The Price of Victory

How much was ending decades of futility worth to the Red Sox nation? At least a 9.3-percent increase in ticket prices, apparently. After winning the 2004 World Championships, the Sox increased their average ticket price to a league high of $44.56. The cost of victory trickling down to Joe the Fan isn't novel or surprising, but a study last month in the Atlantic Economic Journal showed that teams who win it all jack up ticket costs disproportionately.

From 1991 to 2006, 8 of the 14 champs asked their fans to pony up more than the rest of the league. So were the other six teams just being nice? Nope, in five of those six years the winning team had won recently, and increased prices, just years earlier. (That doesn't include you, Philadelphia, so get ready.) But don't think only winners pay a premium. The Chicago Cubs, 100 years since a title, have the second most expensive tickets. See where your team ranks.

[Via Atlantic Economic Journal]