Sporting Event Tickets

How is it that sporting event tickets vendors are able to make the kinds of money that they do? There isn't one specific explanation for the rise of ticket-selling as huge business, but rather a confluence of several factors, most of which are economic. Some of these reasons may seem obvious, but others are decidedly less so.

One of the simplest factors behind the growth of the sporting event tickets industry is basic supply and demand. Sure, sports arenas are getting marginally bigger, but not so much so that they outstrip the rate of population growth. More people equals more people seeking tickets in a market that is limited by physical capacity. There's just no way to sell 100,000 tickets to an event at a 50,000-seat stadium.

Sports Tickets: Economic Factors at Work

A second reason that the sporting event tickets industry has seen such a boom has to do with consolidation. As ticket printing and distribution duties fall into the hands of fewer and fewer businesses, there's less competition in the business as well as more opportunity for price-manipulation. If one or two companies own the venues themselves, then those companies are best positioned to say what sells, how much of it, to whom, and through which channels. Fans who hope to see their favorite teams are then forced to play the game and pay outrageous prices.

Fans who refuse to play along often choose to work through a ticket broker or scalper. These sources will usually have a combination of average seats and amazing seats. Inventory can sometimes fluctuate as well, so checking in with a broker's website regularly is a good way to score great tickets.