The Grapevine: Cry Me a River!

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GRAPEVINE - The Grapevine: Cry Me a River!

Soaring ticket prices to wine and cheese crowds to Dilfer to Billick's contract

Posted On: 2/3/07

Written By:

Tony Lombardi

The Ravens are raising ticket prices across the board by roughly 20-25% and they are justifying the move in part by reminding us all that they spent $25 million over the salary cap to sign Steve McNair, Trevor Pryce, Derrick Mason and Samari Rolle along with Ed Reed, Bart Scott and Todd Heap.

Well boo freaking hoo!

The Ravens are also quick to point out that they were ranked 18th last season in average ticket price and the price hike to an average of $82.14 per ticket for '07 will likely put them in the top 10 when all is said and done.

I wonder how many in the top ten have hit their fans with permanent seat licenses just for the privilege of paying for season tickets.

Let’s put this all in perspective.

You run a business and in order for your customers to come in and pay for your product they first have to pay for an expensive membership fee. Then you go and hire a few new employees to improve your customer service and better your product. But to offset the added expense for the new and improved staff, you hike your prices 25%.

That might put a normal business in peril, right?

Not in the NFL.

The Team Marketing Report offers a comprehensive look at the Fan Cost Index ("FCI") for the four major sports. TMR's exclusive Fan Cost Index survey tracks the cost of attendance for a family of four. The FCI includes: four average-price tickets; four small soft drinks; two small beers; four hot dogs; two game programs; parking; and two adult-size caps.

The most recently completed study as it relates to the NFL is that for the 2005 season. Of the 32 teams, the Ravens ranked 9th in ’05. Ten teams finished with worse records than the Ravens, twenty-one had the same or better records.

Does this mean we might get a rebate for ’05 after that beautiful 6-10 season?

Doesn’t that interest free bridge loan for all those unused and paid for AFC Championship Game tickets count for something?

Here’s the Fan Cost Index for the entire league in ’05.

TEAM	Avg. Ticket	% Change	Prem. Avg. Ticket	Ticket Rank	Beer	(oz.)	Soda	(oz.)	Hot Dog	Parking	Program	Cap	FCI	% Change
NEW ENGLAND	$90.89	20.66%	$566.67	1	$5.50	16	$3.50	22	$3.50	$35.00	$5.00	$14.95	$477.47	14.99%
WASHINGTON	$67.53	-0.91%	$170.23	6	$7.00	20	$5.00	22	$5.00	$25.00	$5.00	$14.95	$389.01	1.70%
NY GIANTS	$71.59	7.39%	$118.51	2	$6.25	16	$3.50	20	$3.75	$15.00	$5.00	$17.99	$388.85	5.34%
NY JETS	$71.32	7.42%	$306.08	3	$6.25	16	$3.50	20	$3.75	$15.00	$5.00	$17.99	$387.74	5.35%
CHICAGO	$68.89	5.08%	$284.75	4	$5.25	16	$3.50	20	$3.50	$20.00	$5.00	$19.99	$384.04	3.74%
TAMPA BAY	$63.59	7.08%	$242.43	12	$4.25	12	$3.75	12	$3.75	$25.00	$5.00	$18.00	$363.85	5.92%
MINNESOTA	$67.94	10.23%	n/a	5	$4.00	16	$2.50	16	$3.00	$10.00	$5.00	$19.99	$361.72	7.17%
KANSAS CITY	$66.49	0.00%	$80.00	7	$3.75	14	$2.25	14	$3.50	$18.00	$5.00	$18.00	$360.46	0.00%
BALTIMORE	$62.01	16.93%	$203.58	13	$7.00	24	$5.00	32	$4.00	$25.00	n/a	$14.00	$351.04	11.4%
PHILADELPHIA	$66.09	6.75%	$199.89	9	$5.50	24	$3.00	21	$4.00	$10.00	$5.00	$13.00	$349.35	3.16%
DENVER	$63.94	4.51%	$235.61	11	$5.00	16	$3.00	14	$4.25	$20.00	$5.00	$12.00	$348.76	2.06%
SAN FRANCISCO	$64.00	0.0%	$0.00	10	$5.00	14	$2.00	12	$3.50	$25.00	$5.00	$12.00	$347.00	-8.80%
DALLAS	$66.20	24.76.%	$226.13	8	$5.00	16	$3.50	32	$3.50	$12.00	$5.00	$10.00	$344.78	17.98%
HOUSTON	$56.73	5.48%	$237.32	19	$6.00	21	$3.25	21	$5.00	$15.00	$5.00	$20.00	$336.90	5.17%
ST LOUIS	$60.92	5.29%	$154.11	14	$7.00	24	$3.00	14	$3.00	$15.00	$5.00	$15.00	$336.68	0.71%
OAKLAND	$58.89	0.0%	$109.05	17	$4.50	14	$2.50	14	$3.00	$15.00	$7.00	$17.99	$331.53	0.0%
INDIANAPOLIS	$60.06	10.51%	$164.00	15	$6.00	24	$4.00	32	$3.00	$10.00	$5.00	$14.95	$330.15	7.43%
LEAGUE AVERAGE	$58.95	7.88%	$176.26	-	$5.52	17.5	$3.22	19.6	$3.53	$16.31	$4.53	$15.30	$329.82	5.64%
PITTSBURGH	$59.19	8.50%	$174.50	16	$4.00	16	$2.75	16	$2.25	$20.00	$4.00	$14.95	$322.65	6.10%
DETROIT	$56.90	0.48%	$201.68	18	$4.50	16	$2.75	16	$3.50	$10.00	$5.00	$18.00	$317.62	0.35%
GREEN BAY	$56.13	3.17%	$208.09	20	$5.00	15	$3.25	20	$3.258	$25.00	$6.00	$9.95	$317.40	0.12%
CINCINNATI	$55.72	6.89%	$158.24	21	$6.25	16	$3.50	22	$3.00	$16.00	$5.00	$15.00	$317.39	14.57%
SAN DIEGO	$54.82	17.08%	$156.49	23	$6.75	20	$3.50	22	$4.00	$8.00	$7.00	$13.99	$312.74	11.40%
ATLANTA	$52.67	20.49%	$195.25	24	$5.50	16	$4.00	24	$3.00	$10.00	$5.00	$15.00	$299.66	9.03%
CLEVELAND	$48.79	6.74%	$190.59	27	$6.00	16	$3.50	20	$4.00	$20.00	$5.00	$15.00	$297.16	5.44%
CAROLINA	$54.86	9.21%	$165.62	22	$5.75	20	$3.00	22	$3.50	$0.00	$0.00	$18.00	$292.92	8.53%
ARIZONA	$44.98	13.24%	$96.35	29	$6.00	16	$3.50	16	$3.50	$10.00	$3.00	$27.00	$289.92	17.43%
SEATTLE	$44.78	4.62%	$119.14	30	$5.50	15	$3.50	21	$5.00	$20.00	$3.00	$18.00	$286.10	9.95%
TENNESSEE	$47.82	4.48%	$157.17	28	$6.00	16	$3.00	16	$3.00	$18.00	$5.00	$15.00	$285.27	4.85%
MIAMI	$51.96	7.10%	$100.00	25	$5.50	20	$2.00	14	$3.00	$10.00	$5.00	$12.00	$282.82	5.13%
NEW ORLEANS	$51.31	21.12%	$101.77	26	$6.00	24	$2.00	16	$3.00	$20.00	$5.00	$6.00	$279.23	14.71%
JACKSONVILLE	$40.16	-1.56%	$182.00	31	$5.00	18	$3.00	24	$3.00	$10.00	$5.00	$9.95	$234.55	-2.71%
BUFFALO	$39.37	6.04%	$134.73	32	$5.50	16	$3.00	20	$3.00	$15.00	n/a	$11.00	$229.49	0.42%

