Secondary ticket market could lose $400 million if KC sports teams play without fans
It’s been nearly 100 days since professional or college team sports have been played in the United States because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even when the games return, it’ll likely be in empty stadiums, and the lost revenue will amount to billions of dollars.
This week, the NFL Players Association held a conference call with agents. ESPN reported the NFL could lose $3 billion in revenue if games are played without fans. That’s about $100 million per team.
Major League Baseball owners have previously said they would lose $640,000 per game if fans aren’t in the stands.
Ticket brokers are also feeling the pinch.
TicketIQ estimated the loss of revenue on the secondary market for all major sports leagues in 2020 could top $17 billion. That includes the NCAA Tournament, which already was canceled, and college football.
That estimate was the high end of what could be lost. TicketIQ arrived at the figure by multiplying an average cost of a secondary-market ticket by the number of seats in a team’s home stadium or arena. That number was then multiplied by the number of scheduled games.
A couple of caveats. Not every fan attends a game with a ticket purchased on the secondary market and not every game sells out. But TicketIQ’s calculation gives a general idea of just how much money is generated each year by sports games.
TicketIQ shows the secondary market could lose more than $4.7 billion if NFL games are played in empty stadiums, while MLB’s losses would top $5 billion. Ticket-revenue losses for the NBA would be more than $1.6 billion, while the numbers for the NHL (over $1.1 billion) and Major League Soccer ($640 million) are also significant.
Ticket brokers would be hurt if professional and college teams in and around Kansas City don’t allow fans to attend games.
Here is the breakdown in ticket losses for the secondary market among KC area teams per TicketIQ:
Mizzou football: $67,253,760 (avg. ticket: $135)
Kansas football: $22,531,940 ($75)
K-State football: $31,005,333 ($89)
Sporting KC: $20,719,974 ($66)
Royals: $106,533,144 ($72)
Chiefs: $149,689,010 ($245)
That’s a total of $397,733,161 on lost ticket sales on the secondary market in Kansas City alone if fans don’t attend games.
