Press-Telegram (Long Beach)

Paying the higher and higher price

- Doug McIntyre's column appears Sundays. He can be reached at: Doug@ DougMcInty­re.com.

A few weeks ago, I made a quick trip to

New York for my mom's 90th.

I landed at JFK at

5:30 p.m. and took the AirTrain to Jamaica, the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station and the 2 Train to Times Square. As I lugged my roller bag up from the subway, I glanced at my watch: 6:50 p.m., pretty good time from JFK to midtown on a Wednesday. After congratula­ting myself for taking public transporta­tion, I noticed the blinking marquee on 41st Street, “Mr. Saturday Night staring Billy Crystal!” Why not?

I had 10 minutes to make the curtain.

At 6:55 p.m. I purchased one ticket at the box office, fifth row, dead center, for 125 smackers. An usher took my luggage and I settled into my seat to enjoy the show. Which I did.

Crystal is a star for a reason, plus the show was cowritten by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, my former bosses in the TV racket, who happen to be brilliantl­y talented and very nice fellows to boot.

Now, many of you are undoubtedl­y saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted,” and if you're not a theater person, I can understand why. Still, by today's standards, $125 for a fifth-row center seat is actually a steal — not quite a tank of gas, right?

But what if you don't have $125 to spend on a whim?

Or even after months of scrimping and saving?

The legendary Broadway producer, Emanuel “Manny” Azenberg, in a recent TEDxBroadw­ay conversati­on said, “When `A Chorus Line” opened the top ticket price was $15, and now it's $250 to $500. We've chased away an audience.”

And it ain't just Broadway. In 1979, just a few years after “A Chorus Line” debuted, Lakers fans could get floor seats for $15. Now that same seat goes for $2,750 or more in the after-market. No wonder we don't see Jack Nicholson as often as we used to.

Baseball has traditiona­lly been the most financiall­y fan-friendly sport. It has to be with a 162 game season and all those seats to fill. Still, prime Dodger tickets cost more than I paid for my first three cars, while a single Rams ticket is going for more than tuition, room annd Board for my BA in English from Stonehill College, Class of '79.

Good seats to the recent Paul McCartney concert at Sofi Stadium were so pricey you had to be a former Beatle to afford them.

In the age of deep-pocket entertainm­ents, short-term profits threaten not only the long-term survival of major league sports, concerts and theater, but the creative integrity as well.

“Broadway has become a theme park,” says Azenberg. “The shows should be in Orlando.”

And speaking of theme parks, a day at Disneyland has become like a day in Davos, Switzerlan­d. A one-day pass sells for $104. Each.

The bottom line is the only line. As long as people continue to pour through the turnstiles, ticket prices will remain high, but the “haves and the have-nots” are now also the “see and the seenots,” with the many millions priced out of experience­s they once enjoyed, furthering fracturing a culture already deeply divided along political, racial, gender and generation­al lines.

You get what you pay for in this life, right? But is that still true when a tallboy of Bud Light goes for $16.15 at Dodger games?

 ?? ?? Doug McIntyre Columnist
Doug McIntyre Columnist

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