Season Tickets

A friend of mine recently gave up his Patriots season tickets. The reason? Simple economics.

The Patriots were forcing him to buy the ridiculous pre-season games at the same prices as the regular season games. You can't even give away those pre-season seats never mind trying to sell them to recoup your costs. If he were to ask for the face value of the ticket - the person he was asking would think, "Hey - it's pre-season not the Super Bowl. I'm not spending a couple of hundred to see a game Tom Brady might not play more than a series in. My buddy is trying to screw me. He's a jerk." My friend was stuck between a rock and a hard cash place.

During the season there are also a couple of weeks where he could not make that week's game due family obligations or personal reasons. He could easily sell those tickets to friends but it would have to be at face value. He couldn't mark them up to recoup the money spent on those un-used pre-season tickets. If he were put the tickets on Stub Hub or some other ticket service - a friend would inevitably ask, "Why didn't you call me about the tickets? I would have bought them from you." If my friend asked the guy who said he wanted the tickets for the same price he was getting on Stub Hub - the guy would think, "My buddy is trying to screw me. He's a jerk." It was a lose-lose.

It is literally cheaper for him to go to the games he wants to see and scalp tickets than it is to own his own season tickets. The NFL and other pro sports are pricing the regular guys out of owning season tickets. It's a sad situation.