Despite a long and painful lockout, it looks as though the NHL is passing the extra costs on to fans. Per ESPNChicago: After a four-month lockout, the NHL began play in January and season-ticket prices went up 5.7 percent, according to the recently released Team Marketing Report Fan Cost Index. The average season ticket for non-premium seats is $61.01. As usual, ticket prices were set well before the season.
The NBA's average ticket went up 3.5 percent to $50.99 and the NFL's went up 2.5 percent to $78.38. The average MLB ticket for the 2012 season was even at $26.98.
In the previous season, the NHL raised prices by 4.8 percent, while the NBA (1.7 percent), NFL (1.2 percent) and MLB (1.2 percent for 2011 season) had smaller increases.
MLB naturally has more inventory to sell, with twice as many games and stadiums typically two times (at least) as large. Still, it surprises us to find out a ticket to an NHL game is more than twice as expensive as it is to a ballgame.
