Are young people being priced out of their social lives?

As World Cup fever sweeps the globe, we’re waking up early or staying out late to catch the latest matches. Only the truly fortunate few are watching the games live, with ticket prices skyrocketing into the thousands of dollars. Similarly, most basketball fans had to huddle around tv and phone screens during the NBA finals, with courtside tix reserved for the very wealthy.  

So, does that mean Gen Z – who on average earn less than $24,000 a year in Australia – are being priced out of these significant social events? And is the cost of living part of the reason why Gen Z is so lonely?  

This week Ben and Anoushka explore the soaring prices of big events, chat to Professor Ben Smith from the Sydney School of Public Health about his research into the loneliness epidemic, and then talk to some Gen Z-ers about how they are creating community in their own unique way.  

With special guests, Professor Ben Smith, from the Sydney School of Public Health, and students Nathan, Ella and Lorenzo. 

All Caught Up: A Newsworthy Podcast. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, this is all caught up and I'm Anushka.

SPEAKER_04 0:02

And I'm Ben, and let's catch up.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

So, Ben, what are we talking about this week?

SPEAKER_04 0:14

One of my favourite topics of all time. It's the FIFA World Cup. I'm sure you've been seeing it. Australia won on the weekend, 2-0 against Turkey. It's taken over the nation. It's taken over the world. And I've never seen more people who are traditionally football fans like yourself get involved in the sport.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Exactly, exactly as you said. I'm not traditionally a football fan, but I did even see the game on the weekend. It was so exciting. Yeah, I've been seeing it everywhere, especially across social media as well.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

100%. And I think one of the biggest reasons is because it's every four years, so everyone gets behind it. They've expanded it to 48 teams, so every single person sort of has a say. I had a little plan back in the day when I started uni. So it was for me and my friends to travel to the US, watch the World Cup in a van, but you look at the prices of tickets, I just don't really think that would have been possible.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That's such a cool plan though.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

No, it would have been really cool. Like sort of caravanning in the back of someone's van, and I overloaded my courses so that I could sort of do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

But she structured everything out.

SPEAKER_04 1:07

Yeah, but in the end it didn't really work, did it?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

While you're here.

SPEAKER_04 1:09

Yeah. So the host nations, they're US, uh, Canada, and Mexico. So they set an original ticket price. So no tickets could go over this limit. This was $1,550 in USD.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

But somehow, and I'm not too sure how or why, but by April 2026, somehow, the cheapest ticket for a finals game was $5,700 USD.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

That's insane. Just think about all the money you'd have to save. And that's just for one ticket. How much is the most expensive one then?

SPEAKER_04 1:40

Well, the most expensive seats, up to $10,000 USD.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

About 18,000 AUD. So they've they've tripled in price, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

That that is absolutely insane. If the average Gen Z salary is currently 25k USD, how are they ever meant to afford something like this? You know, that's almost a quarter year's worth of work.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

No, no, imagine saving up, you've you've been working for three months, and then that's for 90 minutes of a football game. That's right. I'm a football fan myself, but that's a bit ridiculous. And on top of that, the average amount that Gen Z have in savings is 1,800 from that same self.com survey.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Young people are being priced out of events like this because there's no feasible way that anybody our age could afford it.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

And that's what we're gonna talk about today. So if Gen Z are not able to attend these massive social events like the World Cup because they're being priced out, is that limiting our social connections? Are we able to make friends without these big events?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

You also have the New York NBA games, showing that it's not just a one-off in football.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

Right, and the price to go to one of these games is even more expensive than the World Cup somehow. $43,000 USD for courtside seats. Fair enough, they're courtside seats, but in the nosebleeds, you're paying over 4,000 USD.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Exactly, and what are you even gonna see from up there? You know, it's so far away, you have to bring some binoculars.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

I know, jeez, that is that is rough. And you know, the AFR we're talking about how NBA is actually massive in Australia. We are the second most streamed NBA country in the world, just obviously behind America, which is crazy. So there's massive demand there, but how are we supposed to go to the States, pay for one of these games if we're not earning enough?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

