, rather than less.
No wonder people are turning away in droves. And the league indeed had better pay attention to what is happening, because I think more and more people are going to turn away in time.
Here is the link to the article that got me on this particular topic:
"NFL should be alarmed that three of four playoff games, including Green Bay's home game, still not sold out" by Frank Schwab of Shutdown Corner, January 1, 2014:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nfl-alarmed-three-four-playoff-games-including-green-213137570--nfl.html
And just as a side note, those three teams managed to avoid local blackouts of their games, although the overall problem of outlandish prices remains the same:
"Colts, Packers, Bengals avoid TV blackouts" by The Associated Press, January 3, 2014:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/colts-packers-avoid-tv-blackouts-180606396--nfl.html
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