This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Baseball, Hot Dogs And Income Inequality
From Nick Colas of Convergex
Income inequality can be a pretty theoretical construct, but today we’ll bring the topic “Home” with a look at how it affects the price of a baseball ticket in America. The United States already has the highest level of income inequality of any advanced country (according to the CIA’s World Factbook), but particular cities within the country display a considerably higher level than the national average. And among cities with Major League Baseball teams, the inequality that exists regarding ticket prices directly correlates with the level of inequality in those urban areas. New York City, for example, is the most unequal in the nation, and so is Yankee Stadium. The most expensive seats this season cost almost 59 times more than the “bleacher seats,” while the spread for tickets to a Minnesota Twins game is just 5.4 times. Minneapolis/St. Paul, coincidentally, is among the least unequal metro areas in the U.S. But before you storm the baseball barricades, consider that the lowest priced tickets in highly unequal cities is $17, only $3 more than the more equal ones. The inequality actually comes in the form of higher prices for the good seats - $206 in the more egalitarian areas and $501 in the cities with more inequality. Score it as “Real Fans: 1, Oligarchs 0”.
We all know that income inequality exists in America, but today we’ll show that it has permeated the nation’s pastime as well. Yes, income inequality exists in Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums around the country, and while low-end tickets are still affordable, the high end gets crazy as every stadium tries to work out how to capture the excess economic “Rents” at the upper echelons of the socioeconomic spectrum. Additionally, inequality in baseball stadiums is correlated to the respective city’s relative level of inequality versus its peers. Before we detail our findings, below is an overview of inequality in America, with particular focus on metropolitan areas containing more than a million residents.
- The Gini index for the United States as a whole is 0.467. Gini coefficients are a measure of statistical dispersion intended to capture the income distribution of a nation’s residents and range in value from 0 (representing perfect equality) and 1 (perfect inequality). For the sake of comparison, Denmark typically has among the lowest Gini index in the world – its coefficient recorded 0.247 most recently – as do Japan (0.249) and Sweden (0.250). At the other end of the spectrum stand countries such as Namibia (0.639), South Africa (0.631) and Haiti (0.592). The CIA Factbook has a complete listing of every country’s index, and we’ve included a link at the end of this note to the site.
- Within the United States, the Gini coefficient for specific metropolitan areas differs substantially. For example, the Bridgeport/Stamford/Norwalk, CT metro area has a Gini coefficient of 0.537 – the highest in the U.S. and on par with that of Thailand (0.536). On the other hand, Ogden/Clearfield, UT has the lowest in the U.S. at 0.389, and in fact only four other domestic metropolitan areas have inequality levels below 0.400 – Fairbanks, AK (0.399); Monroe, MI (0.398); Appleton, WI (0.395); and Sheboygan, WI (0.393).
- Among metropolitan areas containing more than one million residents, New York City has the highest level of inequality, with a Gini coefficient of 0.502. Miami (0.493), Los Angeles (0.484), Houston (0.478) and Memphis (0.478) round out the top five, while San Francisco comes in at number seven overall with a coefficient of 0.473. We note San Francisco, as it is one of the top five unequal cities that is host to a MLB team (more on this shortly). The bottom three large metro areas in terms in inequality include Salt Lake City (0.417), Virginia Beach (0.421) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (0.430). In addition to Minneapolis/St. Paul, the remainder of the bottom five that are host to a MLB team include: Kansas City (0.433), the District of Columbia (0.433), Seattle (0.440) and Baltimore (0.445).
And now, on to baseball. We began by scoping out the most and least expensive tickets currently available for sale for ten MLB teams across the country – those within the top five most unequal large metro areas in the country and those within the top five most equal cities. To be as similar as possible across schedules, we chose a home game on a Saturday early in May. Our findings are as follows and in the table accompanying the text.
- Among the top five most unequal areas, tickets to a New York Yankees game range from $17 to $1,000 while home seats to see the L.A. Dodgers range anywhere from $25 to $1,000. The Houston Astros ticket spread is the narrowest in this group – from $25 to just $70 for the best available seats. Rounding out the group, the price range for the Miami Marlins is $15 to $245, and tickets to see the San Francisco Giants run the gamut from $19 to $190.
- Notably, there is a relative wide spread between the most and least expensive “cheap” seat in this category – it costs 2.5 times as much for a low-end Dodgers seat than for a similar Astros seat. Meanwhile, the average “cheap” seat is $17 compared with $501 for the average highest-end ticket, translating to an average multiple of 26.4 (i.e. the typical expensive seat costs more than 26 times more than the typical cheap seat).
