If you’re unfamiliar with my love of college football, you must be new here. Welcome! (Unless you’re an Auburn fan…in which case…you can stay, but this is an Alabama blog.)
The countdown to college football season is in full swing, and I’m already itching to get to a game. I went ahead and looked into purchasing tickets for Alabama vs. Florida State on September 2nd, and nearly fell out of my tailgating chair when I saw the price. $438.00 per seat – and that’s for the section above the nosebleeds!
I can’t figure out that price. My theories so far are that a $438.00 ticket includes oxygen tanks so you can breathe sitting up that high. Or possibly that every seat gets its own big screen TV so that you can actually see the game.
I’m not the only one to have noticed the astronomical prices. As early as last year, college football news sites were starting to pick up on the price hikes in college games. Which seems crazy to me when you look at the numbers. With the hike in prices and at-home-TV technology on the rise, stadiums are finding it more and more challenging to get butts into all of those seats. You would think that would lead to a discount, but apparently it’s quite the opposite.
When I got to researching, I found out that this isn’t exactly a new problem. Sports teams have long tried a variety of crazy promotions in order to get folks off their couches and to the stadium to fill seats. Baseball has the legendary Disco Demolition Night, where teenagers brought their disco records to be blown up on the field at the Chicago White Sox’s Comiskey Park.
To bring in fans, stadiums have given away everything from used cars to 10-cent beers to free liposuction surgeries (okay, now you’ve got my attention…). They have tried explosions, lockouts, and even a Silent Night, where umpires communicated in sign language and fans were given duct tape to stay quiet during the game. Tennis, anyone?
Unless they bring me in with something amazing, at $400 a ticket, I’ll have to settle for watching the game at home, on my couch, in climate control, with snacks and beverages on demand.
Happy Monday,
~Mary
