60% of Utah Jazz fans say it’s too expensive to attend attend NBA basketball games

More than half of Utah Jazz fans say attending games is too expensive, according to one survey.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz fans arrive at the Delta Center ahead of the game in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023.

A majority of Utah Jazz fans feel they are being priced out of attending live games and are disappointed by the team’s performance when they do make it to the Delta Center.

That’s the finding of a recent survey that included questions posed to thousands of NBA fans. And, if accurate, that’s a notable problem for the Jazz organization.

Don’t know how many businesses can successfully exist when more than half of their customers are dissatisfied with the product, feeling as though they’re being disregarded and, in so many words, ripped off by that enterprise. But that’s what’s happening with the Jazz, according to a summer survey done by the Action Network.

The specific findings of the survey indicated that 60 percent of Jazz fans feel as though they’re being priced out; 32 percent say they spend more than $500 when they do attend games; 63 percent say they feel “sometimes or always let down by their team.”

That last revelation, at least the “sometimes” part of it, is somewhat understandable in competitive pro sports — as opposed to, say, a company that sells computers or a clothes line or a shampoo product — because most fans are not left feeling particularly chipper when their team loses, which is often a possibility and at times, at least with the Jazz of late, a probability. The first part is baked into sports, while it’s not, or shouldn’t be, the expectation for results when a consumer purchases deodorant or toothpaste or a cell phone.

If you buy and use a deodorant and you still stink, you’re not going to buy that product again. If your team stinks one night, there’s typically the hope that it won’t stink the next time out. If it stinks most nights … well, you wonder about the cash you dropped on the barrel.

The “always” part should be a major concern for the Jazz.

They ranked fourth on the list of NBA teams that are pricing their fans out, behind only the Nuggets, the Raptors and the Cavaliers: as mentioned, 60 percent of Jazz fans said, yes, they feel that way, 23 percent answering no, and 17 percent responding that they did not know.

Jazz fans ranked third among fan-base percentages who spend more than $500 when they attend a game: 30 percent saying they exceed that number, 13 percent saying they spend between $300 and $499, 37 percent drop between $100 and $299, 20 percent spending less than $100.

The Jazz have been competitively lousy enough to periodically lower ticket prices to games, particularly when selling less-attractive seats. It may be a case of a rather standard economic principle: When the demand goes up, the supply goes down; when the supply goes up, the demand goes down.

Beats me. I hated Economics 301 in college.

I just figure the better the Jazz are, the more desirable tickets to their games become, and the more willing people are to pay for overpriced pizza and a cold beverage, and then go home satisfied. The worse they are, the less desirable, less satisfying all of it is.

I’ve always wondered, though, even when the Jazz actually won a lot of games, what the breaking point is for fans who really do love their team and want to watch it play in person, especially against other quality teams. How much is too much to ask? Players make exorbitant amounts of money. And while TV dollars cover some of that, at what amount will fans be completely turned off by the costs? As the survey indicates, patrons sometimes shell out big dollars for tickets, for parking, for nachos, for a jersey at the team store. Some of those jerseys require fans to expend large amounts of savings for the privilege of wearing their team’s colors.

It’s an emotional buy. But what if it’s too steep? When does it become too steep? What if the emotion takes a turn?

High-level pro and college sports can bring a community together, give regular folks who work hard for their money, week after week, month after month, year after year, something to cheer for, something to rally around, a passion to pass on to their kids. Yeah, sometimes it divides residents — red and blue — too. But kept in perspective, that also can be a gas, an energy boost.

But when attending games becomes too heavy a financial ask, finding a decent seat crosses the threshold from joy to pain — ask some Ute and Cougar fans about that — then, you have to wonder about the usefulness of the entire endeavor. Especially if the team traditionally tugging at your heart too often does on the court, on the field what your personal deodorant is supposed to prevent for you.