The Met Voluntary admission fee comes to an end

[cernjSHU]

What was one of the cheapest ways to experience some of the great art works of the world has now come to an end. The admission to the Met was a suggested fee of $9. However, despite attendance going up, revenue did not. Admission for out of NY State adults will now be $25. If only people would have just paid a measly $9 or $10, instead of not paying at all, this would have continued. I believe the Met will still be free to students which is terrific.

It was a great way to kill an hour in the City, paying $9 to go in the Met. People will not spend $25 when they only have an hour or so to experience it. For $25, they will want to spend serious time in the museum.

 

[Bobbie Solo]

That’s a shame, and seems likes a dramatic hike. Been there 3 times in the last few years, and I’ll always remember us taking my dad there before he got too sick from his cancer like 6 years ago.

We went to the Guggenheim for the first time on prolly 15 years last fall. Remembered why I loved that place. Believe we each paid less than $25...but it is much smaller place

 

[SPK145]

What was one of the cheapest ways to experience some of the great art works of the world has now come to an end. The admission to the Met was a suggested fee of $9. However, despite attendance going up, revenue did not. Admission for out of NY State adults will now be $25. If only people would have just paid a measly $9 or $10, instead of not paying at all, this would have continued. I believe the Met will still be free to students which is terrific.

It was a great way to kill an hour in the City, paying $9 to go in the Met. People will not spend $25 when they only have an hour or so to experience it. For $25, they will want to spend serious time in the museum.

It's a shame, you're finally learning about economics. Why do you always want something for nothing?

 

[cernjSHU]

It's a shame, you're finally learning about economics. Why do you always want something for nothing?

Who said I want something for nothing? What are you talking about?

 

[SPK145]

Who said I want something for nothing? What are you talking about?

You're whining that it is no longer free or a $9 donation, you want others to subsidize your high taxes, etc.

 

[Pirata]

The suggested fee was $25.

$9 was the average paid.

Basically it was a failed pricing policy.

I am on an Arts (theater)board and we strive to bring the art to the widest possible audience. That is artspeak for saying that we don't just want people of means to be able to afford the art and be able to see it.

The price of one of our tickets covers about half the overall expense. I suspect the same might be true for the met in that price of $X covers some portion of the overall expense but not all of it

The only way to achieve this is through fundraising. The Met needs to do a better job of fundraising and lower the price of tickets to make it available to a wider audience.

An interesting thing is that this was a pricing experiment that yielded the knowledge that $9 is the market value of admission. I'd be curious what the break-even amount would be and if it was anything near $25 I would say that the management of the Met lacks business sense.