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Pro sports attendance is way down

Many solid points. I beleive pricing has reached a tipping point to buy full season tickets. Often the season ticket holders will use their network to sell individual games they will not attend (or simply give away). Now that season tickets are becoming too expensive for most, those secondary users are removed and will not use the secondary market.

Ticketmaster is a problem. When they take a cut from both the seller and buyer, it makes prices less appealing.

another important point. Used to get tickets to PSU games through the years from friends and friends of friends and never paid much more than $25-$50. Was pretty common on gameday to find tickets being sold for $10 or $20 for people just holding them up and wanting something for them. Basically the face value of the ticket, many times penny on the dollar for 'bad' games. Now with the seat licenses and ticketmaster nearly impossible to find tickets 'cheap' like you used to.
 
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In the 1980s we lived in the burbs of KC. I got free tickets to the Chiefs and Royals. At a Chiefs game, drunken fans behind us kept using the F word and spilling beer on us and our 3 daughters. When we complained to an usher, he asked us if we wanted to change our seats. We never went back. Some NFL franchises still cater to drunken thugs.. At the Royals, the drunks would have been thrown out.
The best pIayer in the NBA said last year that he "hates white people," a quote. People watch sports to be entertained, not coaxed into a fit of hatred.
In a baroque sort of way, I’m glad we in Phila. are not the only crude crowd.
Last time I went to an Eagles game ( sitting in the 100 level closest to the field), all I heard was foul language and crude behavior. I turned to this one …. and asked him to stop using that language; he said to me “ why does it bother you.” I said yes it does.
Two things about our crude crowds: for Eagles games there is a family section for those who, like me, find the crowd obnoxious, and for years, the Eagles games had a Court of Common Pleas in the stadium to deal with the thugs.

Will also say that my daughter stopped going to PSU football games because, among other things, she was disgusted at all the thrown soda cups in the student section. That was 20 years ago; I have no idea what it’s like now.
 
This is an interesting thread and while I agree team spectator sports have issues which could hurt them in the long run for now they are doing fine. It’s been noted the price of tickets have risen to the point where many people especially families have been priced out of attending games. The cost of tickets, concessions, etc. for the past twenty or thirty years is way above the rate of inflation. So while attendance may down I don’t see ticket prices falling. If that happens we may have something to talk about but I don’t see it happening in the near future.
 
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Many solid points. I beleive pricing has reached a tipping point to buy full season tickets. Often the season ticket holders will use their network to sell individual games they will not attend (or simply give away). Now that season tickets are becoming too expensive for most, those secondary users are removed and will not use the secondary market.

Ticketmaster is a problem. When they take a cut from both the seller and buyer, it makes prices less appealing.
And that one of the big reasons why they've promoted mobile ticketing--so they could control the market and monetize the secondary market in their favor. It's not to protect you from scalpers. It's to protect their ticket model from scalpers.
 
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Can't you just print them out on a printer? I have done that plenty of times.
That's now banned. Supposedly too many people were printing out multiple copies and reselling them. Supposedly. See my comments above. Mind you, I'm sure someone did that, but...

You also can't use a screen shot in many apps as they have a dynamic system that recreates a new bar code every so many minutes.
 
Is it ever the only option though? It's almost universally the preferred option now, but I've never heard of anyone not making some sort of workaround process available for those that either can't or won't use digital tickets.
The work around is a pain in the neck--and often discouraged.
 
Can't you just print them out on a printer? I have done that plenty of times.
No, not for the more secured ones. Digital tickets used to simply be an email or a website with a barcode which you could print out if you preferred. The problem there is scammers could print dozens of tickets with the same barcode and sell them all to unsuspecting victims, and only the first person to scan it at the gates would actually be allowed in. Now they are using tickets with dynamic barcodes that change every few seconds, which can't be printed or used as a screen shot. To sell them you have to transfer the ownership via the ticketing apps. The security is better but a major drawback is most of the ticket brokers charge fees on both the initial sale, and every resale afterwards. They are making bank on fees with this model. I do like how SeatGeek handles my MLS tickets though, they only charge fees if you found the buyer through the online marketplace that they provide. If I find my own buyer I can request payment and transfer tickets directly to the person I specify without any fees.
 
The biggest farce this year is everyone thinking that mobile ticketing is their only option. Just walk around Saturday and every scalper that you will see will be holding up paper old fashioned tickets. Fans think that they have to use mobile but clearly there are plenty of hard tickets to be had.
 
If more fans understood how many actual hard tickets are around maybe they would not use the mobile system as a reason not to come to games. As you get older it is easier to just watch the game on tv at home rather than put up with all the hassles
 
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I watched some of that Dolphins Ravens game in Miami last night. I'll bet that the stadium wasn't half full. The expensive seats looked to be in the 20% full range.
 
I watched some of that Dolphins Ravens game in Miami last night. I'll bet that the stadium wasn't half full. The expensive seats looked to be in the 20% full range.
I laughed out loud when I heard the sideline reporter say that Harbaugh told her they were having trouble with the crowd noise. Must run in the family. Behind her you could see the empty seats.
 
Finally, I have collected every ticket stub of every event I ever attended dating back to being 6 years old in the mid-80s. It sounds silly, but I really want that stub to continue the collection.
I think you'll see teams move to NFTs for ticket holders of games. Like a digital memory of the event. The NFT could include videos of pregame, game highlights, interviews, stats, etc... Each ticket holder will receive it and you could trade it like a ticket stub or game program. You can save these in a digital wallet and relive the games you've attended. You'll be able to query your wallet to see rosters, stats, records, etc.. Just a matter of time in my opinion - and I'm all for it.
 
For many the issue is also that sporting events, both college and pro, have turned into "Drunk Olympics" where it seems the number of people who get blotto before the game (And during where that is possible) and then proceeded to, fall over people, spill food on people, get ill on people, pick and participate in fights with other people as been steadily increasing over the past 10 or so years.

I can stay home, with my TV where it looks like I am on the 50 about 15 rows back, where its weather controlled, and there are no drunks/racists/general jackwaggons around me. I also only have to devote the time that the game takes. Not the 4-5 hours it takes from "get in line to park" to "On the road home" that any football or baseball game seems to take these days, its a little better for hockey but damn NHL games are pricey AF.
 
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