With the costs of energy skyrocketing and with the costs of private and collegiate education climbing steadily, the NFL might price themselves out of the range of the average fan if this continues. There’s been talk of televised games someday being placed on a pay-per-view basis. The league is already force feeding its network upon us.

Will the NFL become a league for the rich and famous? Will stadiums soon be occupied by the wine and cheese crowd that we once despised at Orioles’ games?

If Roger Goodell has his way, stadiums will be more comfortable for those who like to sit on their derrieres.

When asked about the role of technology in the NFL in the future Goodell said, “We are always focused on making sure that our game has as much action as possible. One of the elements of that is taking advantage of today’s technology to enhance the competition on the field.”

Ok, not bad so far. But get this….

“We could potentially use technology to ensure that our players can communicate with each other in an opposing stadium and play at the highest possible level despite the noise. That’s what our game is about – our athletes and coaches competing at the highest possible level and being able to execute their game plans.”

STOP!

STOP RIGHT THERE RIGHT NOW!

You’ve missed something in that equation there Commish. Your game is about the athletes and the coaches. But it’s also about the customers – the fans. If you equip all these players with communication devices, what happens to the 12th man? What happens to the crowd involvement? Knowing that they can no longer affect the game, do they then sit in their chairs? Gee they can do that at home where the beers are cheaper than $7!

Do you roger me Mr. Commish?

Before you know it, the NFL will be a life-sized version of Madden!

What is Trent Dilfer thinking? Recently after a trip down memory lane with former teammates Sharpe, Stokley, Woodson and Siragusa, Dilfer opined, “Those guys will go to their graves swearing to God that we would have won two, three Super Bowls if they would have kept me. I'm not going to say that; I have no idea. But I sure would have liked the chance to face the challenge. I would have loved that opportunity."

Get off it Trent! First you are wrong and secondly with each of your little cry me a river sessions, your folkloric status falls precipitately.

Brian Billick doesn’t want the public to know the terms of his contract. C’mon Coach! Give it up. What’s the big deal? Like it or not you are a public figure and the city in which your “company” resides has shareholders called fans. Look in any 10K for any publicly held company and what do you find, the salaries of the corporate officers. With such a high profile and high paying job, there are pitfalls and the public's knowledge of the cake you take home is one of them.

So outside of the privacy issue (which by the way I would gladly exchange for $5.4 mil per) what’s the problem? Are the players going to play with less passion because you aren’t inked up beyond 2008? Are potential free agents not going to knock on the palace door because BB might not be beyond ’08?

I don’t think so.

Relax coach, count your Benjamins and be happy that you have one of the 32 most desirable jobs on the planet. And hey if you don’t like it, we have some room here for you on 24x7 and we promise not to divulge your take home pay.

Deal?