Broncos offend long-time season-ticket holders with latest price hike

Supply and demand. That’s easy enough to understand. Empower Field at Mile High has 76,125 seats, every one of which has been filled and paid for since the building’s opening in 2001, extending the Broncos sellout streak that dates back to 1970.

Fair market value. That’s also a concept that isn’t foreign to most people. Anything in life is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, including almost all goods and services. Entertainment certainly falls within that realm, subject to normal market forces.

When the Broncos broke out those two rationales for raising ticket prices, with increases ranging from six to 22 percent, most people get it. They may not like it, given that the team is coming off a 5-12 season that extended their streak of sub-.500 campaigns to six years, but they can grasp it.

After all, the franchise enjoys a 98 percent renewal rate for season tickets. There are reportedly 50,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets. This is a textbook example of supply and demand.

There’s also data that shows the team’s tickets sold for 40 percent over face value on the secondary market last season. That’s a clear indication of what the market says the tickets are actually worth.

Thus, the Broncos are employing sound business practices with their 2023 adjustment. More power to them.

But the team crossed a line when they continued to try to justify their action. They went too far when they went beyond business 101 reasoning.

“Our 2023 season ticket prices reflect the additional regular-season home game,” team president Damani Leech included in a letter to the season-ticket holders.

On the surface, this sounds reasonable, which is why the spin doctors quickly took the line and ran with it. After all, the NFL’s 17-game schedule has created a situation where every team alternates between eight and nine homes games per season, depending on the year. In 2023, the AFC gets the additional home date, meaning the Broncos will play one more regular-season game at Empower Field than they did in 2021. Thus, the bump seems appropriate.

The problem, however, is that the adjustment to the regular-season slate doesn’t impact what the Broncos sell to their ticket holders. The package remains the same.

When the NFL expanded to a 16-game regular season in 1976, every team played two preseason games and eight regular-season at home. In some places, including Denver, teams forced season-ticket holders to buy the preseason games. It was part of a 10-game package.

All 10 games were the same price. There wasn’t a discount for the exhibitions. The cost of admission to a game that didn’t count, featuring a lot of players who weren’t going to make the team, wasn’t cheaper.

It was a racket. But the team had the leverage. Fans weren’t willing to give up their ticket rights because of that oft-cited, never-seen waiting list, so they paid the price. They had no choice but to grin and bear it.

This season, the Broncos will still be selling a 10-game package to their fans. The NFL preseason is now only three games. Teams with nine regular-season home games only play one exhibition at home, while the other half of the league plays eight and two. Everyone gets 10 home dates, providing the exact same number of chances to charge fans full price.

After forcing fans to pay full price for decades to attend, or often not attend, preseason games, it’s disingenuous to suggest that prices are going up in 2023 because of the addition of the ninth regular-season home game. That would only make sense if preseason games had historically been sold at a discount. They haven’t been.

It’s 10 full-price tickets either way. Fans aren’t getting anything extra.

Sure, an argument can be made that 90 percent of their tickets are now for a real game instead of 80 percent. But that means the team is justifying gouging fans in 2023 because they’ve been gouging them even worse since 1976.

That’s offensive. That’s taking advantage of a loyal fan base. That’s a dangerous move.

Yes, the Broncos have the leverage now. Supply and demand, as well as fair market value, are on their side. But there’s no reason to believe that will last forever.

A 53-year streak of sellouts might suggest that it will, but things change quickly. Look at the list of Super Bowl advertisers from 10 years ago. It’s a graveyard of companies that were once dominant and are now defunct.

This past season, every Broncos ticket might’ve been sold, but they certainly weren’t used. Late-season games featured a lot of empty seats. The crowds were often embarrassing, a sea of blue, orange and white that once seemed unfathomable.

As the team continues to struggle, sporting the second-longest playoff drought in the NFL, there’s no guarantee that people will continue to gobble up tickets. There’s no assurance that a Broncos home game will always remain en vogue.

Denver is changing as a city. It’s a town filled with more and more people who didn’t grow up bleeding orange.

That demographic is getting smaller and smaller with every passing year. The group of people who were willing to pay full price for two lousy preseason games every season is shrinking.

If the Broncos want to raise their prices, that’s their prerogative. But they shouldn’t be shocked when they eventually price out their most passionate customers.

That’s what happens when loyalty is the longest one-way street in Denver. That’s the result when you offend the people who’ve supported you for decades.

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