Life is full of choices. For example, should we go to the concert or the baseball game?

This question is most likely decided by whoever has the greatest bargaining power in the household, and the FRED graph above provides some history on this decision over the past 65 years.

Expenditures for live entertainment are split into sports (in blue) and all the rest (in red). While the overall result is roughly 50-50, there’s some variation over time. In 1971, 73% of spending on live entertainment went to sports, while in recent years it’s been barely more than 40%. What changed?

Did the rise in cable TV and then the Internet change preferences? Did the household power structure change? Or is it because nowadays it’s easy to see concerts in baseball stadiums? This is one of the many examples of interesting data questions without a definitive answer.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for “personal consumption expenditures admissions” and select the sports series. Click on “Edit Graph,” open the “Add Series” tab, search again, and select the live entertainment excluding sports series. Open the “Format” tab, select bar graph with percent stacking.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.