The cost of a Cleveland Cavaliers home game experience
By Zak Kolesar
The ESPN and TNT television deal with the NBA, an agreement that will last for nine years, does not go into effect until the 2016-17 season. That’s why LeBron James only signed a two-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers; so that he could cash in on another max contract check that will be made available to him in the summer before the 2016-17 season. That’s because the television deal will substantially increase team salary caps, resulting in a higher-value max contract. The players will once again cash in, but at what expense to the fans?
The point of bringing up the new television deal was to show how an increase of money in one area affects how much more something else will cost in another facet of the NBA. For fans, that means ticket prices, and if you are a Cleveland Cavaliers fan you already know the hassle and cash it is going to take to see LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving take the court in the same building on the same team this season. There’s already a lottery system in place for fans to earn vouchers in exchange to buy tickets for specific games during a specific month, but even after that process is completed, how much does one need to fork over to see his or her beloved Cavs?
The LeBron Effect cannot go unnoticed, and Sreekar Jasthi over at Nerd Wallet crunched some numbers to see how much more Cleveland fans are going to have to fork over to see a game at Quicken Loans Arena this season. After LeBron made it official that he would be returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team has seen a 204 percent jump in its average resale ticket price from last season.
Here is what Nerd Wallet had to say about the price of a Cleveland Cavaliers game this season:
"Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are a Miami fan in denial, you’ve heard that LeBron James has taken his talents back to northeast Ohio. This has led to a huge spike in the average ticket price on the secondary market for a game at Quicken Loans Arena. After enjoying relatively low ticket prices the last few years (albeit for a pretty bad team), a family of four might now have to put up the equivalent of a few months of mortgage payments[CH1] to see the James-Love-Kyrie Irving show. Some good news for fans’ wallets is that hot dog and parking costs for Cavs games are some of the lowest in the league."
Nerd Wallet has also been analyzing something referred to as Total Family Cost in the past. TFC “assesses the cost for a family of four to attend a home game: the total price of four tickets purchased on the secondary market, beers for Mom and Dad, sodas for the kids, four hot dogs and one parking space.” Last season the Cleveland Cavaliers were noted as one of the most affordable NBA experiences in the NBA. This season, however, they are known as the most expensive NBA game experience.
Over the past three seasons the Cleveland Cavaliers have held a median resale ticket price between $100 and $130. This season the median resale ticket price is expected to be $363.64. Other factors that contribute to TFC include the costs of a 16 ounce beer ($9.67), a 16 ounce soda ($3.50), a hot dog ($3.50) and parking ($10).