You probably don't know Sreekar Jasthi, and I get that, not everyone keeps tabs on every South Asian guy or gal in sports like I do. But among his talents, which include having an amazing smile, is that he is a strategy analyst and can be found writing for NerdWallet (and Bright Side of the Sun!) and they put out a great breakdown of what it would cost you for a family night out. The full breakdown can be found here at NerdWallet, and the results are really cool!
The mean cost for four tickets, a parking spot, four hot dogs, two beers, and two sodas is $654.09 across the NBA, according to their findings. Some of the most expensive clubs are no surprise to any of us: the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami Heat are all at the top of the list. The team that is the most expensive, though, isn't one of them. (I'll let you guess which team that is).
The most expensive "small market team" is Oklahoma City, where a night out for four to see the Thunder will set you back $702.00 beans. (This is for perceived small market, but actual market size suggests that Miami is one.) The average for the "small market clubs" is $497.25. (n = 9 teams, CHA, MEM, NOP, OKC, ORL, PHX, SAC, SAS, UTA).
And our Jazz are the cheapest small market club at a paltry $365.69 a night! (For the record, Minny is cheaper, making the Jazz the second least expensive club in the league, but Minneapolis - St. Paul is a pretty significant market size compared to say, OKC or SLC -- and thus I did not include them in the small market club list.)
Jasthi goes into more details on the Jazz here:
29. Utah Jazz
Even after a 12% jump in median resale ticket price, the Jazz have the second-most affordable home games in the league. They also offer the lowest soda price of all 30 teams, while beer, hot dog and parking costs are also lower than NBA averages.
Ha. The double-joke here is that for the average Utah family, a) you'd need more than four tickets, and b) probably more sodas than beers. But that's just me, the non-Utah living Utah Jazz fan, making jokes that aren't even that funny.
Overall I am impressed with the direction that the Utah Jazz are heading in on and off the court. Actual insiders in the LHM Group of Companies who have reached out to me profess that the 'analytics' movement that seems to drive the on-court decisions of the Jazz are now permeating the larger business sides of things as well.
Yes, these values are based upon the Total Family Cost (TFC), which itself is based upon secondary market dynamics -- but it's nice that the Jazz are an affordable team to watch. I really believe that this is the beginning of that third 'wave' of Jazz fans. The first was when the team came to Utah. The second was during the up-swing of Stockton and Malone. Years later we have an entirely new club, with a new general manager, and very few ties to previous teams. Excitement is around, and after a lockout that pushed a lot of fans away, people are interested in the Jazz again.
Diehards persist through all ecotones, but this era of Jazz basketball is a much more attractive environment than the last one. It is even more so when you compare how expensive it is to be a fan of some other club . . .