Baseball is BACK! Take Me Out…A Second Mortgage
by Jeremiah Tittle & Kelty Carpenter
While sentimental sentences that begin with ‘in my day’ are apt to lose many sports fan readers, there exists a fundamental flaw in what once was a rather accessible format to exert one’s fan-hood: going to the ballpark. The Major League Baseball season kicked off Sunday night with a rousing comeback win for the Red Sox over rivals and defending World Series Champions the New York Yankees, but who could afford to go to the game?
According to Duke University law professor Richard Schmalbeck and Rutgers business professor Jay Soled’s op-ed in the New York Times, the average price of Chicago Cubs tickets have increased 265% over the past 20 years (4 times the inflation rate) and that’s not accounting for parking, concessions, etc. Hence the second mortgage or home equity loan reference.
The sheer numbers are daunting, but their answer to the question ‘why?’ is far more disturbing. Schmalbeck and Soled point out that ”a critical factor has been the ability of businesses to write off tickets as entertainment expenses — essentially a huge, and wholly unnecessary, government subsidy.”
The results of said subsidy are two-fold: more competition for rare seats and an increase in luxury boxes pitting family of four against Fortune 500 companies. The decrease of seats for the general public and increase of luxury box seats is a business decision by sports teams that is directly fueled by the law of the land. It directly diminishes sports fans’ purchasing power, and has been known to kick existing season ticket-holders out of the park.
The professors hit the point home and instantly earn the respect of the Sports Fans Coalition when imploring Congress to take action. “Ideally, Congress would get rid of business-entertainment deductions altogether — after all, they are little more than an excuse for corporate executives to consume luxury items at a discount, distorting markets and cheating the public out of substantial tax revenue.”
While the professors believe that eliminating tax breaks altogether would be too drastic a move suggesting that lawmakers find some middle ground, Elie Mystal takes a hardline approach in her Above the Law piece arguing that ”baseball owners are capable of running successful, money-making businesses without government welfare.”
It’s a powerful statement, and a testament to the fact the the SFC exists for this very reason. While teams and leagues push Congress around for more tax breaks, we can not stand idly by accepting status quo.
SportsFansCoalition.org Managing Editor Jeremiah Tittle and SFC Sports Business Reporter Kelty Carpenter contributed to this article.
[Kelty Carpenter is a graduate of Wake Forest University and soon-to-be graduate of Georgetown University's Sports Industry Management program. She currently serves as Sports Business reporter for SFC & Social Media Assistant for LinkStar PR. She loves Red Sox baseball and Deacon hoops.]
