Published on 8/22/2026

How much should one spend on their team?

Counting up the costs of being a fan

I've mentioned it a few times, but I am hoping to have other content other than trip reports on this blog. While the primary content of this blog was (and will probably remain) visiting stadiums and writing my thoughts on them, going from venue to venue can be tiresome at times, and between tickets and transportation, costs can rack up a bit...

...which is why it's rather interesting that this article came out a few days ago. It talks about how many sports fans are finding themselves in debt supporting their teams, but (are attempting to) justify it by insisting that their sports teams are important enough to justify the spending. The article isn't saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but at a time where prices for EVERYTHING are trending towards "more expensive by the day", fans need to be more mindful of how they spend on sports. In other words: sports fans are treating their team as a need alongside bills and groceries to the point that they're willing to go into debt for it, which may or may not be a good thing.

Of course, cutting spending on your team isn't easy. For example, let's use (for better or worse) the 2026 NBA Champion New York Knicks (especially since the Knicks are mentioned in the article). Games 3 and 4 of the Finals were held in New York; I won't get into what happened at Game 3 (both on and off the court), but Game 4 saw the New York Knicks come back from down 29 points to win at the last second en route to them winning their first title in over 50 years.

I remember looking at the ticket prices for the two games of the NBA Finals the Knicks hosted on SeatGeek out of sheer curiosity, and even if I was actually a Knicks fan, there is no way I could even begin to think about going when the get-in price was near five figures (i.e. >$10,000). However, there's likely someone out there who says "money be damned, I NEED to be there to experience this"; yes, that fan gets to say "I saw the greatest comeback/choke job in NBA Finals history in person"¹, which may be beyond worth it to them - but maybe not a bank or lender...

So what does this mean exactly as it pertains to this blog? I mean, this particular idea seemingly applies to fans who invest fully into one single professional team, which if you haven't been reading the over 100 posts on this blog over the past year, isn't how I've been operating.

I've been to almost 100 events in the last two years, and the OVERWHELMING majority of them were minor league (or lower). I won't get into the "specifics" of minor league costs, but it is VERY rare that you'd need to spend anywhere close to $100 to get into a minor league event. In fact, you can often get quite close to the action (see: the three Frontier League games I've been to this year) for a fraction of the cost it would be to sit that close at a "Professional League" game.

Some fans, however, would STILL argue that the costs of a pro league game are still worth it. Lower level leagues feature lower level players, and not only are they still waiting to become stars, a lot of them haven't developed the skills required to succeed at the top level - so the quality of play tends to be inferior to the "professional" product (for some, painfully so). For them, the ability to see a human that vaguely resembles Jalen Brunson from 200+ feet away is far more valuable than POTENTIALLY seeing guys who MIGHT become the next big thing (though since we are in "basketball land", it should be mentioned once again that FEW players who play in the NBA's developmental league go on to become NBA stars).

I haven't even touched on merchandise yet, but to be honest, I feel like lower and higher league merch is comparable in price with two exceptions: buying AT Big Four arenas and jerseys. Sadly, I feel like most Big Four buildings upcharge HEAVILY on things that are also available at places such as Dick's Sporting Goods, and while I've talked about jerseys quite a bit on this blog, I do need to reemphasize that they can get WILDLY expensive at the Big Four level for various features such as stitched lettering² (though some would argue that the quality is still not that great).

At the end of the day, whether or not anyone sees themselves as "overspending" on their team is like other hobbies - it comes down to preference. However, with things where they are now, it's also important to ensure that you don't let your hobby take over your financial decision making (which, I should note, is why upcoming games I bought tickets for MONTHS ago are now suddenly iffy).

Anyway, this obviously has nothing to do with the catch-up series I've been doing for the past few weeks. That will continue tomorrow with - somewhat ironically - another Cape Cod Baseball League team (where teams don't sell tickets to games - though this does come with a small "catch" if you want a souvenir).