The AFL and NRL grand finals have not yet kicked off, but already there are some big winners.

Key points: The cost of flights for visiting fans to grand final cities trebled immediately teams qualified

The cost of flights for visiting fans to grand final cities trebled immediately teams qualified Football codes argue ticket increases are just supply and demand

Football codes argue ticket increases are just supply and demand Grand Final week represents corporate scalping according to the Australia Institute

Prices for everything around the big games are through the roof, and the fans are the big losers.

For Townsville café owner, and die hard North Queensland Cowboys supporter Kath Baker, seeing her team make an improbable charge at premiership glory creates mixed emotions.

"They just mean everything to me. They're like my sons you know. The whole team," Ms Baker said.

She goes to all the home games and would love to go to the grand final in Sydney against the Melbourne Storm, but she won't be, and she's not happy.

"For us to go to a grand final and pay $1,300 for a return ticket for one person and then have accommodation on top."

"No mate, it's really bad. I've got to refrain from saying other words here, I've got to watch what I'm going to say."

Within hours of the Cowboys beating the Roosters last Saturday night to book their place in the grand final, ticket prices for flights from Townsville to Sydney started to take off.

Flights, which are usually about $400, soared as all airlines cashed in on the capitalist forces of supply and demand.

Cowboy's fan Kath Baker baulked at paying $1,300 for a return flight to Sydney. ( Supplied: Kath Baker )

Business being business or being appalling?

According to the chief economist of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, we shouldn't be surprised.

"What we are seeing is capitalism in its purest form," he said.

"When something's scarce the people who have got it charge really high prices for it and the airlines and the hotel chains are looking at a period of peak demand and thinking, 'Why wouldn't we charge as much as the market will bear?'" Dr Denniss explained.

He added that the reality of capitalism is people miss out all the time, but the community is selective on what it gets affronted by.

"If we had a natural disaster and we saw airlines jacking up the prices of people fleeing some disaster, they'd be criticised," he said.

"If the price of food went up straight after a town was cut off, we'd be outraged.

"The problem is with something like grand finals, we can't quite decide if business is being business or being appalling."

Don't stand between a footy code and a bucket of money

With Townsville being 2,000 kilometres from Sydney, Cowboys fans have little choice but to pay the exorbitant airline prices if they want to get to the game.

"They're commercial operators too, they've got businesses to run but I think it's a bit more than coincidental that the prices get a lot more expensive straight after full-time," an exasperated Cowboys coach, Paul Green, noted after the airlines went in hard straight after the final whistle on Saturday.

In Adelaide, the Crows win over Geelong set off the same chain of events, with return flights to Melbourne, which normally cost $200-$300 also soaring, in some cases, to nearly $1,000.

And for those lucky enough to get a ticket to the game, the AFL is also in on the gouging.

When the Crows played Richmond back in April, you could get in for about $35.

On grand final day, the cheapest ticket will be $180, rising to $410 for the best seats.

The laws of supply and demand at work, but it's pricing which has angered the AFL Fans Association.

"The AFL acts like it's a company with a dividend to distribute," AFLFA president Gerry Eeman said.

"It has a charter to look after the game but some of its decisions are about raising as much money as possible."

AFLFA president Gerry Eerman says the fans' interests come a distant second to corporate interests. ( Supplied:Twitter )

Corporate scalping

The NRL grand final is more affordable for most people, with tickets as low as $45, rising to $650 for the most expensive.

Gerry Eeman says it is not that the NRL is more altruistic, it is the laws of economics at play again.

"The NRL is also trying to raise as much money as it can but demand for tickets is not as high as for the AFL grand final," he said.

For Dr Denniss, what's happening around the AFL and NRL grand finals is a form of corporate scalping, with airlines, hotels, food and drink sellers, and the sports themselves, hitting fans as hard as they possibly can.

He argues the big football codes maintain a double standard when it comes to scalping.

"It's OK for the airlines to jack up the price, OK for the hotels to jack up the price, it's OK for the football clubs to do it, but if an individual bought a grand final ticket a few weeks ago and now they don't want to go, apparently they are not allowed to sell it for the highest price they can."

In Townsville on Sunday a disappointed Kath Bake, and many of her friends, will have to be content with watching their heroes on TV.

"The boys did too good. They did better than anybody expected and we're now the poor suckers that miss out," she laments.

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