And it's not just sporting events, is it? It's also music and concerts.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

There's this new thing called ticket concert dynamic pricing, right? And that works in the same sort of structure as Uber. So during peak times, for example, you know, when you're on a night out with your friends, the price of an Uber would cost more, just the same way for tickets. So if more people want to watch Taylor Swift, for example, more money will need to be spent on each ticket, and the only people that can buy them are the ones with more money.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Thinking about Taylor Swift, her ticket pricing was mental. In 2024, she had her errors tour, and there was this thing called the Ticketek War.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Oh my days. I heard about the Ticketch war. I reckon kids are studying it in modern history right now. Pretty much. There was people in class, laptops out, refreshing the page, not even looking at the lectures, just to get one of the cheaper tickets. I think they were what, maybe $80 for the cheapest one?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Exactly. So the G Reserve, that was $80, but then you also have on the other end of the spectrum, it's been a long time coming package, and that is about $1,200.

SPEAKER_04 4:17

Right, my favorite one is Karma is my boyfriend package. It's $899. I think I was saying to you before, well, like Karma is my wallet because those tickets are not very good.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Exactly. And you're not even going to be able to access the cheaper tickets on the cheaper end of the spectrum unless you're sitting there consistently refreshing the page. You know, making loads of accounts. They're pricing us out. You have to pay that premium.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Right. So if everyone's paying a bazillion dollars for all these packages, it leads us to our main question of, you know, are these expensive social events reducing interactions? And the stats sort of agree with us.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Exactly. So according to a BBC article, adults between 18 and 24 are the most lonely, which is then closely followed by older people. I feel like for me, my 20s were marketed as a time of loads of social outings, you know, and loads of connection. And now these stats are saying the exact opposite. Right. It's quite hectic.

SPEAKER_04 5:09

Definitely. And it's something we hear so much about. I was looking at this one online um case study, and there's some guy from England, he's also from that same BBC article, actually. So he he said he was talking to Chat GPT six to eight times a day because he just couldn't socialise. So he was just talking to ChatGPT about his problems instead of forming real connections.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

That's awful.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

That's crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:30

That's insane. And I know personally I feel so much better when I see my friends and when I hang out with them. It must be awful to only have that connection on an online interface like ChatGPT, you know.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Like even if you're just sort of hanging out, not doing anything in particular, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Definitely, exactly. Even if I'm in their space, even if we're working on separate things, studying in the same room, you still feel better. It's like my cups being filled just by their presence.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Yeah, and another really, really weird stat that I saw, apparently loneliness is just as damaging to your health as 15 cigarettes a day. That's according to the Surgeon General. Isn't that weird?

SPEAKER_01 6:02

That's very odd.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

So I guess the moral of the story is we should sort of use these social events to, you know, create friendships. But the social events are so expensive, so what are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Exactly. And on that point, we spoke with Professor Ben Smith, who let us know a little bit more about Gen Z's loneliness and how this is being impacted by the pricing of social events.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I'm Professor Ben Smith. I'm from the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. So I think the first thing I said is that there's a uh an element of the stage of life that feeds into uh a greater risk of loneliness. But there are also a number of other things that younger people as a segment of our society are grappling with. One is cost of living pressure and the stresses associated with that, and we see a very strong relationship between uh finding it hard to pay your bills and dealing with the stress of not feeling you've got enough resources and and loneliness. So the the experience of mental health struggles and depression among young people, I think, is one of the things which is also contributing to the risk of loneliness and the high prevalence that we've been seeing.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, it's very interesting. He gave us some great insight.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Professor Smith raises some really interesting points. So the first one is all about how Gen Z are becoming more lonely because of the cost of living. And that includes social events being more expensive. We can't go hang out because it just costs too much money.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

