The Terrell Owens Effect: Prices Leap for Bengals After Signing

Terrell Owens finally has a new home. After enduring a summer of irrelevancy and no serious offers, T.O mania took hold this week as rumors abounded that the loud-mouthed receiver would be signing, with first the Rams, then the Jets, and finally the Cincinnati Bengals.

Coming off of a subpar year by his standards, T.O should be committed and ready to make an impact for the Bengals, who made the playoffs last season. In going to Cincinnati, T.O teams up with arguably the only more out-sized personality in the NFL, in Chad Ochocinco. He signed a one-year contract worth $2 million, with performance incentives for over $1 million more.

It will be interesting to see whether T.O can get along with his new team, and whether his performance on the field will be worth the headache he inevitably causes off of it.

One thing is for certain however, his arrival has created quite a stir in the Bengals ticket market. For the 2010 season, Bengals tickets were transacting at an average price of $106.45 as of July 25. As of this morning, July 28, Bengals home game tickets were listing at an average of $133.38, an increase of 25.3 percent!

It is too early to tell how this acquisition will affect transaction prices, however, since listing and transaction prices are inextricably linked. It can reasonably be assumed that higher listing prices correspond to higher transaction prices. Meaning if you wanted to get in to the see the Bengals on the cheap, it would have been better to purchase your tickets yesterday.

However, seeing Ochocinco and Owens lined up on the same line of scrimmage is worth a premium to me. Although prices have gone up, SeatGeek still has the cheapest Bengals tickets anywhere.

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