But for the pros, better check your budget
Second of two parts
Our discussion on the cost of attending sporting events continues with a look at local college games. Is it cheaper than the pros? You bet.
Relatively speaking, it costs much less to attend local college games than pro sports. We compared ticket prices for several sports in the two Division I schools in Minnesota—University of Minnesota (UMN) and University of St. Thomas (UST). These figures are for single-game tickets:
Football — $10-$38 (UST); $45.19 (UMN)
Men’s basketball — $12-$33 (UST); $19.62 (UMN)
Women’s basketball — $5-$8 (UST); $14.57 (UMN)
Men’s hockey — $10-$28 (UST); $38.06 (UMN)
Women’s hockey — $5-$8 (UST); $10 (UMN)
The above prices do not include parking costs, food and beverage and merchandise.
Gopher fans can be “notoriously frugal,” especially when it comes to certain sports, such as women’s volleyball, a very popular and successful program, wrote Pat Borzi in a December 2022 MinnPost article.
“We also know our fans are price sensitive,” former volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon told Borzi.
Uncontrollable price increments
We haven’t yet looked at women’s sports, which has historically promoted itself as fan-friendly and affordable. But with the latest surge in popularity of women’s basketball, “Prices for tickets are surging,” discovered Lindsay Gibbs, who recently looked at this in her Power Plays newsletter.
Depending on locale, WNBA ticket prices on average are much cheaper than their NBA counterparts, according to Ticketmaster. At least they were before this season.
USA Today earlier this year reported the five most expensive WNBA games this season, including two Minnesota Lynx contests ($252 and $235).
Now in its second season, PWHL games had resale ticket prices as low as $251 and as high as over $3,100 for premium seats.
Gibbs continued, “Some price increments are uncontrollable. But is it possible for women’s sports to flourish without the greed that has overtaken men’s sports?”
Unfortunately, I remember being able to go to a Major League Baseball game or an NBA contest with $10 dollars in my pocket and bring back change. That was when games were really affordable, more affordable and less noisy and carnival-like as they sadly are today.
Some may argue that it is cheaper to stay home and watch games on television. But unless you get free cable, the prices to watch are getting more and more out of hand. And don’t mention streaming, which is convenient but costly as you go.
In the final analysis, unless the sporting event, whether college, pro or whatever, is free, watching a sporting event in person involves a significant cost. Especially if you don’t want to go alone. You must decide what is affordable for your pocketbook and budget.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.