An Out at the Ball Game

April 2013

"Good morale, economic stability, and the American dream have a hefty price tag."

Opening Day is April 1!

     In Cincinnati, a hot dog at the ballpark is $1, while in Tampa Bay it’s more than $5. A ballpark beer Arizona is $4; at a Phillies game, it’s a steep $7.25. Not startled yet? Check these prices out: The cheapest seats in Major League Baseball (MLB) are around $15 in Arizona. Compare that to more than $50 at Boston’s Fenway Park. If you want really great seats, Yankee Stadium offers $300-plus premium seating. The average cost to take a family of four to a game is just over $200—four nonpremium tickets, two beers, four soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking, two programs, and two adult-size hats. That is, in a word, expensive.

     In 2012, the average MLB player’s salary was $3,440,000, a 3.8 percent increase over 2011. General managers make somewhere between $500,000 and $2,000,000 a year. I won’t mention owners, because their income is (forgive me) out of the park. In the last year, the average MLB team’s value increased over 16 percent, and the MLB grossed $6.6 billion. I daresay MLB players and other professional athletes may be among the few who haven’t suffered in the last several years from our beaten, battered, and bruised economy.

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