Published on Nov 22, 2023 at 3:45 p.m.
Exhausted from confinement and tired from teleworking, Americans are increasingly demanding events, particularly sporting events, capable of recreating the social bonds that were weakened during the pandemic. They don’t hesitate to put their hand in their pocket to see their favorite athlete or team take off and compete on the field. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the same organization that calculates job creation and the unemployment rate in the United States every month, ticket prices for sporting events have jumped by 25, 1% between October 2022 and October 2023. A rate among the highest of the components of the consumer price index, which increased “only” by 3.2% over the same period.
“ This makes match tickets the latest victim of ‘funflation’, a term used by economists to explain rising prices for live events, as consumers yearn for the experiences they lost during the pandemic », Explains a CNBC article. This phenomenon, which finds another part of its explanation in a favorable base effect, is not limited only to sport. The hotel industry and travel are also benefiting, as evidenced by the record results of airlines this summer. The latter also inspired the “ dynamic pricing », which today favors the inflation of tickets, too few in number to satisfy growing demand.
The resale market is exploding
“ Many exciting sporting events will also take place this fall. Beyond typical major league seasons, last week’s Formula 1 race in Las Vegas and the announcement of soccer legend Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami this summer have boosted spending by passionate », notes CNBC, which echoes the almost doubling of sales of the NFL and the National Hockey League in 2023 as well as the 60% increase in those of the NBA.
For Rodney Paul of Syracuse University, cited by the American financial information site, interest in sporting events should continue even if the economy deteriorates, with a significant share of consumers being wealthy enough to afford tickets, which have become a sort of luxury item. Some have another interpretation of the surge in ticket prices: the resale market. It must be said that prices there are literally exploding.