Value Determination in the Secondary Ticket Market: A Quantitative Analysis of the NFL Playoffs, pp. 5-13

Joris Drayer
Stephen L. Shapiro

Previous research has examined the factors that predict the face value of tickets in the primary market. Oftentimes, however, fans place a different value on tickets based on a variety of factors (team success, opponent, day of the week, etc.). The secondary market illustrates fans’ willingness to pay prices that are considerably different from the actual face value of the ticket. This study examined the factors that influenced fans’ perceived value for NFL playoff games during the 2007-2008 season using sell prices on www.ebay.com. Results indicated higher prices in the secondary market were associated with the total number of bids, total number of transactions for each game, current and previous home team winning percentage, population and income of the home city, face value of the ticket, day of the game, round of the playoffs, and number of days before the game that the ticket was sold.