Readers of the New Yorker probably know that everyone affiliated with production of the magazine takes extreme pride in the editing and fact checking process. Surprisingly, I think I may have found an error.
The Dec. 8, 2025 edition of The New Yorker contains
an article on sports stadium cost and design. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/08/how-the-sports-stadium-went-luxe
(probably fire walled to non-subscribers). At p. 38, the article contains a
sentence that appears to have evaded a necessary edit to remedy a near certain
reader misinterpretation. The states that in light of the paucity of
available NFL football games at a sports venue, "limited demand has pushed
prices up."
Under conventional economics, limited prospective consumer demand would force a reduction in price to fill seats that would go unpurchased at the supplier desired full price. Vendors of various goods and services typically discount prices when demand does not clear out available capacity. In most instances, vendors would rather accrue some revenues by selling a good or service at lower price than have it unpurchased. This includes stadium seats, particularly when NFL owners needed a "sold out" stadium to secure the right to broadcast the game locally.
I believe author John Seabrook intended to convey the point that when demand for a seat at an NFL football game exceeds the available 10 opportunities at a single venue, with 20 in Sofi in light of two different home teams, exceeding available seating capacity and viewership opportunities would trigger an increase in price.
In other words, too much demand chasing a limited number of available seats in the 10 or 20 available games per year drives prices sky high to satisfy robust demand. In economic vernacular, this type of demand is inelastic, because there are limited, if any, substitute products or experiences. Attending a pre-season game, or a conference "away" game is not "functionally equivalent," because the stakes and crowd vibe are not the same as an in-season, home game.
Might I have convinced the author, editor, and fact checker that the sentence should read in part limited seat availability and robust demand for tickets push prices sky high?
1 comment:
The online version of the article contains the edit I suggested. The sentence now reads: "In most football stadiums, which in a given year host ten home games at best, twenty in SoFi’s case, limited supply has pushed prices up."
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