Why Events Are So Expensive
Supply and demand
Whether it’s the World Cup or a concert tour, all fans bemoan the same thing: live events are expensive. Sports tickets, concert tickets, or any other live show cost a lot more than they used to. This isn’t just inflation or false nostalgia for a simpler time. There has been a real shift in ticket prices. Matt Slater recently wrote in The Athletic that he paid $25 for a ticket to Game 1 of the 1988 NBA Finals. The average price for a ticket to an NBA Finals game last year was $1,147. This isn’t the most fair comparison - Slater is comparing the primary market price for a season ticket holder in 1988 to the secondary market in 2025, but the fact remains: tickets for both sporting events and concerts cost far more than they used to be.
There are a few reasons for this. First, as has been reported exhaustively, many events use Live Nation/Ticketmaster to sell their tickets. This one company has leveraged its market power to act like a monopolist and raise prices above the competitive level. Earlier this year, a jury found that Live Nation had violated federal and state antitrust laws. The courts have yet to assess a penalty. Fans around the country cheered the result. At last, evil Ticketmaster was getting its just desserts. Lost in the fine print, however, was how much the company had inflated tickets. The jury found customers were overcharged… one dollar and seventy-two cents. So as much fun as it is to blame Ticketmaster, they are not the real cause.
Online resale markets is one of the more proper villains. 50 years ago, ticket scalping had to be done in person. Often this involved risk. Stories of people selling fake tickets were common. Getting a ticket on the resale market often involved going to the stadium and handing over large amounts of cash on the street to a shady figure in a transaction not unlike a drug deal.
The lack of a well-functioning resale market hurt consumers, but it also hurt the sellers. Venues didn’t have a good handle on how much they could charge their customers. Sure, it was clear that tickets were being resold at a higher price for high-profile events, but sellers didn’t know what price they could charge for generic games or concerts. Most event spaces preferred a sold-out venue with underpriced tickets to higher prices and empty seats. Having a well-functioning secondary market changed everything. Performers could now see with total clarity how much they were undercharging. It was common for tickets to sell out immediately and then reappear online at double the price. Ticket resellers use straw buyers and bots to gobble up hundreds of tickets and make a tidy profit while the actual performers lose out.
This is not only unfair to the fans, but unfair to the people doing the work. As Bruce Springsteen once said, “Why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?” Before the internet, some artists would underprice tickets to enable all of their fans to attend their shows, regardless of money. That makes sense. A performer can sacrifice money today in pursuit of a loyal fanbase. When tickets are being resold by the thousands and middlemen are raking in the dough, it puts a performer in a tough spot. Sure, some of the cheap tickets will go to diehard fans who can’t afford to pay a lot. But most will go to the highest bidder. If that’s the case, the initial price might as well rise to meet the demand.
Demand. That’s it. That’s the real reason tickets are so expensive these days.
Consider the NFL, the most valuable sports league in the world. In 2001, 84.34 million people watched the Super Bowl. A quarter of a century later, it was 124.9 million. Football has gone from the most popular sport in America to the dominant sport in America. In 2001, a regular-season game averaged around 13 million viewers. Fast forward to 2026, and 13.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the NFL Draft. As many people now watch a guy read names off a notecard as used to watch the sport itself. At the same time, the league has barely expanded. In 2001, there were 31 teams and each played 16 regular-season games. In 2026, there were 32 teams and each played 17 regular-season games. America is a larger, wealthier, and football-crazier nation. The supply has barely budged, while the demand has exploded. Thus, prices increased.
Premium concerts are the same. There are a lot more people with a lot more money than there used to be. Experiences have surpassed things as the most common form of conspicuous consumption. But the size of stadiums hasn’t increased. Seeing Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is going to cost a lot of money. It isn’t because of greed or monopoly pricing or anything nefarious. It’s just the simple fact that millions of people are willing to pay thousands of dollars to see one person sing.
People can moan about high ticket prices all they want, but it’s like complaining about the cost of handbags or single malt Scotch. These are luxury goods, not necessities. If people are willing to spend a lot of money, then vendors will charge a lot of money. The good news is, there are still plenty of affordable opportunities available. Seeing a World Series game, yes, costs a lot of money. But seeing professional baseball in the US is still an inexpensive night out. Minor league tickets can be had for a bargain. The same goes for concerts. Seeing an A-list performer during a sold-out stadium tour is going to be expensive. But seeing an up-and-coming band at a mid-sized venue can still be quite reasonable.
To use one example, I saw an up-and-coming band at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago in 2005. They had one modest hit that reached 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and their latest album was generating buzz, but they weren’t a band most music fans would recognize. The tickets, with fees, cost $40. Looking at the Riviera’s current lineup, bands with limited recognition have similar prices today, accounting for inflation. $60-70 is enough to get in the door. Seeing a B-list band is still affordable.
Of course, sometimes fate intervenes. Sometimes the regular-season game with affordable tickets becomes an instant classic. Sometimes the no-name band with $40 tickets has a single that becomes a sleeper hit right before the show. All of a sudden it becomes the hottest ticket in town. I spent $40 on tickets to see an up-and-coming band from Las Vegas most people had never heard of, and next thing I know, I’m watching The Killers sing Mr. Brightside from the front row. The next year, front row tickets for The Killers cost hundreds. Simple supply and demand.