Well yes, but that's the difference between a "night out" and a vacation. If worlds is not in your home town or within commuting distance, it's going to be a vacation wherever it is held and whatever the price of tickets. You can't expect to pay concert ticket prices for an event where a large arena has to he hired for a week or more, with all the staff and years of organizing needed to stage an event like words, just because many have to travel for it. Yes the tickets are expensive, but you do have to take 30% off for Canadian exchange rates. My tickets to 4ccs, which I couldn't attend so I lost the money, cost almost as much as the cheapest worlds tickets once all the extra fees and exchange were added in.
Isn’t there a price increase over prior Worlds that isn’t accounted for by the exchange rate, though? That seems to be the point many people have raised.
As to its being a vacation - if you’re sitting in a rink all day most days, you’re not really experiencing much of the host city / country, are you? So in a certain sense, you’re really just paying a higher price to attend the competition. Similarly, if you buy an all event and then don’t go to all the events - or arrive just in time for the contenders at one or two events, say, in order to meet friends or sightsee - then you’re not getting the full value of your tickets. I’m not saying people shouldn’t make these choices, just that either the hefty ticket cost increases the cost of the vacation substantially (if that’s your main reason for going) or the cost of flights and lodging effectively increases ticket prices substantially (if that’s your main reason for going).
As to the cost of renting the venue, organizing, etc - yes it’s an extended cost at a competition as compared to a one night event, but if you give a single concert you’re still going to have to bring in equipment, rehearse, have security, etc. - it’s not like you’re just going to waltz into the venue an hour before show time and set up. And I’m sure a tour that stops one night in Montreal likely requires a lot of organizing, too. Anyway, as I said, for me the question is whether it’s much more expensive to organize this Worlds versus the last few. That’s a valid reason to raise prices, but we don’t know if that’s what happened here.
As to 4CCs - I think people commented that it, too, was really expensive compared to prior years, and had outrageous fees. And considering that even with Groupon sales, the men’s FS was about half full to my eyes (it was the only event I was able to attend) - it was a dumb strategy on the part of USFS. But the fact those tickets as well as these Worlds tickets are so expensive does make me wonder if organizers are trying to see how much more the market will bear.
ETA I was able to attend that 4CC event because I was in LA on business, but because I arrived a night early to see the FS and rented a car to go from LA to the venue, I spent about $250-300 just to attend that event over and above the cost of my ticket because those expenses weren’t covered by my company. To be honest, I didn’t think it was worth it.