- Among the top five most equal large cities, the Washington Nationals ($15 to $350) and the Seattle Mariners ($12 to $440) have the largest spreads. Completing the category are the Minnesota Twins ($18 to $98), Baltimore Orioles ($10 to $56) and Kansa City Royals ($13 to $84). The average cheap seat for the group is $14, versus $206 for the average high-end ticket, translating to an average multiple of 15.5.
The concept of inequality on America seems to hit closer to home when it is apparent in the nation’s greatest pastime. Indeed, the most expensive tickets to a MLB game in the most equal cities in the U.S. cost 15.5 times more than the cheapest seats to the same game. Among the most unequal cities in the country, the spread is significantly larger at 26.4 times. Going to a baseball game is uniquely American, and the good news is that the low-end tickets are still affordable. Prices for high-end seats, however, are skyrocketing as franchises build new stadiums with state-of-the-art amenities when and where they know they can charge exorbitant rates – and this is most evident in cities where inequality is higher than the national average.
On the plus side, baseball itself is still a home run since it’s affordable for its core constituent – middle class American families – as it is the roughly same price as other forms of entertainment, such as a trip to the movie theater. And it’s even cheaper than most live entertainment (undesirable lawn seats for major concerts cost a minimum $50 these days). However, MLB’s businessmen clearly have their eyes on the wallets of the 1%. They pay more – often much more – in cities where they are abundant, particularly where a team has the opportunity to take advantage of a newer, more glamorous stadium. While these new stadiums allow MLB franchises to charge more for not only tickets but beer, food, t-shirts, etc., so far they’ve managed to refrain from pricing out the middle class constituent that has faithfully supported America’s pastime for decades. Let’s hope it never comes to that.
Sources:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/10/high-inequalit...
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003921-inequality-largest-us-metropo...
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-16.pdf
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/21...
»
- 10628 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Let's Go Rams!!!
Lets go Devils!!!
Tiger tickets use to be $4, $3, $2, and $1. About 1971.
Major League baseball has become a Disney-esque event. "Catching a ball game" is all but gone.
Baseball makes all their money on TV rights. They keep the tickets relatively low so they won't be embarrased by empty seats on the TV broadcasts.
Today you can't even get your money back on a rain out game.
those idiots have to pay for that pillow lipped douchebag arod. lol nice deal yankees.
Where all the cities are above average.
No one watches baseball anymore. Anyway, standing ovation for Bernanke. All hail central planning.
Emphasis mine
“The financial markets and the federal government, in an unintentional way, were very good to states in 2013,” Boyd said. “States benefited from a surge in income-tax collections that had very little to do with the overall economy.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-08/u-s-state-government-tax-revenu...
"No one goes to that restaurant anymore, it's too crowded."
---American philosopher Yogi Berra
Bronx cheer!
Tribe cheer!
Was looking at Tribe tickets at THE JAKE (fuck insurance companies) yesterday. About $85 for anything really decent. Guess I'll pay it. Have a good feeling about Cleveland this year - Detroit better look out.
Demand and supply. I don't see a problem here.
Who the fuck would pay $1000 to see a baseball game?
Sports...
::: rolls eyes :::
Someone who has figured out how to write it off as a business expense.
Even businesses, not just individuals, are buying these tickets with credit cards. Easy credit is driving all pricing. Take away credit, or force people to pay it back, and the whole price structure collapses, essentially overnight. This applies to real estate, as well.
It is a troubling question and the answer is, clearly, global warming.
A Tesla owner.
The only sports I watch is to cheer on young members of the extended family. The kids actually get all excited over the games. They have fun and get some exercise, so what the heck.
Other than that, spectator sports are nothing more than the circus part of 'bread & circuses' and I don't bother.
(One confession - I did break down and listen on the radio to the Seahawks in the SuperBowl - being from Seattle. But with their anti 2nd Amendment propaganda, the NFL can kiss my behind.)
Real American Oligarchs don't buy seats. That's plain stupid. They buy the teams and then get the taxpayers to build the stadiums. Lets be realistic.
1993 and 1994. Only 20 years ago. I had 4 Season Field box seats 10 rows behind home plate for $18 per ticket. 18 x 4 = $72 @ game x 81 games was a beautiful thing. I NEVER threw a game away and for a weekend game would sell for $40 @ ticket. And people would thank me ...... Now ..... forget it, I won't even bother starting listing what's criminal.
I use to have a friend who worked at the old Chicago Stadium. Back in the day 87-88 and 88-89 season would get me NBA playoff tickets for $35 a piece ($20) face. These were upper balcony on the turn, but were always 1st row. One might think upper balcony, big deal? Well the old Chicago stadium was small in comparison to the new arena. The face price of $20 for Eastern conference semis and the Eastern conference finals though what was truly amazing. 25 years later those same tickets go for $175 face and you'll be 80 fest further from the court. As with every sport the FEDs printing of $$ has priced the average Joe out of the arena. I can remember the last Bulls game I went to a few years back. You could hear a pin drop because nobody was there to watch the game, they were there to be seen and who real cares about Bulls vs Wizards in December?
