Question

7. What can you conclude regarding consumer’s willingness to pay for Super Bowl tickets in

general and particularly when it’s a location like NYC? Use evidence from the passage to

support your answer.

Further evidence that teams leave gate revenue on the table (or in economic parlance, create

consumer surplus for fans) from charging lower face prices than they otherwise could command can

be found by looking at secondary ticket pricing. Especially in the NFL which has the greatest scarcity

of inventory among all the sports, almost every team averages a positive secondary price mark-up

over face.

Focusing on the Super Bowl, prior articles I've written (from

2011 and

2013) demonstrate the

considerable mark-ups for Super Bowl tickets. The willingness to spend thousands of dollars above

face in some cases merely reflects the uniqueness of the event. Within the sporting world, perhaps

the only singular match that can surpass the Super Bowl in stature is the World Cup finals held

every 4 years.

Looking ahead to 2014's big game in the Big Apple, local market dynamics coupled with recent

evidence from the secondary market explain the sharp price increases for premium seats.

Regarding socioeconomic and geographic factors, Futterman writes:

Not only is NYC more densely populated than other Super Bowl venues, it has a high concentration

of wealthy corporations and individuals. There is also a well-established tradition in the city of

paying out the nose for marquee events.

Since roughly 50 million people live within 200 miles of MetLife Stadium (compared with 6 million in

New Orleans) NFL officials argue that many people won't mind paying more, since they're likely to

save money on flights and hotels.

Answer 1

The evidence from the paragraph suggest that willingness to pay for Super bowl tickets is generally high among the consumers. It mainly depicts the uniqueness of the event. The sponsors earn huge mark up over pricing. And if the event is held in a location like NYC it will lead to further increase in the consumer surplus as people in NYC comprise of a wealthy and rich lot of people who are willing to pay more as ticket price as compared to other cities and consumer surplus increases in cities like NYC.