During the 2012 NHL lockout, Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks hosted an exhibition game between several Canucks and a local university team. The proceeds of the event went to a charity. Tickets were priced at $20 each, but scalpers ended up selling them for close to $200. The radio talk shows in Vancouver were flooded with calls claiming that the scalpers were making money at the expense of the charity.
a. Draw a supply and demand graph that shows the ticket situation described above, assuming there are 10000 seats in the arena, and they all sold out.
b. Now, redraw your supply and demand graph, and show what the charity would have received if there had been no scalpers and if everyone who bought a ticket at the $20 price saw the game.
c. Given your analysis, who should the radio callers have blamed for the reduced income to the charity?
a) The scalpers
b) The Canucks
c) The NHL
d) The consumers