A Look at an SEC Football Ticket Price Increase Over 57 Years

Chuck Dunlap from the SEC office posted an image of a ticket from the 1955 game between Alabama and Mississippi State. It's kind of cool:

The game was at Alabama's Denny Stadium, and the ticket cost $3.75. Ticket prices sure have gone up in the last 57 years! Well, maybe not as much as we might think. Let's find out.

A dollar now isn't the same as a dollar in 1955 thanks to inflation (no politics/inflation ranting in the comments, please). According to this online inflation calculator, a $3.75 ticket in 1955 would cost $31.71 in 2012. That's... actually not terrible for a hypothetical ticket to an SEC football game.

As luck would have it, Mississippi State played at Alabama last fall as well. According to the Alabama ticket information website, the face value of a single game seat to last fall's game was $70. That figure is $38.29 higher than today's equivalent price of the 1955 ticket, so that comes out to an inflation-adjusted 121% increase in ticket prices versus 57 years ago.

What's the overarching point? I dunno. I just thought it was interesting to be able to put a number on it. It would be interesting some time to look up old prices and see how they've changed at various schools, as I'll be Alabama's rate increase is not the same as everyone else's are. Maybe we'll get to that later in the offseason.