ASSESSING PROPOSED TICKET PRICE CHANGES FOR THE MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Commercial sports organizations in all of the so-called professional organizations (leagues, associations, and so forth) have become highly reliant on television revenues. In recent years, however, the television popularity of commercial sports has begun to wane. In the wake of this declining interest in televised sports, the level of television revenues available to franchise owners also has declined. At the same time, demands related to player salaries have increased. One result of this pinchers movement on the franchise owners in commercial sports has been a renewed interest in the fans who actually come to the ballparks, stadiums, and arenas to see the games in person (Kern, 2000).
When fans actually attend games in person, franchise owners collect funds through ticket sales, through food and beverage sales, through merchandise sales, and frequently through the collection of parking fees. One important factor (other than rotten teams and spoiled players) that keeps fans away from the ballparks, stadiums, and arenas, however, are the high prices charged by the franchise owners for the pleasure of being fleeced (Fisher, 2002). One suggested approach to dealing with the issue of in person game attendance is to lower ticket prices to entice more people into the stands (Bernthal & Graham, 2003).
The central argument against lowering ticket prices is that revenue w
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