[legion]

In the mid-90's, when I first started going to concerts, the "standard" ticket price was $15 - $25. I went to Phish and Jimmy Buffett several times from 95 to 2003. I finally stopped going to Buffett when tickets hit $75 a pop and the price of renting a bus for the night had gone from $300 to $2,400.

Cubs games used to be around $30 IIRC. I remember paying under $20 for nose-bleed White Sox tickets. I think all of those tickets are over $50 now.

What happened? It seems that in the early 2000's sports and concert tickets started going up in price by something like 20% a year--far outpacing inflation. I don't even consider doing these things anymore because what was once "cheap" entertainment quickly became "very expensive" entertainment.

I've never been to an NFL game and won't even consider it for what it costs now. (And the parking ain't cheap either.)

NASCAR isn't cheap either. I pay $250 a year for five races at Chicagoland speedway. (IRL, IndyLites, ARCA, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup.) The NASCAR Sprint Cup race is over $100 by itself and all of the other races go down in price from there.

It seems like anymore you have to pick what type of entertainment you are "hardcore" about because you can't afford to do (or figure out the logistics for) anything else.