Here are some numbers to put out there considering Stadium Expansion.
The game is designed so that Half of Full Price Seating results in a 20 Game Sell Out for that Seat to be paid for.
In other words, if I purchase 1 Courtside Seat ($2,000) and I charge half of the full price (Full Price $200, so half is $100) is will take me selling out my Courtside Seats for 20 Games to pay for that seat.
Some things to take into consideration:
1. You should already be selling out the Seat Type before you Purchase more of that Type.
2. The more you charge, the faster you 'pay' for the seat and see Profits from that Seat.
3. Bleacher Seats are cheap to build, but are filled by the most fickle fans. One loss can drop your Attendance.
4. More expensive seating is filled by Fans that don't worry much about W/L, but raising prices affects their Attendance more.
I know with my team my 'expensive seats' Sell Out, and I have a Sub .500 Record. Must be the Half of Full Price Seating. It's cheap enough that they come win or lose. So that lets me know, if I expand and continue at this pace (but don't get worse, as that may have a negative affect) that I can expect my Expensive Seating to pay for itself after 20 Home Games.
On Courtside Seats, this means that expanding 10 more seats would cost me $20,000. Not a vast amount of money, so easy enough to attempt. This means that at $100 a Seat I should continue to Sell Out my Courtside Seats, since this has stood true so far (sweet spot for the Seat Pricing). I may actually be to low and able to increase Pricing, but not willing to risk that yet. So in 20 Home Games these 10 Courtside Seats should net exactly $20,000. Every Home Game after that would then provide me a complete $1,000 ($100 X 10 Seats) extra Profit than before I bought the seats.
An extra $1,000 a Home Game isn't much, but you keep doing this and it adds up, especially if you keep your seats full.
Let's say you went with the biggest seat, the Luxury Box (or what ever it's called). You didn't want 10 Courtside for 20K, you wanted one big seat for 16K. So you buy the Big Seat at 16K, and you charge a whopping $800 a Game. Since it is still Half of Full Price Seating I will assume this will keep it at 100% (but this may not be true, they may be willing to pay more... or insist on paying less!). 20 Sold Out Big Seat Home Games later you've got the 16K back. Now, ever Sold Out Big Seat Home Game nets you $800. For 4K less initial investment you make $200 less a Home Game... but only need to intice ONE fan instead of 10.
Bleacher Seats cost peanuts... and make peanuts... and seem to be impossilbe to keep Sold Out. To me they seem mathmatically impossible to Profit from, but can make a HUGE difference when on a big Winning Streak just by sheer numbers, and probably affect other Merchandise sells as more Fans = More Sells. Anyone know the balance here?
Anyways, just some knowledge on the numbers for Seat Expansion. (Obviously, really good winning teams can charge a little more for the fancy seats and keep them filled, but probably not 100%, so they would make profit faster, and more of it).