In 1985, box seats for the “I-70 Showdown” World Series at Royals Stadium cost $40. Plaza reserved seats cost $30 and standing room cost $20.

In the ALCS that year, I can tell you that a view level box seat […]

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think the Philadelphia 76ers, which have lost 111 games the past two seasons and are expected to lose a bunch more in 2014-15, need 47 different seat categories.

In every sec […]

NFL training camp season is a wonderful time to be a football fan.

Those few weeks a year teams spend training at small colleges, their own facilities, random towns (Oxnard, Calif. for the Dallas Cowboys) and […]

So, NFL training camps open this week, and I’m busy readying the 2014 Fan Cost Index, as well as putting together some stories for a special MLB FCI package. Yet, here I am writing about a Mid-American C […]

If you’re like me, when you hear the word “Gillette,” the phrase that instantly pops into your head is, “The best a man can get.”

Now, after watching two days of Major League Baseball All-Star festiviti […]

For the 2002-03 NBA season, the average non-premium season ticket to a very non-premium Cleveland Cavaliers team was $38.52, according to the NBA Fan Cost Index.

That price was up 12.2 percent, for some reason. […]

I try not to write too much about the local teams, but when you’re in a city like Chicago, it’s hard to ignore the big stories staring you in the face.

See, when I watch sporting events, my eye is trained to […]

Salem Red Sox general manager Ryan Shelton celebrated a very successful first half with a long drive through Carolina League country.

Shelton rented a van to ferry his assistant general manager and three of his […]

Wine & Gold United…Rip City United…Jazz 44 United…Cap City Kingdom…DC 12.
European soccer has invaded the American…basketball business world.

Half the NBA teams are doing away with the notion of […]

One of the staples of Team Marketing Report’s printed monthly newsletter was “Words from the Field,” where sports executives would answer one question and we would publish their words verbatim, or lightly edite […]

The NHL’s dream Stanley Cup series could end Wednesday evening.

As of this writing, the Chicago Blackhawks were fighting for their playoff lives against the Los Angeles Kings with a possible deciding game c […]

The Derek Jeter Farewell Tour hit Chicago this week, with a two-game series against the Cubs ending Wednesday followed by a four-day weekend series against the White Sox.

Jeter’s last hurrah has been a boon f […]

Just after 9:30 a.m. on a chilly Wednesday morning, Jerry Dean, the director of sales for Benjamin Moore, stood on Clark Street in Chicago and watched paint dry.

“I do it all the time!” Dean said with a lau […]

We know it’s a smartphone world, and pretty soon, a smartphone is all you’ll need to get in a baseball game, buy food and beer, and send witty observations about the bullpen to your 45 Twitter followers from y […]

“There is no such thing as an average ticket.”

In my years compiling the Fan Cost Index reports for the four major sports, I’ve heard variations of that phrase hundreds of times. Not counting the voices in my […]

Last fall, I wrote about the likely breakup between Old Style and the Chicago Cubs for ESPN Chicago.

The Cubs had just signed a massive exclusive marketing deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev, worth $140 million […]

For various reasons, Chipotle is not Taco Bell.

But like its TV-friendly competitor, which is a major player in MLB and the NBA, Chipotle Mexican Grill is dipping its foil-wrapped burrito into the sports […]

How many gnome bobbleheads are too many gnome bobbleheads?

That’s a good question for the Colorado Rockies’ promotional department. Because the Rockies are giving away nine personalized gnome bobbleheads thi […]

The shootout had just begun as a hockey player for the United States converted on the Russian goaltender with a nifty move.

“Score!” I yelled.

“Kaner?” my wife asked, referring to Chicago Blackhawks star Pa […]