eing the Detroit Silverdome, which can hold 80,311 people. The smallest NFL venue is located in Indianapolis and can hold 56,120 people. In addition to crowd noise the second most important feature about a NFL or MLB venue may be their historical value. Many baseball fans will tell you the importance of places such as Wrigley Field in Chicago or Fenway Park in Boston although the owners of those teams will tell you that they need new and more modern venues. The oldest ballpark in the MLB is indeed Fenway Park in Boston and was built in 1912 and the oldest venue in the NFL is Soldier Field in Chicago and was built in 1924. I have visited both venues and will admit that there is something special about sitting in a stadium that was built 80 or 90 years ago and thinking about all the great players that have played there. I believe the evidence supports the argument that the NFL venues are truly larger and louder whereas MLB ballparks are known for their history. Player salaries are often claimed by team owner to be the single largest factor in the decision to raise ticket prices. Player salaries are now so large that the American public cannot even make a comparison. The average player salary in MLB in 2000 was a little over two million per year with Alex Rodriguez leading the pack at $25,200,000 per year. The average player salary in the NFL in 2000 was 1.18 million dollars per year. Baseball players consistently make more money than their football counterparts due in large parts to the salary cap structures in the respective leagues. In the NFL each team must field a 53-person roster while keeping their salary under the 2001 salary cap of 67.4 million dollars, however in MLB there is no salary cap so players can make as much as possible. There used to be a system of luxury taxing in MLB but that system expired in 2000 so there are currently no salary obstacles to players in baseball. The luxury tax system required the fi...
