Kayla Bruun, an economic analyst at Morning Consult, described the economic picture as a mixed bag when it comes to forecasting spending on discretionary services like live sports and entertainment. She said that inflation resulting from supply chain issues amid the holiday shopping season has caused discretionary spending to skew toward goods and away from services.
The good news for the industry is that, according to Morning Consult’s Indices of Consumer Sentiment and Current Conditions, the impact of COVID-19 surges on consumer confidence seems to be waning as the pandemic drags on. The omicron variant, she said, has had little impact thus far.
“For each COVID case surge that we've seen, people have become more resilient over time, so sentiment has fallen less for each of those surges,” Bruun said. “That's a positive sign in terms of people's willingness to still go out and spend on discretionary categories in general.”
Bruun also pointed out that the labor picture has improved over the past few months, which could result in more discretionary spending in the near future.
“The employment to population ratio overall has been rising,” she said, “so that means more people earning wages, higher incomes and more ability to spend.”
Despite the uncertain picture as winter starts, Andersen projected that pent-up demand for going out and being around other people will drive a ticket sales resurgence in the spring, specifically citing baseball teams as beneficiaries.
Most importantly, she is confident that the live events industry will do everything in its power to avoid shutting back down.
“What I can tell you is that the doors are open, and we're doing it,” Andersen said. “We're not going back. That's the good news.”
Return to Normal tracking polls are conducted weekly among 2,200 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. The most recent survey referenced in this piece was conducted Dec. 16-19, with a sample that included 1,443 self-identified sports fans, a group with a margin of error of 3 points.
Correction: The attendance decline figures for NHL and NBA teams have been updated to reflect a comparison between average attendance for each team so far this season and the average attendance for each team at the equivalent point in the 2019-20 season. The decline in average NBA attendance, originally stated as 5.7 percent, has been updated to 4.9 percent. The average decline in NHL attendance, originally stated as 7.9 percent, has been updated to 5.9 percent.
ncG1vNJzZmiooqR7rrvRp6Cnn5Oku7TBy61lnKedZK6zwMico56rX6OvonnNoaNmmaSpsq%2BwwKeanmWUpMSv