For better or worse the US is regarded as the benchmark for professional sports, and it seems to me the AFL looks very closely
at what goes on over there. A lot of the things that we see at AFL games now are direct imports from sports events in the US.
The "supplementary entertainment" you refer to has been a staple in the US for many years. I was at a Dodgers game in LA
just a few weeks ago, and the "match day experience" we have to endure these days at the SCG during the breaks is a fraction
of what occurred there. Go to any NBA game, and you'll wonder how any basketball gets played at all. It is literally a circus.
While you (and I) and most of the people posting on this forum dislike all the non football "entertainment" at AFL games these
days, a lot of people don't mind it. So we aren't representative of every person going to games. And so I think fans going to
games are an easy target for a price hike. If you are a Swans member and have a reserved seat in one of the so-called premium
areas you pay about $50 per game for your seat. At the Dodgers game I sat a similar distance from the field as my seat in
Brewongle and our tickets cost $130 each. The equivalent ticket to an NBA or EPL game costs about the same. Tickets to
see "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof" last night at the STC cost a bit under $100. Tickets to Metallica at ANZ later this year on Level 4
cost $265. So compared to all of these other events, going to the footy is pretty cheap. And I think the AFL know it, and
when they start looking for extra money, they aren't going to have to look far to find it.
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