#DARRENROVELL ON TWITTER

SPORTS BIZ SLIDESHOWS

» More

NFL's 10 Most Underpaid NFL Players
Here's our rundown of the best bang for the buck in the league.
Best Cheerleading Squads
Top cheerleading squads generate revenue for their teams even after the NFL season ends.
Best-Selling NFL Jerseys
So, which NFL jerseys are this year’s best sellers?

SPORTS BIZ VIDEO

» More

DARREN ROVELL'S SPORTS INDEX

ABOUT SPORTS BIZ

Darren Rovell brings you his unique take on the business of sports: a multi-billion dollar global industry and obsession full of personalities and products. On Sports Biz, Darren will give you his up-to-date take on everything from salaries to endorsement deals to marketing and promotions, trades and tirades – in short, everything that makes sports so exciting.

Sports Biz

Text Size

Oct.16

3:12 PM ET

Thursday, 16 Oct 2008

Sports Economy: Signs That Ticket Buyers Aren't There?

Posted By:Darren Rovell

Topics:Earnings | Sports

Companies:eBay Inc

In my forever continuing series of blogs on sports and the economy, I wanted to follow up on my hypothesis that NFL teams weren't necessarily getting hurt yet.

As you might remember, I looked at prices on the secondary market for NFL tickets sold on eBay's StubHub. Because eight of 10 teams seemed to have an on-the-field causal link, I concluded that I didn't think teams were necessarily suffering yet.

But I did receive a couple notes from people who said that I should consider whether total volume of sales decreased. Not having that data, I couldn't do the math.

Well, eBay [EBAY Loading... () ]reported its earnings yesterday and although its marketplace unit--which includes eBay's core site and StubHub--grew revenue by 4 percent, eBay's CFO said yesterday that the company saw a "significant slowdown" to StubHub" midway through the third quarter.

Now StubHub sells all kinds of tickets, so it's not necessarily sports, but it made me wonder whether I was looking for the wrong data when I was computing the economic effects on the sports world. After all, the Boston Globe noted that for Tuesday night's game against the Rays, ticket broker Ace Ticket actually dropped prices below face value.

"Without question everyone is feeling the pinch," said Jim Zissler, vice president of sales at Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, a provider of sports and entertainment ticket and travel packages. "We're still seeing a steady call for the ultra premium tickets and I don't think that will ever go away, but when the Red Sox playoff tickets are selling for below face value, it's pretty telling that the buyers just aren't out there."

Questions? Comments?

Print Email

Previous Post Back to Main Page

RECENT POSTS