I was recently working on an assignment with my biology lab partner. On our drive home, he mentioned that he was part of the Student Athletic Activities Board at Ohio State. I started to tune him out until he said “total revenue” and it sparked my interest. I was like “hey! I know what that is!” All of a sudden I was engaged in the conversation and I’m sure he thought I was crazy but we started discussing how the economy is impacting athletic events at OSU. Due to college students, and really the rest of the spectators, being even poorer than usual, the amount of total revenue brought in from athletic events has decreased. I told him this is because athletic events are highly elastic. There are many close substitutes for going to the games, such as watching the game on t.v. when it is televised, or choosing an alternate way to spend one’s time. When I was at the hockey game this past weekend, I realized that there was a surplus of tickets; a lot of the seats in the arena were empty. My lab partner and I discussed that if prices were lowered to accommodate the spectators willingness to pay, Ohio State might be able to bring in more revenue. This is because if the price is lowered it would be closer to the equilibrium price and essentially at the equilibrium price, a ticket would be sold for every seat in the arena. Then our discussion turned to opportunity cost, a student could go to a hockey game for $6, pay for a hot dog that costs around $4, and a drink that costs approximately $3.50. So in total the Total Cost for going to a hockey game for two people is $37. However, staying in and watching the game on your own t.v. and splitting a case of Natty Light for two people has a Total Cost of $12. But, then we considered “implicit costs” for attending the game. These include the school spirit and encouragement to the players and putting money into your school that could potentially end up benefiting yourself. Although, according to accounting profit, school spirit doesn't necessarily count as a cost..there is no way to measure it, no price tag to display. However, an economic profit realizes that if school spirit is increased then the fans will become more devoted and come to more hockey games and maybe increase so much that there love for Ohio State will cause them to start regularly attending other OSU athletic events, therefore in the long run bringing in more money and a higher profit for Ohio State. Unfortunately in accounting profit, they don't realize what they're potentially missing out on. So, thank goodness that my biology lab partner was willing to take away time from biology and engage in a conversation of economics that allowed me to apply everything Kyle has taught me!