An Expensive Proposition: What it Costs to Pop the Big Question at a Game

Ahead of Valentine’s Day on Saturday, Sportsbook Review has analyzed sporting venues across MLB, the NBA, NFL and NHL to find which ones are the most affordable when it comes to making a marriage proposal on a videoboard.

For starters, not every venue makes such magical moments possible. MLB has 21 stadiums that permit proposals, the most among the four leagues, while the NBA had the fewest, with nine. Fewer than half the venues in the the NFL (14) and the NHL (13) offer such an option.

MLB

If you’re in the Big Apple and looking to give out a ring, it’s better to do it at Yankee Stadium, and not just because the home team has won a record 27 of its own. It costs $150 to do a proposal in the Bronx compared to 10 times that amount ($1,500) at Citi Field in Queens, home of the Mets.

It’s equally expensive in Washington D.C., where Nationals Park also charges $1,500.

You won’t have to pay big Bucs, er, bucks, in Pittsburgh, where PNC Park charges an MLB-low $40 to fans with a lifetime of love on their minds.

The average proposal cost in an MLB venue is $306.

NFL

Perhaps not surprisingly, The City of Brotherly Love is the most welcoming to lovestruck fans. Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, charges fans just $25 for a proposal, the lowest of all stadiums surveyed.

Equally unsurprising, then, is that Sin City offers the most expensive venue for a proposal, with Allegiant Stadium, the 65,000-seat home of the Las Vegas Raiders, charging $1,500 per stadium. That’s double the next-highest fee, found at Hard Rock Stadium, home to the Miami Dolphins, whle ahead of Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles Rams and Chargers) charge $500, both higher than the the average proposal cost at an NFL stadium of $377.

NBA

Colorado’s Ball Arena, home to the Denver Nuggets, has a mile-high lead for most expensive NBA arena to propose at: $1,500, 10 times the cost of second-place Little Caesars Arena (Detroit Pistons) and Spectrum Center (Charlotte Hornets).
If you’re looking to save on a proposal (and after paying for a ring, you probably are), Phoenix’s Footprint Center and Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse had the cheapest proposal prices at just $50 each.

Overall, the average proposal cost in NBA arenas is $256.

NHL

In the National Hockey League, only 13 of 32 NHL arenas posted marriage proposal rates, down from 16 last year.

The reason for that drop is not clear but there is an explanation for what is by far the most expensive stadium proposal of any venue surveyed: Scotiabank Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames, went from charging $25 for a stadium proposal to a whopping $5,000 this year. The reason? According to a response from the team given to Sportsbook Review: “Proposals are not part of the regular game announcements that you are referring to. Since marriage proposals require more than a two-second announcement on a scoreboard, they would be slotted into a spot in the game script that would normally be filled by a sponsor. As a result, they would be charged the same amount as sponsor which starts at $5,000.”

Given that price point, it might make sense to just fly you and your beloved to Anaheim, where you can take advantage of the NHL’s best deal of $30 at Honda Center, home of the Ducks.

In the NHL, the average proposal cost was $508.