[stone hands]

Originally Posted by heep223

Well, it's just a theory so bear with me.

Prices are going to go up in the new building no doubt, but the market still sets those prices. There's no doubt about this. What something is worth is what somebody is willing to pay for it. If the Flames set the price of a ticket at $110, and nobody buys it, they will have to lower it, regardless of any other factors.

So let's say the market says that the price of a ticket is $100 in the new building. Any more than that, and nobody would buy it. Any less than that, and the Flames are leaving money on the table. Basic economics right? It doesn't matter what that $100 consists of behind the scenes, whether the Flames are paying some sort of tax, or whatever. If they didn't have to pay a ticket tax to the city, they'd be putting that $10 into their pocket. So no - it won't affect prices, and it's not really a 'user tax'.

Think about it this way - there are many taxes currently embedded into ticket prices and it really has no bearing on the market. For example, let's say you're willing to pay $80 to go down to the Saddledome and watch the Flames play this year. All of the sudden the city imposes a $20 ticket tax because they're broke, and they feel that people going to Flames games can afford to pay this tax (luxury tax). The Flames bump the price up to $100 to try and save their margin and pass it along as a "user tax", but you're no longer will to pay that price. So they move it back down to $80, and have to eat it themselves. If they could still sell the tickets at $100, all it means is that they were previously leaving money on the table.

I dunno, maybe I'm out to lunch. But I think that the market sets prices, not the Flames. A ticket tax is really a burden on them, not on us.

The market is Calgary. The product is the flames. Unless we see a young guns type collapse of the on ice product, cse can charge whatever the hell they want and it won't matter

"Market forces" have no impact in a monopoly