Live events like sports games, concerts, and theater have lost their purpose. They aren’t about people coming together to celebrate the arts or fans gathering to support their team- They’re about how much money can be made. There is now more value on revenue than experience. Live events aren’t for true fans because most real fans can’t afford to attend because tickets are egregiously high. Live events are only accessible to those in higher tax brackets.
I went to my first concert the summer after I graduated high school. After that first concert I was hooked. I fell in love with live music. Since going to the initial concert I went to five more concerts in the span of a year. I have so much fun at concerts but it takes a lot of preparation and by preparation I mean planning how I’m going to pay for concert tickets,. The price of tickets for live events are insane. The average price for one ticket to a Broadway show without taxes and fees is between $100 and $150. For a concert it’s $140 and for an NFL game the average ticket costs $150, but ticket prices can be up to and over $1,000. A single ticket to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour went up to $5,000 and when Leslie Odom Jr. played Aaron Burr in Hamilton on Broadway ticket prices skyrocketed to an all time high reaching $1,500.
Although the average price of tickets doesn’t seem that crazy, those prices don’t include the ridiculous amount of taxes and fees TicketMaster charges, the cost of parking, the cost of merch, food, gas, or literal water since venues think they can charge $15 for a bottle of water. The ticket is only half of the overall cost of the ticket. Using resale sites like SeatGeek, StubHub, or Vivid Seats isn’t much cheaper either. Pit tickets for Zach Bryan were going for $500 minimum on SeatGeek when he played at MetLife Stadium. On TicketMaster those same tickets were about $200 cheaper.
At this point the only affordable tickets for live events are in the nosebleeds which ultimately are pointless because they take away from the experience of the live show. The point of going to a concert, sporting event, or play is to see it in person in real time. Nosebleeds are such crappy seats that it negates the whole purpose of seeing the event live.
Live events have always been a symbol of class and status. In the past only the rich could afford to go to the theater or the opera. The Super Bowl is always filled with celebrities regardless of if their team is playing. During the NBA season photos are released weekly of who was sitting courtside. Can’t society just celebrate the arts or be part of a fandom without having to make a certain amount? Art fuels a culture. Most museums in Washington D.C and New York are free to go to. Why can’t the performing arts follow suit? Even if tickets can’t be free, why not cap them at $50? The max capacity for MetLife Stadium is 82,500 people. If they all paid $50 to get in that would equate to over four million dollars. That doesn’t even include the revenue from parking or merch. I think that four million dollars is enough money for the venue and the artists to put on a good show. $500 for one ticket seems a bit greedy.
