I've always liked Football, that is NFL football. When I was a kid in Mexico City one of my dreams was to play football at one of the leagues in Mexico City. Yes, Mexicans play football at the high-school and university level. I even remember some old Mexican movies that featured games between arch rivals National University Pumas against the Mexican Polytechnical Institute. I never got to play because my brother ended up playing little league base-ball and Mom could only be in one place at one time. (I turned to Martial Arts instead)-
I used to watch NFL games all throughout high-school (the old Pittsburgh-Dallas rivalry) and when I went to University in Penn State I purchased my season tickets to see the Nittany Lions. At that time Penn State had the likes of Matt Millen who went on to play for the Raiders and Bruce Clark who later played for the Toronto Argos.-
Watching College ball was great but I never did go to watch a live NFL game. So imagine my surprise when I found out that the NFL was coming to Toronto. Wow, I thought this is my chance. I also thought, "What a great thing for tourism and for Toronto." I signed up online for the ticket alerts. I understand that over 180,000 people signed up. I'm sure the organizers and companies involved in bringing the Bills to T.O. were certain they would sell out both the pre-season and regular-season games in no time once they released the tickets. When I got the email telling me that I could go ahead and purchase tickets I immediately and excitedly logged on to the appropriate sight. I looked up the prices and Surprise! Prices for the 2 Game package: from $140 to $1,150!!! Of course the $140 tickets are way up high where the players look like ants running around. The 100 level tickets that I would like cost $700 or more for the 2 games! The blogosphere began to buzz with opinions. Example: "anyone who purchases these tickets at the over-inflated prices they are charging (for a meaningless game no less) just proves P.T. Barnums theory. There's a sucker born every minute." http://www.thestar.com/article/470923 "Rogers needs to sell tickets at an average ticket price above $200 and seems to be doing it. By comparison, the NFL's New England Patriots had the league's highest average ticket price last season at $91. Buffalo has the NFL's lowest average ticket price at just $51." They Are Still Looking for Suckers to Buy Bills Tickets in Toronto.
-Suffice it to say that I decided against going to the game. One thing is to be passionate about a sport (and I am not that passionate about football anymore), and another to be a sucker. It's not the money per se, it's the perceived value. In 1992 when the Toronto Blue Jays made it to the World Series, I paid close to $1,000 for two tickets. At today's dollars we're talking about $2,000! But I did not flinch. The perceived value was huge. The first World Series game ever to be played outside the United States! Historical. But to pay inflated prices for a pre-season NFL game?! Thanks, but no thanks. It's good publicity for Toronto that the NFL is playing here. But it may also backfire as the blogosphere shows. It may give Toronto a black eye in travelers minds who may think that Toronto is just way too expensive a city to visit.
-"Unnecessary roughness. 15 yard penalty"
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Cheers,
Jaime
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