Are concert and sports tickets the same price in every city?
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Pack you bags! Better seats and cheaper tickets are available in other cities!
It doesn’t occur to most fans that ticket prices and availability may be different by city. We just assume that big name concerts sell out everywhere. And we assume that face values on tickets are about the same in every professional sporting event.
Truth is – there are often huge disparities.
In sports tickets there are two main factors to consider:
First, let’s explore face value. The face value for sports tickets varies by team, city, venue, etc. Tickets in the upper level for NFL team range from $10 per seat to $90 per seat. If you live in a city that has $100 seats as the cheapest face value, you are looking at $600 for a family for 6. And that’s if you can get them at face value!
Consider the fact that many sports team are located within driving distance of each other. Some are as little as 4 hours apart, with even more within 8 hours. For a large family or group of friends, it may be considerably cheaper to drive to an away game to see their favorite team play.
The second factor is demand. Ticket Brokers buy tickets in advance. More times than you may think, the Brokers are wrong. Which means demand is less than supply, and ticket values begin to slip. A great example would be this year’s Atlanta Falcons. Season ticket holders and Brokers bought out the stadium early in the year before the news of Michael Vick was widespread. Because he is not playing, the team is struggling, and fans are not going to games. Tickets for most Falcons games often sell for 25% of face value – and 1000’s of tickets go unsold!
If your team is playing in Atlanta you may be able to get the tickets, plus plane tickets, plus a hotel for the price of tickets for your team at home.
Green Bay Packers fans have been doing this for decades. Since their home stadium has been sold out for generations, and no one on the waiting list has been able to get seats for over 40 years – fans travel. They look at the Packers away schedule the day it is published, and research what cities are cheapest to buy tickets and easiest to travel to and from. It is not uncommon to see more Packers fans at a game, then the home team!
The best advice on sports teams is to check the schedules when they come out and see where your team is playing on the road. In fact, some sports have the high level schedule out years in advance (for example, NFL schedules are available years in advance – these dates are not set, but you can see who your team is playing at home and on the road.)
In concerts, the same two factors are at play, but in a slightly different way:
Face values do vary by venue, but not as much as with sports teams. Sometimes the higher prices are a result of the artist trying to make more on a venue based on the venue being in a larger, more affluent city. Other times the price is driven up by fees that the city and venue tack on to face values.
Demand is really where the opportunity presents itself on concerts. Concerts do not always sell out in every city. Other times, they sell out, but at a slower pace.
There are 4 main reasons a concert does not sell out in a particular city:
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The venue is too large
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The artist does not have the same appeal to the demographic of that city
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The artist booked too many shows in that city (or added a show later)
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The artist has begun their tour, and word has spread that the show is not very good / worth the money
Secondary prices often vary greatly between cities – so don’t assume a concert ticket sold by a Broker will cost the same in