The the hurdle of the cost of going to events and to venues is is just a real ongoing practical one for young people. And you've talked about things like concerts and the World Cup, they're they're you know big ticket items, if you like. But also, we've heard from young people that even the cost of going out for a cafe breakfast, getting an Uber, you know, things that are a lower point on the price range are also a struggle, too. So it it um you know it does make us start to think about what can be done at the community level through the resources and facilities we've got, through the spaces we create. Uh, I like your suggestion of thinking about what young people themselves can can initiate um within their networks in that. And there have been some really inspiring and astounding things that have been initiated uh, you know, in different parts of the country, you know. A number of them sparking through the online environment, you know, starting as a website or a or you know, something that's instigated on one of the other platforms, uh, but you know, leading on to meetups in parks and picnics and and uh get-togethers in cafes and bars, and and so it's not all happening online, it's just that's the first point of kind of awareness raising and and um you know that it it transitions into something where people get face-to-face contact with each other.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Professor Smith's points exactly coincide with our information. Expensive outings mean less opportunity for socialization and therefore less creation of community. Thank you to Professor Smith. And while we do agree that some Gen Z are lonely, personally I'm not sure if this is the only perspective here.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

No, I 100% agree. And we went to a FIFA World Cup party on the weekend, for example.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Exactly, and I saw the NRL game at the local Oval with my friends.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Nice. And even last night, State of Origin was on, I went to my maid's house, we had a couple beers, we watched that, it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

And you even have the NBA projections all across New York.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

Right, so I wonder, is this negative Gen Z loneliness news cycle sort of overstated?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Right, as we know, social media is very good at perpetuating a one-sided view of things.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

No, I totally agree, and I reckon it's because all this negative stuff gets more views, more likes, more shares, because it's just sort of more attention grabbing.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

100%. But what's on the other side of that coin? If you push past all this negativity in the media, I think you can see that Gen Z actually does have a sense of community, just in a slightly more nuanced way to previous generations.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

Right, I guess it's probably because we're that first generation that's starting their communities online. So we've got so many different real memes and random things that maybe older people wouldn't get.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Definitely. I think social media plays the most important role in creating new ways of connection.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

But what we're seeing even more is they're coming off social media as well. So we're also getting watch parties, we're getting viewing sessions where people are meeting in person and watching these events together.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Definitely. And even for me, I will go and watch a sports game with my friend. It's not the sport that I'm interested in, but more so the community, having time with my friends, celebrating one shared goal.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

You know? But it is still fun when you're watching a sport game with a friend who's also supporting another team, so it's a bit of a rivalry sort of vibe. So you're still like, I do agree with you though, you're watching sports, but you're also hanging out with your friends, and that's the main part of it, I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

But we are only two opinions. So we headed around the UNSW campus to ask our fellow Gen Zers how or if they are creating community in their lives, especially with extremely high ticket prices being a barrier of entry.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

Guess how much a ticket to the finals games in the World Cup would cost?

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Oh, $3,000 maybe.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

And you've been watching the World Cup as well? Yeah, yeah. How much do you reckon a ticket to one of the finals games would cost?

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Oh, probably like $20,000.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

$20,000? I mean, to be fair, some of them are. And how much would you guess a ticket to like the finals would be? Not the grand final, just any sort of final.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Knowing FIFA, that is quite interesting.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

Like the minimum ticket.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Minimum ticket? I would say it would be close to the 200 mark, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

To go watch one of the finals games. Not even the grand final, just any sort of final. Minimum like 8,000. Still kind of expensive. We we can't afford that personally. It's like 8,000. Yeah, yeah, for one of like the semi-finals or the finals, something like that. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. So expensive. Right, so then we went to a pub and we met up with Ellie. So she was watching the World Cup with her friends and she had a bit of stuff to say to us. You know, knowing that Gen Z just like don't earn as much as other generations, obviously we can't really watch those games. But how else are you, how else are you sort of watching these with your friends?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

