It's AFL finals time - and in a season on track for record attendance , the league's decision to freeze the price of entry-level finals tickets for an 11th straight year is smart economics.
Author
- Paul Crosby
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Macquarie University
Footy fans across Australia will be queuing up to get their hands on finals tickets, including for this weekend's first-ever wildcard finals round .
Ticket pricing for events has often made headlines for the opposite reason. Dynamic pricing for concert tickets, where prices rise when demand is high, continues to cause controversy here and overseas.
So why are entry-level footy tickets staying cheap? It's all about investing in the future - especially when there's a lifetime of spending at stake.
What you'll pay for finals tickets
Finals matches routinely sell out, so standard economics would suggest raising prices.
Instead, entry-level tickets for the AFL's qualifying, elimination and semi finals, as well as this weekend's wildcard round, have been frozen at A$35. Entry-level preliminary finals tickets will be $65, unchanged since 2016.
Of course, better seats at later finals will cost considerably more.
This year, other ticket categories are rising by 2-4% . Grand Final tickets will go up the most, climbing to $172 for the cheapest ticket, up from $165 last year, while the most expensive seats are $536, up from $515.
More money vs goodwill
On the face of it, keeping a price freeze on entry-level tickets means leaving money on the table.
One good reason to do so is fairness.
A classic study from 1986 by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman and economists Jack L. Knetsch and Richard Thaler showed consumers are much more accepting of price rises driven by higher costs than increases that simply take advantage of stronger demand.
As part of that famous study, they asked a random sample of Canadians about a hardware store that was selling snow shovels for $15. The morning after a large snowstorm, the store raised the price to $20 - which 82% of the respondents declared was unfair.
Perceptions of unfairness can be costly. Customers complain, buy less, or take their business elsewhere.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon explicitly linked the finals price freeze to cost-of-living pressures and keeping the game affordable.
Concert promoters often make a different calculation. American band Green Day faced a backlash in Australia when dynamic pricing pushed some tickets for their 2025 tour to nearly $500.
British rockers Oasis, in contrast, opted out of dynamic pricing for their 2025 Australian shows.
Each approach involves a trade-off: extra revenue now against goodwill later.
The cost of cheaper tickets
But there is a catch. Pricing tickets below what fans would pay does not make unmet demand disappear.
If a fan buys a $35 ticket they would happily have paid $100 for, the $65 difference is what economists call " consumer surplus ". The AFL has effectively left that value with the fan.
A scalper can try to take advantage of that by buying a ticket for $35, then reselling it for closer to what desperate fans will pay. This helps explain why Victoria caps the resale of Grand Final tickets - along with other major events such as the Australian Open tennis - at 10% above face value .
So cheap tickets do come with a cost. They leave more value with the fans, but make tickets harder to get.
If the price alone does not ration scarce seats, queues, membership priority and luck have to do more of the work.
Investing in the future
Cheap tickets can be an investment. A full stadium creates value beyond ticket revenue. Crowds generate the atmosphere that makes live sport attractive to television audiences and, in turn, valuable to broadcasters and sponsors.
An AFL supporter will often remain attached to the same club for decades, buying memberships and merchandise, watching broadcasts and eventually bringing their children along. A fan won over by a $35 ticket is worth far more than the profit on that ticket.
Keeping tickets affordable, and occasionally letting kids in free , helps recruit that next generation.
Clearer rules from July 2027
Dynamic pricing is currently legal in Australia. Businesses can raise prices, provided they are upfront about what consumers will pay.
But from July 2027, new laws will give consumers broader protection against practices that manipulate their decisions or cause them harm. The reforms will also crack down on hidden fees added late in the purchasing process.
The changes will not be a blanket ban on dynamic pricing. Instead, ticket buyers should expect to see clearer information about pricing.
Some concert promoters may still continue to opt for extra revenue by using dynamic pricing, even at the risk of costing some artists goodwill .
That's why it's interesting to see the AFL maintain a different strategy for some finals tickets. The league is still making a profit - including on many of its better seats - but over a longer horizon than a single September.
Paul Crosby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