We would save our preseason tickets, and then add them to the stack of tickets of the dudes goin in during the regular season, odd man out got the crooked seat once and awhile.
Used to go see some Yankee games back in those days, now those same seats are probably $200? They can go fuck themselves...
Still affordable for the middle class, until you order a beer and a couple of dogs, in which case you need another line of credit on your house.
Don't forget gas, tolls and parking !!
Not anymore...
The GSE's will now offer you MBS* financing to purchase that hotdog..
[*Mustard-Backed Securities]
One day when I give a 1/5 fuck about baseball, I will read this. Till then, fuck it.
Baseball tickets are a choice - choose what you want and pay the price, or not. It's not YET mandated by the Cuntmander In Chief that we buy baseball tickets, but when it is, all prices will triple.
Stupid article. Family of 4 goes to say a White Sox game can sit in the upper deck corner (nose bleed and steep) for $7 per ticket, sounds great right? Now to get there they drive 40 miles round trip, $8 for gas. When they get there they pay $20 to park. Get into stadium buy 4 Dog, 2 pops and say 4 Beers cost $62 dollars. Add it all up $118 to go see 1 of 81 games against the Houston Astros. Another thing tickets cost different amounts in most stadiums depending on the team that the home team is playing. White Sox vs Yankees cost more than White Sox vs Astros. Monday night less expensive than Friday night, so you get the idea. Now just imagine you pay $30 for a decent seat and all of a sudden the middle class family is spending $250 to go see 1 of 81 home games. So WTF is Nick talking about? Middle class people used to buy SEASON TICKETS!! Not so much anymore.
Middle class people used to buy SEASON TICKETS!!
Middle class? Does that still exist?
Don't forget the calculate the risk of getting filled full of led traversing the south side of chicago on the way to said game ;)
The football games now restrict what you can bring into them. Forget that! I'll watch it from my HDTV and skip the several hundreds in expenses. They can keep it.
The Red Sox have the most expensive average ticket in MLB; I'll watch from home, k, thx
Minnesota? They left parking costs out of the equation. Not only that, you have to drive 496,000 miles to get to the stadium that we all paid for only to get TSA type scans. I will pass. Fuck 'em.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/252247411.html
I have still never been to the new stadium. I thought maybe minor league stuff would be better. I was wrong and I documented it here.
http://www.boatingaccidentnews.com/take-me-out-of-this-ball-game/
I played the game for 20 years all the way to NCAA. I am done with it now. I will play with my kids in the yard or at the park but this is bullshit. It is nothing but huge steaming pile of shit.
The Twins security were definitely trained by the TSA but were not qualified to work for the NSA...the absolute dumbest of the dumb...you want to smoke at a game you can on your way out of the stadium...you can't re-enter...it took 7 layers of mgt to let me back in the stadium after I left having gone out the wrong door to find there was no sidewalk access...with my 5 year old...you want me to walk on the streets. MN is the state that invented the seatbelt, once had a ban on margarine and once licensed every bicycle and had bike cops that handed out tickets to kids. Don't forget your helmet!!!
Don't you know you're supposed to take the choo-choo train that you also paid for?
The Twins security were definitely trained by the TSA but were not qualified to work for the NSA...the absolute dumbest of the dumb...you want to smoke at a game you can on your way out of the stadium...you can't re-enter...it took 7 layers of mgt to let me back in the stadium after I left having gone out the wrong door to find there was no sidewalk access...with my 5 year old...you want me to walk on the streets. MN is the state that invented the seatbelt, once had a ban on margarine and once licensed every bicycle and had bike cops that handed out tickets to kids. Don't forget your helmet!!!
You have a good point. I was just at Marlene's House of Helmets the other day. I rode one of the billion dollar trains to get there. But I ended up having to walk anyway because the LRT smashed into a car. Twice.
Minnesota.. I am with ya. That's a bummer about yor experience in St. Cloud. That used to be a decent town back in the day, and party central I might add.
It's not bad here and we like it here even if it is a little backwards in some ways. At least you can reason with many of the people here. We lived in Brooklyn Park for five years and I swear I saw shit go on there that no one would believe if I even tried to explain it. What a shithole that place was. At only 120,000 residents in the area, St Cloud is a little inbred though. I swear that everyone is related to everyone else around here unless they are Somalian or Indian. Then you get into that and you find it was all done via Catholic Charities and now they don't like the Somalians and the Somalians don't like them. Leave me out of that one.
The partying still continues because of all the univesities and colleges here. That probably will not change. Plenty of good looking young women to look at here not that I need another one of those problems. Not bad to look at though.