An extension of where I work is obviously with art. So a lot of the watch parties have been good to have on campus. There's also little um pop-ups around where I live where they do a bunch of screenings right next door to where I live. We have a little synthetic um feel that the whole Wetworth community goes to watch and have a bunch of couple of friends to go. I feel like that is probably the most immersive way to watch World Cup and really the best way. I feel like again, going and hearing stories of people that are selling their houses in Argentina from the last World Cup so they could go see Messi when his World Cup. Um so I feel like that camaraderie and then also the accessibility across the board in Sydney has been really good. So I would say it's creating community by getting us to go out, drink, and then also connect with others.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Dan Lorenzo, he had a couple fun pointers of how him and his mates are watching the World Cup despite the prices.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

So our main question is because Gen Z can't afford such expensive tickets, how else are we sort of socializing around the World Cup and these types of events?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

What do you mean, like uh watching it or like with your friends and stuff, maybe? Either the pub, go to the pub, or um what's another one? Oh, when when some um TikTokers or like YouTubers like stream it, obviously gets taken down like after a few hours and then they get banned. They're the real heroes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

So you're watching it like with your friends through different avenues, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So what's tell me about like what would it look like going to the pub with your friends?

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Oh, I mean good vibes. You make new friends along the way, but then you just don't remember them the next day. Um, it's good good laughs, and then we stay up to like 4am and then just start talking about what they could have done better, like were better than them or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As soon as we get in the field, we're all injured.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

It's good fun, it's good socialise.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

So you do agree that even though we can't go to the World Cup because the tickets are so expensive, we're still finding a way as Gen Z to socialise around events like this.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Yeah, 100%. It's just a culture. It's a culture. I feel like like even I don't know I noticed some people in that flew to America don't even have tickets. But they're just in Boston watching the games from their pubs.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

So Lorenzo's staying up till 4am to watch the games with his friends. That sounds more fun than going to the game, some might say.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Definitely, and the whole party surrounding that. Imagine how good he'd feel.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Not the next day though.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

And finally we have Nathan, and he put it quite simply.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

And what we're really interested in is because these tickets are so expensive and Gen Z people just earn less, we can't go to these events, right? Yeah. So how else are you using the World Cup to socialise?

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Um, going out with mates, sort of watching it with mates and having that time to connect with my friends and watching together and celebrate, you know, wins for the teams we go for.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Are you watching it at any is it like someone's house, like a pub, like where are you coming from? More houses, definitely more houses, yeah. Or social gathering. Alright, so after, you know, talking to all these people about the World Cup, firstly, they were quite surprised at the expensive prices, but more importantly, they're still making connections, they're still making friends through the World Cup despite not being at the overpriced games.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Exactly. And on a larger scale, another brilliant example of community is the Knicks victory in the NBA and all of the media coming out of New York at the moment. I'm not sure about you, Ben, but my whole Instagram is filled with edits of New York and the Knicks and the NBA.

SPEAKER_04 15:34

And for some context, so the Knicks have just won the 2026 NBA Finals for the first time in 53 years against the San Antonio Spurs. So New York is running rampant. It looks like such a fun place to be right now.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

I know, I definitely have a little bit of FOMO from that.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Have you ever been to New York?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

I haven't. I've always wanted to go, and especially seeing how close-knit the New York community is at the moment, it really makes me want to go visit more. It makes me feel like I'm gonna be included if I went.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

Right, I was seeing TikToks. People want this series to go on just so they can have these organized hangouts with their friends and the culture. They said they've never seen New York more united.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

One of my favorites of all of the viral TikToks are the ones that are showing groups of hundreds of people huddled outside, little bodegas on the streets, all staring at one screen. They're all screaming and celebrating the win. And I think a really important point is that the people in the crowd are people of all different ethnicities, races, everything, and they're all banding together to support that one shared goal.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

New York looks amazing right now. I really do think that I would have more fun at these sort of street parties than just at the game itself. And you also save $4,000. So good job to Gen Z for sort of making the most of a social situation despite the high costs.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Definitely.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

And you know, it's not even just in New York. Me and my friends, we watched we watched the NBA finals just from my place, had a couple beers, had a little kebab. It was a really good excuse to sort of socialize with my friends over sort of a sports game. But if all these street parties have people of all ages, where's this Gen Z connective link?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I think the most important part is the target audience. Who uses TikTok, who uses social media. Primarily it is Gen Z. They're responsible for identifying all this NYX community-building stuff because it directly relates to them. You know?

