In: Economics
A sports mortgage is the brainchild of Stadium Capital Financing Group, a company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It is an innovative way to finance cash-strapped sports programs by allowing fans to sign up to pay a “mortgage” over a certain number of years for the right to buy good seats at football games for several decades with season ticket prices locked in. The locked-in price period is 50 years in California. Assume you and your brother went to UCLA. Your brother, Harold, purchases a $50,000 mortgage and pays for it now to get season tickets for $290 each for 50 years, while you, being a three-time alumnus of the same university, are able to buy season tickets at $390 in year 1, with prices increasing by $20 per year for 50 years. NOTE: This is a multi-part question. Once an answer is submitted, you will be unable to return to this part. What should Harold have been willing to pay UCLA upfront for the mortgage to make the two plans exactly equivalent economically if the rate of interest is 8% per year? (Assume Harold has no reason to give extra money to UCLA at this point and that the seats are the same level and next to each other.) Harold should have paid $ ________ to UCLA up front for the mortgage to make the two plans exactly equivalent economically.