And who said sports talk radio was stale?

I’m all for calling out greediness – HELLO, SIXERS MID-SEASON PRICE HIKES! – but the righteous indignation over the Eagles’ minor season ticket price hike is a tad ridiculous.

Last week, a few people emailed me and said their tickets were going up. I readied my blogging fingers and set them to skewer. How dare the lackluster Eagles jack up prices after that exhibition in medicority that they called an NFL season. Oh, what’s that, your ticket prices are going up $50 for the entire season? I blinked and moved on… until this morning when WIP and 97.5 reached into their bag of recycled topics and screamed about Jeffrey Lurie being a greedy bastard.

Maybe it’s not the best look to raise prices after that season, but as of last year the Eagles were 11th in the league in average ticket price. The hut-hut-hike (sorry), which will range from $5 per game (mostly in the second level) to $15 per game, or $50 to $150 per season, will bring the average ticket price up to $106. Based on data from Statista (thanks to Tim McManus), that will likely put the Eagles in the top 10 but still behind every other team in the division. It’s also worth pointing out that, as of last year, the average price of an Eagles ticket on the secondary market was $247, according to TicketIQ, making face value prices a relative bargain for those lucky enough to have season tickets. Of course, we shouldn’t pat the Eagles on the back too much there, because no sports team with even a modicum of respect for their fans would dare put their tickets on the open market and subject them to the whim of public demand. Oh… wait.

Earlier this month, TotallyMoney.com found that the cost of Eagles fandom – which factors in ticket, concession and merchandise prices – was 11th in the league, behind every other team along the Northeast Corridor (the Steelers, if you want to include the shit city, were 12th). So this increase, while maybe slightly disappointing, is hardly a sign of any sort of price gauging on the part of the Eagles.

In related news, the Sixers are apparently raising season ticket prices in the lower level (but not the upper level!), a move that was signaled in a hilarious email correction explained by an anonymous reader:

Well they sent me one by accident saying my “mezzanine” seats will remain the same price if I renew by March 10th. I DONT HAVE mezzanine seats. I have lower level. 2 minutes later, they resend the email saying some info was inaccurate in the first email and left out the part saying the prices were to stay the same. Great, Sixers FO, way to rub that in that us lower level folks are the ones getting prices raised. So I sent my rep an email, (which my rep is awesome and I’m not blaming him) and he said it was by accident and lower levels will have a minimal increase per game per seat. Sweet. I’ll still renew but, as someone to had season tickets the last 2 years…I’m not rewarding in any way for that. I’ll forward those two emails (anonymously).

Email 1:

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Email 2:

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The Sixers can’t do anything right.