Are New Orleans Saints tickets still affordable?

The average ticket in the NFL for 2015 was somewhere around $85 per person. The numbers were broken down from everything from hot dogs to parking at the NFL Fan Cost Index. How do the New Orleans Saints fit on the scale?

The black and gold were very close to the average at $84.87. The numbers are very interesting for various reasons. The bigger question lingers, is the price fairly comparative?

I did find interesting rival NFC South teams Atlanta and Carolina had lower prices by around $6 to $7, but not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs tickets were over $20 cheaper. Of course, it’s easy to point out that the Saints have had a number of winning teams, if you combine the last 10 years. There is the obvious explanation of supply and demand rule which would seem to apply to the Who Dat Nation that takes their football very seriously.

The other question would be, can an average family of four afford to buy tickets to a game? There’s no question that the bill would easily surpass $500 when you add up parking, food, and soft drinks. If there are other expenses like merchandise and premier seating, then the costs could rise to almost $1,000. Is this a fair price to see the favorite and beloved Saints play on Sunday? Surely, people who are single or younger married couples can scrape up the money to buy a couple of tickets. To see how much it would cost the average family of four, I’ve come up with a simple equation.

Next: New Orleans Saints headlines: June 25-July 1

An article from Nola.com gives a roundabout number for median household income. What’s interesting is that on average the income for Atlanta is higher than New Orleans by 25 percent. Though, the ticket prices are higher on average here. However, let’s say a family is doing well and takes in $40,000 a year. After the IRS comes in and takes their cut, that number will be a lot lower. Furthermore, add health insurance, social security, and a 401K – then that same family would be lucky to bring home $30,000. That number is very conservative.

Just for fun though, let’s do a little math. A family of four would bring home around $2,500 per month before any rent or food is taken out. Instead of boring you with compound equations, let’s say that this family would like to see just four games. If that family goes to two games a month, it would cost them nearly half their salary or more. This is also not even taking into consideration of any car payments or child care as well.

This is also assuming that this family does not have season tickets, which would seemingly bring down the price per ticket, but also add in eight games per year. The fact of the matter is that there seems to be something missing. The games are all sold out, if I’m not mistaken. Are the games attended by families these days? Someone is going to the games, no doubt. When I put on the TV, there are usually in excess of 70,000 fans on game day.

I guess my biggest question is: How is it that a city like Seattle that averages over $70,000 per median household has ticket prices that are similar to New Orleans? Perhaps we just have the more loyal fans, which I know is true. All I know is that the Saints better be ready to play when we finally get the Seahawks in our building! People that are putting out their hard-earned money are getting by barely, by the numbers.

The least the New Orleans Saints can do is to start winning sooner than later.