text: When a sports team hires an expensive new player or builds a new stadium, you often hear claims that ticket prices have to rise to cover the new, higher cost. Let’s see what monopoly theory says about that. It’s safe to treat these new expenses as fixed costs: something that doesn’t change if the number of customers rises or falls. You have to pay Miguel Cabrera the same salary whether people show up or not, you have to make the interest payments on the new Comerica Park whether the seats are filled or not. Treat the local sports team as a monopoly in this question, and to keep it simple, let’s assume there is only one ticket price.