The cost of professional sports fandom has surprised me before, but now I've gotten a taste of it first-hand. Last year I had the chance to go to three regular-season Bucs games at Ray Jay stadium, and one playoff game. Had a great time, and was thinking that this year I'd buy into 8 regular season games. They're really good seats: first tier, corner slot opposite the pirate ship (for those familiar w/the stadium).
A few weeks ago we heard that ticket prices would be going up, and we were anticipating a $5-$10 hike per ticket, per game. But instead, we were shocked to learn that our tickets went up almost $25, or 33%!!! Fucking bloody hell....our seats went from $75 to $99 each, per game!!! Now, the NFL has a pretty solid salary cap, unlike baseball. Each team can spend about $116MM per year on player salaries. So it's not like the Bucs can spend $200MM + (like the MLB Yankees or Red Sox), and justify raising ticket prices as they bring in more upper-echelon high-priced players to buy or build a winning team. And the Bucs haven't made any improvements to the stadium or amenities to justify a price hike either. So how the hell can the Bucs organization justify raising ticket prices 33%? From corner to corner on both sides of the stadium, seats in the first tier will cost the same. So our corner endzone seats will cost the same as seats on the 50 yard line.
I love our seats, I love going to Buc's games, and they have a great schedule the next two years, but fuck's sake!!! And this is $99 to get in the door, not to mention $25 to park, $4.50 for a bottle of water, $8 for a beer, etc. It's no wonder the average American family of four cannot afford to go to a professional sports event anymore.
And my bet is that in about 5 years the Bucs will start making noise about the need for a new stadium. But do you think the Glazer family & the Bucs organization will pay for the stadium, or do you think they'll lean on the city of Tampa & Hillsborough county for funding? Will they take the extra money from ticket prices to pay for the stadium? Fuck no. So, as tax payers pretty much everyone foots the bill for the 'privilege' of having a local professional sports franchise. And the ticketholders pay the extra taxes, and fork over from $600-$1000 per seat, per year for one seat. And that's conservative, not knowing what club seats or luxury boxes run...
The greed in professional sports really hit home w/me, and registered in a very real way this month. I might've been able to swing the season next year at this year's prices (or w/a modest increase), but I just got priced outta the game. And it sucks, but that's life. So I'm more thankful than ever that I got my HDTV this year, cuz I'll be watching more games on it come this Fall in place of the 8 planned trips to Tampa to watch the Bucs in person. As much as I love the NFL & MLB, the gross profits the teams make really makes me sick; I taste vomit in the back of my throat as I type. What used to be accessible to the common man has now become a privilege for the wealthy almost solely. And that stinks.
Per usual the Disclaimer applies; if you have problems w/what I've said here take it up w/me & me alone.
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