Only a Contributing Factor
Is the cost of higher salaries being passed on to fans/consumers in the form of higher ticket prices? Of course it is.
Labor is a resource—a factor of production, an input—and if team owners have to pay more for labor, they will try to pass the additional costs on to fans. But the driving force behind higher ticket prices is strong demand, not high salaries.
A comparison between the Boston Red Sox and the (now defunct) Montreal Expos illustrates the point. The Expos had the lowest average ticket price of any Major League Baseball team during the 2002 season: $9.00 If you want to know why, just look at the old highlight clips of an Expos home game. All those empty seats will tell you everything you need to know. Demand was so weak that popcorn vendors would have outnumbered fans if the Expos had tried to raise ticket prices.
Now take a look at Boston. The Red Sox had the highest average ticket price in baseball in 2002, $39.68. That was nearly four-and-a-half times what the Expos charged, yet sellout crowds at Fenway Park were not unusual. Demand for professional baseball in Boston is exceptional. Even in the dead of winter—three months before Opening Day—fans who brave their way through snow and ice to buy tickets at the Fenway Park box office usually have to settle for the bleachers or deep right field.
How high will ticket prices go in markets like Boston? The answer depends on whether or not demand remains strong.