When did having fun become so expensive? In the summer when ‘Funflation’ was at its peak

But a married couple from Virginia weren’t prepared for the bill: nearly $10,000 to travel and watch the game in Boston, New Jersey and Miami. This was more than double the amount he paid for a similar trip to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

stamp? Each was priced at $800 on FIFA’s official resale site before the team’s schedule was announced. Forget trying to watch their favorite teams. Game day parking? $175 at Gillette Stadium outside Boston and $150 outside Miami. Car rentals, hotels, a $98 commuter-train ticket to New York and airfare added to their bill.

If she and her husband were not such big fans, Rojas said, “I would boycott FIFA because of what they are doing in terms of ticket prices.” “It’s basically turning into a Super Bowl — for those who have the means or are willing to get into crazy debt.”

But that’s exactly what happens in the modern age of high-end live entertainment, where people are willing to spend huge amounts of money and go into debt to attend once-in-a-lifetime events. People at the top of the economic ladder spend lavishly without breaking any sweat. But such events are also attracting the working and middle classes, who are increasingly saving and borrowing money to afford rising prices.

From the World Cup to the NBA Finals, to concerts by chart-topping artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Harry Styles, to the boomer-friendly mega tours of Rush and AC/DC, it seems there’s no limit to what some people are willing to pay.

For avid fans, budgetary concerns are no match for the fear of missing out on the once-you-live-only economy.

“Worth every penny,” said Kenzie Doctor, an Edinburgh gym worker who withdrew 3,000 pounds (about $4,000) from a government savings program to offset the nearly $9,000 she spent watching Scotland play in the World Cup. “When you sang the national anthem during the game, it was so emotional I had tears streaming down my face.”

A FIFA official said it offered a range of ticket prices and that World Cup proceeds help run the non-profit’s global development projects.

The average price of resale tickets on SeatGeek for World Cup matches is around $1,084, while matches in later rounds go for more. Tickets for the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs cost an average of $4,100, while seats at Madison Square Garden averaged up to $9,000.

A host of entertainment companies, leagues, payments companies and hospitality groups are enjoying the bounty.

The frothy ticketing environment has been a boon for companies like Affirm and Klarna with “buy now, pay later” moves that help fans pay for expensive seats they otherwise might not have been able to buy.

The stock of Knicks owner Madison Square Garden Sports is up nearly 88% over the past year, while shares of Ticketmaster parent Live Nation are up more than 20%.

People who are flush have no problem getting out. For the working and middle classes, changing economic realities such as extremely high mortgage rates have led to a new reckoning. If the elite status symbol of buying a single-family home is out of reach, perhaps spending hundreds of dollars to see Metallica in the Las Vegas area doesn’t seem so outrageous.

To understand how we got here, let’s go back to the pandemic.

The economic phenomenon known as “funflation” blossomed as venues reopened after being closed for months over virus fears, leading to tours being cancelled, sports leagues forced to play games in front of empty seats and restaurants and movie theaters closed. Once live music, theater and sports returned, vaccines spread and public health restrictions eased, people returned to entertainment in large crowds.

The public, tired of collecting toilet paper in isolation, lived it out. Enter the Mega Tour by artists like taylor swift and beyonceWhose multi-generational appeal helped break sales records.

They contributed to a new standard of elaborate, hour-long concerts with greater emphasis on choreography, pyrotechnics, costume changes, and technology to captivate audiences.

That wave of concerts also normalized the idea of ​​concert tourism – traveling across state or international borders for a unique experience. Due to staying at home during the Covid era, bank accounts were empty and family and friends were ready to party.

Since the recorded music industry’s transition from album sales to subscription-based streaming services, artists have relied heavily on touring for their income in recent decades. Decades-old bands playing on nostalgia and newly emerged podcasting stars further fueled the craze.

Years of stock-market gains have greatly increased the spending power of aging families—especially baby boomers. According to Pollstar, the No. 4 touring act for the first half of this year is AC/DC, trailing Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga and BTS in worldwide ticket sales.

“The affluent are spending, and spending recklessly,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “It’s driving up the cost of things for the bottom 80%, where wages and incomes haven’t kept up with inflation.”

But the cost of the tour has increased Inflation is increasing Base ticket prices. Increasingly sophisticated bots rapidly break up blocks of seats and flip them for profit.

And the concert industry adopts strategies to maximize revenue such as releasing blocks of tickets in waves to increase scarcity and implementing so-called dynamic pricing, raising prices in response to high demand.

As the cost burden on consumers increases, some people are becoming more selective in how they spend their money, often splurging on one or two shows instead of going to multiple events throughout the year.

Tiffany Williams, 42, who lives in Sebring, Florida, used to commute weekly between Los Angeles, San Diego and Ontario, California, to see live music and comedy shows. Last year, she went to a Post Malone concert, for which she paid $178.

“If you want to opt out, it’s very expensive,” she said.

For Veterans Day weekend she gave her fiancé a choice between going on a cruise or seeing his favorite band, Rush. They chose prog rock heroes. After finding tickets at three different places — and spending $500 on a nosebleed — this week she landed on a pair for the Tampa show for $978. She signed up for Afterpay and is on a $93 per month payment plan.

Public outrage over the cost of going to concerts led to a blockbuster Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, accusing it of overcharging fans and pressuring venues to use its Ticketmaster platform. Although the federal government settled its case, a group of state attorneys general stepped forward and won a jury verdict against Live Nation.

Live Nation has denied that it is an illegal monopoly and said that claims about its power in the market are exaggerated, saying that artists set prices, not venues or promoters. The state is looking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The curative portion of the case is pending.

There are signs that higher costs may put pressure on demand for shows that do not reach the bucket-list threshold. In recent months music fans have discussed online what is known as “Blue Dot fever”, which refers to the blue circles denoting unsold, face value seats available for a show at a concert venue. Some artists have canceled shows due to lower than expected sales.

Live Nation says less than 1% of the shows on the books this year have been canceled.

The top 100 touring shows in North America grossed a total of $1.9 billion, according to Pollstar, which is the same as last year. SeatGeek’s average resale price remained essentially flat at $203 in the year ended June 23, compared with $206 in the same period a year earlier, even as sales volume was up 20%.

“As long as you’re someone’s favorite artist, the touring market is really good,” said Nathan Hubbard, chief executive of music management firm Firebird Music Holdings. “If there aren’t fans who are tattooing your songs on their bodies, you might have a problem.”

Officials say demand has not waned since the pandemic, although some acknowledge reduced spending by low-income families for shows at smaller venues. Overall, people are waiting until the concert date gets closer to buy tickets and are also considering how to spend their money.

Brian Perez, chief executive of AXS, the ticketing service owned by sports and live music giant Anschutz Entertainment Group, said music fans want an experience, which is driving demand for advanced and VIP options, such as skip-the-line entry or access to more exclusive viewing areas.

“People are deciding how they want to spend their entertainment money,” Perez said.

Earlier this year, Karen Datangel and a friend logged on to Ticketmaster in hopes of getting tickets to the Olivia Rodrigo concert at the Oakland Arena in December.

Datajel, a 37-year-old government communications worker and dedicated pop music fan who has watched stars such as Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, get stuck in the online queue. However, her friend got two seats, away from the stage, for $261.

The friend opted out, but Datenzel didn’t give up: Ultimately he decided to pay $400 for a spot in a suite reserved by another friend.

He said the price is worth it: “Concerts have created some of the greatest experiences and memories of my life.”