Sport is as much a part of the fabric of American society as apple pie with an estimated 159 million people in the US watching live sports at least once a month [1] and 70 percent of Americans saying that they are sports fans [2]. Whether it’s the entertainment and recreation it provides, the appreciation of the skill and athleticism of the athletes, or the suspense and excitement that comes with the unpredictability of the result, sport has had us hooked for centuries.
Team sports also unite fans from all over the world, rooting together around a shared passion, and creating bonds between families, friends and loved ones who are near and far. As you head to your team’s home stadium week after week, you’ll often see the same faces, and share the highs and lows that occur season-by-season with a community of locals and visitors alike. Our customers move from all over the world and often seek to establish roots in a new place. For many, finding a sense of connection is a top priority when leaving the comforts of home behind, and sports are a meaningful way to get involved, build connections, and foster a sense of community.
To discover which US towns, cities and states offer the cheapest and most expensive tickets to watch sport played at its absolute peak, we analyzed ticket prices for 141 men’s professional sports teams in the US, across five different sports – American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey and soccer.
States have been ranked accordingly across sports and we’ve also taken a deeper look at each individual sport so if you’re a sports fanatic and are thinking of moving to the US, and want to find out how much you’ll be likely to fork out per game, read on to find out where the cheapest seats for sports truly exist.
Average ticket prices per sport and state
American football is comfortably America’s favorite sport and that is reflected in the fact that it has the highest average ticket prices of any of the sports we analyzed. Our analysis revealed that $297 for a single game ticket is what you can expect to pay across the 32 professional teams in the American football league. To watch a live basketball match averages $165, ice hockey $146 and soccer $105. The cheapest of the five sports we analyzed was baseball, known affectionately as ‘America’s favorite pastime’, where the average price for a single game ticket across the 29 US teams in the baseball league is $79.
To work out the average cost per state, we focused our study solely on the price of single game tickets per sport. With almost every team using dynamic pricing (where ticket prices change regularly based on demand), our analysis has provided a snapshot in time. We started by calculating the mean average cost of available home tickets per team and sport, and then worked out the average for each state by calculating the mean average of all teams based in that state. Professional sports teams are not distributed evenly across the US, with there being 18 in California alone! So, to make our data as meaningful as possible, we discounted any state which didn’t have at least three teams from at least three of the five sports we analyzed in this study.
With five teams across five sports, and most of them being based in the capital Boston, it’s Massachusetts that has the highest average ticket price for sports lovers, at an eye-watering $236. Containing some of the most iconic teams in American sports history, ticket prices in Massachusetts match its high-quality sporting heritage.
When you think of sports teams in the US, the chances are you’ll recall a legendary team from New York, however the Empire State has nine professional teams across the five sports. An average ticket price to watch sports in New York falls just shy of $200, making it the second most expensive state in the US to watch men’s football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey and soccer.
For the cheapest seats in America, we’re off to the Midwest, specifically Michigan which hosts four teams across four sports (it’s currently without a men’s soccer team franchise) and offers an average single ticket cost of $101. Whilst down in the Southeast there’s a contrast between two neighboring states, with Georgia boasting the second lowest average ticket price in the country with four teams, whilst Florida is home to a mammoth eleven teams, and has the third most costly tickets at $182 each on average.
