Ticket prices for live entertainment events, from Taylor Swift concerts to National Football League games and high-season Disney theme-park visits, rose at a startling rate this year, triggering a phenomenon that analysts have dubbed “funflation.”
Nearly 60% of Americans say they have had to cut back on spending on live entertainment this year because of rising costs, according to a Wall Street Journal/Credit Karma survey of about 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted at the start of September. Some 37% of respondents said they can’t keep up with the rising price of events they want to attend, while more than 20% of Americans say they are willing to take on debt to continue to be able to afford their favorite entertainment activities.
Roughly 26% of respondents said they don’t spend any money at all on live entertainment, up from 16% before the pandemic, the survey found.