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Yeah, I wonder if if people didn't see these parties on TikTok, but they go to them? Are they publicly listed? I reckon they're more just a manifestation of people seeing something online and then just visiting it in person and seeing it come to life. So obviously the the World Cup's every four years and the NBA finals are just one time each year. So my question to you is, is this not just a one-off thing or are Gen Z gonna socialize in their own right apart from you know pricey events in the future as well?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

All the media coming out from this one NBA final proves that Gen Z, this isn't just a one-off for Gen Z. Right. You know? I definitely think we're gonna see more community and more positive representations of community in the media.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Maybe in different avenues than sports, like music, for example.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Definitely.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

Of course we love sports. The World Cup's happening right now, everyone's watching it, but Anushka loves Olivia Dean more.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Oh, yes, I do. And who is Olivia Dean, you might be asking? Well, she is a British pop singer. She won Triple J Song of the Year for Man I Need, and she also won a Grammy for Best New Artist just a couple months ago.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

I've heard that song so often, the Man I Need song. It plays in my office like daily.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Definitely. It's really good though, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Yeah, is that your favourite one?

SPEAKER_01 18:30

You know what? Could be. It could be. The importance of Olivia Dean is that she is stepping up and supporting Gen Z's struggle against ticket prices. So this whole situation happened late in 2025 for her North American tour. What happened was resellers were bulk buying tickets and then reselling them on secondary sites at almost 14 times their original value.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

I've seen this actually happen in person in Sydney. You know those raves like knockout and stuff like that. I know people at uni who buy, you know, 10 tickets and they resell them for like a little bit more. It's a little bit cheeky, but it's nice to see that a Gen Z artist like Olivia Dean, so she's 27 just on the cusp of Gen Z, but it counts. She's sort of helping us out. And she capped the ticket price, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yes, exactly. So this is a quote from her. She said every artist and their team should be granted the option to cap resale at face value to keep the live music space accessible for all.

SPEAKER_04 19:22

So I know we've been talking about events happening outside of, you know, the pricey ticket realm and sort of moving to the streets, but maybe she's a good example of if the tickets can be cheaper, we will still go to the events and have fun there.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

And if a gen Z artist like Olivia Dean is standing up against ticket prices, maybe she's gonna inspire other artists or other ticket industries to fight back and do the same to make it a lot more accessible for Gen Z. So, Ben, make it make sense for me.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Right, of course. So the World Cup's kicked off. It's a great time, everyone's getting behind it, but we can't go because the tickets are just too expensive for us.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Right, and how about basketball?

SPEAKER_04 20:01

Basketball is the same as football. So the New York Knicks in the finals, tickets were going for four thousand dollars USD.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Oh my goodness. But is it just sports though?

SPEAKER_04 20:09

Nope, not just sports. It's all in the music world as well, with concerts costing more due to this new sort of dynamic pricing method.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Right, and because prices are so expensive, Professor Ben Smith let us know that the Gen Z loneliness crisis is a very real thing.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

Right. But you know what? We did a little bit of digging and talked to some Gen Z all around campus, and we found out that maybe we're not completely doomed because we're creating our own social events.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Exactly. We are making our own communities without paying the extortionate ticket prices. We're doing watch parties, street events, a whole bunch of free fun.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

Exactly. So maybe these tickets are expensive and maybe we can't go to the World Cup final, sure. But we're seeing a change. We're creating this change, and surely in the future, despite these high ticket prices, we won't be the loneliest generation for much longer.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

And now you're all caught up.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

Join us next week as we look at the increased shark attacks in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Bye.