The north metro in the twin cities, Brooklyn Park ect. is just a extension of N Mpls. I pass through St. Cloud on occasion, spent a lot of time in that general area when I was younger. I'd bet it is still a decent place to live and bring up a family. Lots of open space and fresh air.
Nobody seems to get finance anymore. "The people" haven't been able to pay for shit, much less a stadium, for many years. It's all done with bonds. Now, if anyone intended to repay the principal, then maybe taxpayers would be on the hook. But not only will the bond principal simply be rolled over into more bonds, but the interest will also be paid by more bond issuance. The whole thing was sold by Wall Street. And when the whole thing collapses, the people will be asked to pay, yes, but they will be even less able, at that point, to do so. They are also surviving by borrowing. Therefore, a massive default event has to happen, which is where all the real effort is being expended, i.e., delay.
Later in the season, and depending on the standings, you can get MUCH better prices on Dodger tickets. OTOH if you have to buy them from scalpers or Stubhub the average prices are going to be a lot higher.
Let's see if the new management has streamlined the concession stands so on Dollar Dodger Dog day you can actually get your discount dogs in less then three innings standing in line.
Dodgers have lead the league in attendance most of the past couple of decades, I think, and yet the traffic in and out of the stadium has gotten much worse over the past five years and I no longer care to go, even with free tickets, if it's any kind of a giveaway or sellout night. Showing how right Yogi Berra was: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
At current rates at debt creation it won't be long before everyone is sharing ZERO ..........................equally!
Oligarchs don't pay for tickets, they are provided to them buy ass lickers attempting to win favor.
Is it 'equality' when lazy fks demand the govt steal 30-50% of everything i earn so they can watch american idol and eat bon bons?
Hear Hear!
When I used to go to the games I never ended watching it anyways. A group of us would get together. It's like watching paint dry. Boring most of the time.
The kids get bored as well, so I take them to the minor leagues where the owners break up the monotony with games and gifts.
Even the little kid's games seem more interesting than the majors anymore.
Boycott Everything!!! - Don't feed the beast.
Boring shit for people with NO LIFE.
Yankees SUCK!
"L.A. Dodgers range anywhere from $25"
Back in the mid 1980's it was $5 or $6 to sit in the nose bleed section. It also costs $15 for parking now.
Obama to invite Putin to a baseball game and enjoy a Dodger Dog together.
"it costs 2.5 times as much for a low-end Dodgers seat than for a similar Astros seat."
The players are getting huge contracts, due to the broadcasting of games. It seems to me that the ball park fans should be getting a break on the ticket price.
The money pouring in to New York Upscale Real Estate is mind blowing. Like London, big foreign money is madly pouring into NY RE. So is all that printed QE money that flows to Wall-Street. In that sense London and New York as the financial centers are both subject to the giant money printing exercise, all of which flows to the 1%.
We longer pay our hard earned money to support these millionaire players and billionaire owners. In fact, we no longer watch this people's opiate for 'free.' Starve the beast with a minor sacrafice.
Who gives a tiny mouse dropping about baseball? It just bread and circuses. Wake up murika.
At least in Rome the circuses were free.
I suspect TPTB are making a major mistake in being so greedy. When you're charging big$$$ to keep people's attention diverted from reality, they may not be able to afford it and may actually start NOTICING what's going on.
watched a nascar race long enough to see the grandstand attendance last weekend. looks like the seats are way too expensive. the seats were empty.
towns lucky enough to have a minor league team can watch some decent ball with a beer for cheap.
NASCAR just can't fill seats for 36 races and they all expanded their seating capacity. I went to Vegas race for ten years in a row and saw them go from like 100k capacity to 140k, saw them fill up and watched them go empty again.
It's because the Rent is too Damn High!
Just to make you feel worse; in 1964 I saw the St. Louis Cardinals play the New York Yankees in the World Series at Busch Stadium. Who was on the field? Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and for the Cardinals; Red Schoendisch, Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver and Ken Boyer. Oh, and the price, $1 to sit in the bleachers, which during the regular season were free on a first come first serve basis and was the same policy for World Series games, except for the World Series, you had to pay one dollar.
So this is where the QE money is going. Inflation because Yellin and Bernanke wanted it that way.
What's that Mayor fuck's name in NYC. DiBlasi? or was that the name of my third grade music teacher?
Anyway, let that Communist work on the Yankees ticket price inequality for a while.
As for Yankee tickets, neither the bleachers, grandstands or $1,000 seats sell out. People find themselves looking for the best bang for their buck and figure what they like or don't or what they'll put up with or spend more for.
Overall, the article doesn't make sense as too many options come into play such as some seats get parking, food, access to clubs, etc.
equal is GOOD if youre a fucking COMMIE.................