Experience rents in the attention economy

As digital platforms make most entertainment abundant and low‑cost at home, monetizable scarcity has migrated to in‑person, camera‑friendly experiences. Live events (sports, concerts) capture shared, verifiable attention and visible status, enabling resale markets and extreme price premiums even as ordinary attendance declines. — If experience‑based rents are the new cultural rent‑seeking frontier, this changes urban policy, antitrust scrutiny of ticket platforms, consumer‑protection needs, and how cultural inequality is produced.