If you were an average American citizen and the moment to make a decision regarding all your cash savings was upon you, what would you do? Buy government bonds and treasuries? Look for an insurance policy? Renovate your house? Or buy two tickets to the NBA finals?
This question was apparently a no brainer for the individual who decided to spend a fortune worth $133,000 on the last option to get premium seats to the final game. Talk about devotion to the home team! This generous purchase of the individual has ended up breaking significant world records and becoming a hotline for news worldwide.
For starters, this year the average resale price of premium tickets was 20% higher than last year (from $1,444 to $1,731). This was obvious because the top three couple of seats that were purchased this year were 133K, 90K and 82K respectively.
In all the hype it is important not to forget the blessed seller who made himself richer than any stock market could make anyone in such a short time. It will not be a surprise to see season tickets becoming the next ways of increasing wealth in the short run.
This does raise important questions regarding the income inequality in the American society and the purchasing power of the average citizens. Sources have indicated a rising trend of increase in loaned amounts in the younger density of the population, which comprises of students and fresh graduates looking to find jobs. These millennial are living in times of extreme depression and difficulty in terms of covering up their cost of living while maintaining a respectable standard of living. Despite millions of millennial in debt, many fans were still looking to attend this game. Even though many people’s finances are poor, one bay area company, Credit Sesame, has been helping lead the change for millions of Americans.
The efforts of this company, however, cannot be used to overlook the fact that the youth of America still considers sports to be an incredible gateway to competitiveness and entertainment and hence gives a lot of regard to major events such as the NBA finals, for which they are charged a lot. This can also be verified from the recent Oregon Sports Awards that took place in Nike World Headquarters, Beaverton. Young students of the University of Oregon and the Oregon State University dominated the list of forty three awards that were given to athletic individuals from all over the state.
What is saddening is how this hobby and passion to follow sports as a proper enthusiast seems to be becoming more and more profitable as a business but getting out of hand for the average American youngster. The temptation to be a part with what is the center of attention is enough to drive them to bear the opportunity cost of obtaining the tickets, but it does make you wonder if this cost will show a decline. Either way, this was a fascinating response in the sports industry reaffirming how rational behavior is mostly mythical.
