Day at the ballpark gets more expensive

Team Marketing Research, a firm that tracks the price of attending professional sports game, calculates what they call the Fan Cost Index.

The firm adds up in the average price of tickets, a beer, a soda, a hot dog, parking, a program and a ball cap to come up with what it would cost a family of four to attend a game.

In 2006, the Nationals index of $169.51 ranked just below the average Major League Baseball Fan Cost Index of $171.19.

Although expensive, this seems reasonable compared with the $287.84 it costs a family to attend a game at Fenway Park in Boston (the league’s highest) or the $219.21 it costs a family to attend a Chicago Cubs’ game at Wrigley Field (second highest).

But in Boston and Chicago, fans pay as much for the experiences of seeing a game at a historic ballpark as they are to see the game. RFK Stadium doesn’t have the same appeal.

This will likely change when the Nationals move to their new home in Southwest D.C., Team Marketing Research Executive Editor Becky Wallace said.

She says people come to see new ballparks as well as to see the game on the field, a combination that inevitably leads to sharp increases in how much it costs to attend a game.

The Nationals didn’t return repeated calls for comment on whether ticket prices would increase next year.

But according to Team Marketing Research, at the 11 new or renovated stadiums that have opened since 2000, the average ticket price went up nearly 47 percent, while the Fan Cost Index increased almost 26 percent. The largest Fan Cost Index jumps occurred in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

In Washington, Wallace said, where incomes are higher and the demand for tickets from corporations, lobbying groups and politicians is high, the average fan will pay a lot more to attend a game next season in the new park.

“It’s 100 percent a Nationals problem,” she said.

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