Final answer:
To break even, the baseball team must sell 1000 tickets. Each ticket is sold at $10, with the team needing to cover $5000 in player salaries and $5 per souvenir given out.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question requires us to calculate the number of tickets the team must sell to break even, given the costs of paying the players and the per item cost of the souvenirs. The team charges $10 per ticket and must pay a total of $5000 to its players. Additionally, each souvenir given away costs the owner $5. To break even, all expenses must be balanced by the income from ticket sales.
Let's denote the number of tickets that need to be sold as X. The total revenue from selling X tickets at $10 each is 10X. The cost for giving away X souvenirs is 5X (since every ticket presumably comes with a souvenir). Adding the fixed cost of $5000 for player salaries, the total expenses become 5X + $5000.
To break even, the total revenue should equal the total expenses:
10X = 5X + $5000
Solving for X, we subtract 5X from both sides:
5X = $5000
Dividing both sides by 5, we find that X = $5000 / 5 = $1000.
Therefore, the team must sell 1000 tickets to break even.