Perhaps you're contemplating a
potential purchase of a new game or card set/yearbook for your favorite sports
board game. Perhaps you're thinking the price tag is a bit too high for your
liking. Let's take an in depth look at the value one can enjoy when it comes to
such a purchase and how that purchase compares to other activities one could
choose when it comes to spending his/her entertainment dollars.
First, I have three 'real life'
examples to share. The breakdown for each:
Last winter I purchased two tickets to
my first 'Blue Man Group' show. Each ticket's price: $75. The show ran about
two hours, so this means I paid $75 an hour for my entertainment that
afternoon.
A friend and I went to a Brewers game
last summer. Tickets were $40 apiece, parking was $10, and lunch before the
game was $30. Total cost: $120. Lunch took about a half an hour and the game
ran over three hours, so we'll say the total amount of time for both was four
hours. That comes out to $30 an hour for my entertainment that
afternoon.
Last fall my son and I golfed 18 holes
at a city course near my home. Greens fees were $50 and cart rental was $16, so
the total cost was $66. We were on the course for approximately three hours, so
I paid $22 an hour for my entertainment that day (and this doesn't
include the original purchase of the golf clubs!).
And now, the cost breakdown for three
different board games that I own:
This past November I completed a full
162 games per team season using APBA Baseball. A card set runs approximately
$70 with shipping. It takes me a half hour to play a game with full stats. My
full season saw a schedule of over 1,900 games, plus post season games. If I
round off to 2,000 games total for the season, it means that I invested about
1,000 hours to that project. The APBA Baseball game itself was $30.
Entertainment value per hour? 10 cents. Yes, 10 cents. But alas, my
project saw me using various teams from 1970-1979, which means I spent $700 on
cards for ten card sets, not the $70 for just one set. Sounds like a lot until
you do the math and see it still comes out to just 73 cents per hour for
my entertainment value.
I own Second Season football and paid
$40 for the game. A yearbook's cost is $28 and I own a dozen of them, so total
cost invested in the game to date is $376. I've played approximately 300 games
to date and each game takes an average of 90 minutes to play with full stats.
Total amount of game time: 450 hours. 84 cents per hour for my entertainment
value.
I have owned Digging Deep Tennis for
several years now. I bought the men's all-time great set with the game and I
believe I paid $30 in all. I average about 40 minutes per match and in looking
over my past tournaments, I'd guesstimate that I've played 150 matches to date.
So I've invested 100 hours of my time
and thus have paid 30 cents per hour for my entertainment value.
Conclusion? Sports board games are not
only a blast, they are a steal when it comes to entertainment value! Now go
ahead and click 'buy' on that game or card set you've been contemplating! It'll
be worth every penny!
