According to the US Nation Debt Clock, a milestone was achieved this week:
The US National Debt is now officially more than $13 Trillion.
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To put the Debt number in perspective:
(1) It’s already equal to over 90% of annual GDP
(2) It’s heading higher by almost $1.5 Trillion annually at current tax and spending rates
(3) If you’re in the half of the population that pays income taxes, your share of the US Debt is almost $120,000
For years, I’ve agreed that sports teams were pricing themselves out-of-reach for the average family.
“Face value” on tickets staggers me. Dealing with scalpers males me nervous.
Now, those worlds are starting to coincide: teams getting higher prices by acting like scalpers.
Play ball.
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Excerpted from Bloomberg Business Week:Pricing Baseball Tickets Like Airline Seats, May 20, 2010
Software helps the S.F. Giants price baseball games in much the same way airlines manage seat prices to keep planes full.
The software crunches numbers on dozens of variables (e.g. the weather, the pitchers, the teams’ records, the rivalry, day of week, time if day, StubHub market price) to determine prices that will get fans into the stands and generate the highest revenue.
Ticket prices used to be fixed before spring training; now, they’re adjusted almost daily.
The Giants say that revenues are up 12% this season and attendance has jumped 7%, even as the league has seen a slight decline.
Expect the entire league to adopt market-based pricing … and watch it spread to other sports and entertainment.
“There’s big money out there in lost revenue from mispricing.”
Full article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_22/b4180039348750.htm
The Homa Files 