Why professional athletic organizations face elevated levels of resistance to pricing increases versus other entertainment and leisure organizations

Abstract

Professional athletic organizations face a myriad of challenges in their attempts to maximize revenues while minimizing consumer resistance. In addition to high levels of customer awareness, greater pricing transparency and less flexible pricing models, organizations face greater scrutiny based on the perceived wealth of their owners and athletes, especially compared with non-profit collegiate competition competing in the same sports. Not all root causes of this consumer resistance are created equally. Some organizations may suffer tremendously from one specific root cause, the same cause that may have a negligible effect on other organizations in the same league or even other teams in the same city. While teams may take preventive and corrective actions to lower levels of resistance over time, it is unlikely that the key risk factors for elevated consumer resistance will change in the near future.