7,000 political events on Eventbrite indicate an enthusiasm gap for Democrats

It’s a tough election cycle for both major parties in the United State, as they scramble to raise sums that will, so the general thought goes, exceed $1 billion. In a word, fundraising is key.

Eventbrite, the online event organizer and ticket sales behemoth, analyzed 7,000 political events hosted on its platform, leading to a set of exceptionally interesting statistics. We’re going to list the lot of them, and break them up into actionable knowledge following.

From its report, political events are:

• Skewed heavily towards the Republican party: 71% of events have been hosted by Republicans.
• Most costly if a Democrat is involved: The average ticket price for a Democratic event is $115.53, far more than the GOP average of $31.50
• Better attended if for a Republican: Republican events attracted an average of 68 supporters, more than the 42 that hit up Democratic events.
• More likely to be free if hosted by the GOP: 77% of Republican events are free, true for only 63% of Democratic events.

Not all of that is surprising, as it’s quite interlinked. Free events attract more participants than paid events, boosting the attendee figures for Republicans while simultaneously lowering their average ticket price. Still, the total gap in the figures is interesting: a mere 14% difference in free events can’t account for an $84.03 per ticket advantage for the Democrats. That amount of money is material and non-trivial.

Perhaps most critical is the total number of Republican events over Democratic shin-digs: 71:29, on a percentage basis. That’s stunning. Ideas: The popular Tea Party movement lead to an explosion in self-hosted events; Eventbrite would be an obvious choice for such an event.

And, as Democratic events are more expensive per head on average, it’s somewhat logical that they would tend towards platforms other than Eventbrite. TNW, for example, built Paydro out of our frustration with online ticket processing.

Still, the figures could be indicative of an enthusiasm gap between the two parties; if Republicans are attracting more boots on the ground, that could be a better indicator of what to expect come November than polling data which tries to extrapolate how emotion may turn into action.

For now, on the circus cavorts.

Top Image Credit: Alex S. Bayley