Due to how expensive ticket sales have become in recent years, it is increasingly difficult for the average American to watch their favorite sports team play live.

Going to see sporting events shouldn’t be so expensive; a real fan should be in a position to go and watch their favorite team play multiple times a year.

For example, one singular ticket in the cheap seats of Madison Square Garden to watch the New York Knicks play against the Sacramento Kings on a Sunday night – two mediocre basketball teams – can cost upwards of $200. Is it worth sacrificing a week’s groceries for this experience? You tell me.

A big issue that is contributing to these expensive tickets is ticket resales, meaning people will buy tickets when they are a reasonable price and look to scam people by reselling them for a much more unreasonable price. Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour is a perfect example of why ticket resales contribute to expensive ticket prices.

Swift’s tour created a frenzy of fans who were anxiously waiting to buy the tickets. As soon as the ticket site opened to the public, millions flooded in.

The tour was different to other concerts, as the original ticket prices were actually reasonably priced, the lowest being $49.

After all original tickets were purchased within hours of availability, the only tickets left were the ones who had been previously bought and resold for an extremely high price.

This completely defeated the whole purpose of Swift’s idea to keep the prices affordable and the only way to combat this exact issue is by limiting who can resell tickets and the amount that they can sell them for.

Not only are absurdly expensive ticket prices hurting the youth who want to see their favorite players and performers, it is also hurting longtime fans of a team who can no longer attend their games due to crazy pricing.

In Europe, where soccer is huge and loved by so many, the same problem is happening with ticket pricing.

A club like Manchester United is a prime example of how longtime fans can no longer watch their team play due to unreasonably priced tickets.

To watch Manchester United take on Wolverhampton Wanderers from the second tier of Old Trafford can cost up to 250 pounds, or approximately $350.

Many soccer supporters use the phrase “Created by the poor, stolen by the rich” to express their displeasure with a variety of issues, including excessive ticket costs. This implies that fans who have followed the team since they were young and supported them at games where tickets were affordable are no longer able to attend games since the club was taken over by the wealthy.

To conclude, aside from limiting ticket resales, many sports teams must work to lower their price per ticket in order to not only keep fans coming to their games, but also so genuine fans, particularly the youth, can see their heroes perform.