They played in Charlotte, and now it’s time to see if they’ll play in the Big Apple. Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) will be used to finance the construction of the new football stadium being built by the Giants and Jets in New Jersey, according to an article in the New York Times.
In economic terms, a PSL is a two-part tariff, where fans pay an up-front lump sum fee for the right to purchase tickets at face value. The PSL allows the team to capture some of the consumer surplus it generates. PSLs were first used to finance stadium construction in the early 1990s by the Charlotte Panthers. Since most PSLs are put in place when a new facility is built, and no new sports facility has been built in NYC in decades, this is the first opportunity for a New York team to implement them.
The key issue is how much the Jets and Giants will charge for a PSL. Historically, teams priced PSLs under $10,000. But Jerry Jones upped the ante last year when the Cowboys priced their PSLs between $16,000 and $150,000 in their new facility that is scheduled to open in 2009. Will the Jets and Giants feel the need to keep up with the Joneses?
