# Sport series ends in a sweep -- who loses money? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 23, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394 "2012-08-23T16:47:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/1 "2012-08-23T16:47:05Z")
Let’s say a playoff series is best of seven, but one team win four straight games. The final three games are canceled with as little as a day’s notice. A stadium or arena probably sits empty that day, and all the people who were hired to staff it, don’t. TV and radio station (and their advertisers) also lose a big market. Who loses the most money from this? The ticket holders? The players? The team owners? The stadium owners? The displaced workers? Advertisers? TV stations? It’s actually amazing there are ever sweeps given all the vested interests. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/2 "2012-08-23T17:00:28Z")
Ticket holders don’t pay for games that don’t happen. They get their money back. ---
**Author:** ![MentalGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/439d5e/32.png) [@MentalGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MentalGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/3 "2012-08-23T17:21:08Z")
The player’s bonus is only based on the first 4 games (for a best of seven series), so they do not lose anything by having a shorter series (at least this was the rule in baseball, I assume it still is and I assume it applies to other sports also). ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/4 "2012-08-23T17:31:40Z")
Since the ticket holders get their money back, anyone who would have received those ticket fees loses out - the team and stadium owners, the league. Also the concession vendors and employees, the parking vendors and employees, and the TV networks. You could also include local businesses like sports bars, restaurants and hotels. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/5 "2012-08-23T17:38:45Z")
But games 5-7 were never guaranteed to be played and should never have been counted as income. Nothing is lost, since those games were fated to never have existed. Each playoff game that actually gets played should be viewed as bonus income only, not expected income. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/6 "2012-08-23T17:39:05Z")
Presumably the TV networks have set aside time in the schedule for games 5-7, too. What do they fill that time with? Sports commentary? Whatever would have run if they didn’t have the games? Whatever reruns they happen to have lying around? And how do they list it in the paper? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/7 "2012-08-23T18:04:47Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > But games 5-7 were never guaranteed to be played and should never have been counted as income. Nothing is lost, since those games were fated to never have existed. > > Each playoff game that actually gets played should be viewed as bonus income only, not expected income. You’re right that the only money actually _lost_ would probably be the cost of printing & distributing tickets and any other advance preparation that ends up not being needed. But the difference between the income opportunity and the actual income would be much greater. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/8 "2012-08-23T19:19:10Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Ticket holders don’t pay for games that don’t happen. They get their money back. Do they get back all the fees that Ticketmaster adds on? Service fee, convenience fee, shipping fee, credit card fee, phone/internet fee, print-at-home fee, etc? (I really don’t know, I’m asking.) And I assume that if they got their tickets through a scalper, they only get back face value. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/9 "2012-08-23T23:38:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Presumably the TV networks have set aside time in the schedule for games 5-7, too. What do they fill that time with? Sports commentary? Whatever would have run if they didn’t have the games? Whatever reruns they happen to have lying around? And how do they list it in the paper? They usually run reruns of the shows that would normally air in that time slot. There’s no time to promote new episodes. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/10 "2012-08-24T14:37:13Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > And I assume that if they got their tickets through a scalper, they only get back face value. Scalpers give refunds? I would think that anyone getting their tickets through a scalper, for games that are listed on a schedule as ‘if necessary’ and weren’t, would be SOL. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/11 "2012-08-24T15:18:39Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Scalpers give refunds? > > I would think that anyone getting their tickets through a scalper, for games that are listed on a schedule as ‘if necessary’ and weren’t, would be SOL. No, they can return the physical ticket to the stadium ticket office for the face value of the ticket. The ticket office doesn’t care if you’re the same person who purchased the ticket. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/12 "2012-08-24T15:20:00Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Scalpers give refunds? > > I would think that anyone getting their tickets through a scalper, for games that are listed on a schedule as ‘if necessary’ and weren’t, would be SOL. No, you can return the tickets to the box office for refunds in nearly all cases. You’ll only get face value. I don’t know if they care that tickets were sold through unauthorized channels, although they have the ability to track that these days. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sport-series-ends-in-a-sweep-who-loses-money/632394/13 "2012-08-24T18:35:51Z")
Moved from General Questions to the Game Room. **samclem**