Category Archives: Tickets

January 10, 2025

Seasons Greetings

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The Athletics sold out their allotment of season tickets in Sacramento:

The team announced Friday that it has sold all its season tickets for home games inside the 14,000-seat venue in West Sacramento. It’s unclear, though, how many season tickets the A’s were selling in those packages.

Chron.com

So the Athletics are spending more money on players and fans from somewhere are buying tickets. So far, the move out of Oakland is working well for them.

It also might be in the interest of Sacramento to have a fan base turn out. MLB will expand at some point, and a city with a proven track record of buying tickets should be attractive.

August 17, 2023 July 12, 2022

The Value of Tickets

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The economic illiteracy of some journalists never ceases to amaze me. Here is Daniel Neman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ranting about the Cardinals dynamic pricing:

The same seat, with the same view, costs more on weekends than it does on weekdays. More insidiously, the same seat, with the same view, costs more when the Cards are playing certain teams than it does when they are playing others.

StLToday.com

Dynamic pricing has always been associated with baseball. In the past it was done through scalpers (note that these people were given a name with a rather negative connotation). The internet turned scalpers into resellers, and then teams saw that they might be able to make more money if they simply cut out the middle men.

I enjoy reading economics bloggers as much as baseball bloggers, since both groups try to deal with problems with lots of variables and interactions. My biggest take away on wealth and value is:

  • Wealth is determined by what you can buy, not how much money you earn.
  • Value is determined by what you are willing to pay, not what someone is charging.

So Cardinals fans value a game against the Yankees more than a game against the Phillies. That makes sense, since the fans have more opportunities to see the Phillies than the Yankees, and the Yankees right now are the best team in baseball. It is not the same experience.

Hat tip to Jacob Montgomery and Michael Munger.

https://twitter.com/mungowitz/status/1546514615001038854

I happened to be watching the Cardinals game last night, and saw an ad for Jesus pop up on the board behind home plate. I think the person who bought the ad had the wrong mascot in mind.

December 16, 2021

Tickets for Sale

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Spring training tickets for the Guardians go on sale Saturday.

With MLB’s lockout about to enter its third week, the Guardians announced Tuesday that single-game tickets for their spring training schedu,le will go on sale Saturday at noon ET and 10 a.m. MST. The Guardians are scheduled to open their spring season on Feb. 26 against the Reds at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Ariz.

Cleveland.com

Would you buy tickets right now? I might buy a ticket for next July, but spring training seems like a bit of a gamble. On the other hand, if a lot of spring training tickets get sold and MLB is suddenly facing large refunds, that might be an impetus to getting a deal done.

October 6, 2020

Fans in the Stands

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The tickets for National League Championship Series and World Series games at Globe Life Field sold out:

According to A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, there were 11,150 available tickets for each game at Globe Life Field. That’s about 29% capacity. With tickets on MLB.com starting at a mere $75, they were sold out within 90 minutes. It tells us a story about how in-demand attending live-sporting events is right now amid this worldwide pandemic.

Yardbarker.com

It will be nice to see real people at the game. I saw an aerial shot of Dodger Stadium on Monday, and it was jarring to see it empty. It’s a park that’s always full. I’m glad they are bringing in a limited set of fans.

April 28, 2020

Ticket Refunds

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Fans may be getting money back for their unused tickets:

On a conference call, Major League Baseball informed team officials that they no longer needed to advise fans to hold onto those tickets. The decision clears the way for teams to announce refund policies for the games.

The change comes one week after MLB and all 30 of its teams were named as defendants in a lawsuit over the failure to refund tickets. StubHub, the league’s official resale partner, and three other ticket outfits also were named as defendants.

MLB has listed the affected games as postponed rather than canceled, with fans advised to retain their tickets and await a rescheduled date. Refunds generally require the cancellation of an event, and team and league websites stated that MLB remained “committed to playing as many games as possible when the season begins.”

LATimes.com

I suspect a lot of fans will get an offer to roll the money into future season ticket sales.

February 19, 2020

Winning Winning Streak

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The Rays will try to give away bonus tickets this season:

The “Win Pack’’ lets a fan pick any four regular-season Rays game to attend for a total of $99. If the Rays win all four, the fan gets a voucher redeemable for a free ticket to another game.

FoxSports.com

The extra bonus as once you’re in the bonus situation, you keep getting a free ticket as long as the Rays win the game you attend (or the season ends). It strikes me that this might actually increase attendance against second division clubs, since the Rays are more likely to beat those teams.

Given the Rays low attendance, anything is worth a try.

July 30, 2018

Ticket Innovation

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The Oakland Athletics are doing away with the traditional season ticket package:

The Oakland Athletics are doing away with traditional season-ticket plans for next season in favor of a membership program that will let fans to buy general admission tickets, reserve seats and also receive special perks.

The change in approach is geared to offer fans both the ability to buy ticket packages similar to the way they usually would or have more flexible options.

“A’s Access” memberships, which the team calls the first of their kind, will go on sale Friday and include benefits such as half-price concessions, a 25-percent merchandise discount and parking.

Some of the higher end car makers are doing this, where drivers subscribe to cars, rather than own one. It allows them to change the car they are driving based on their needs.

July 12, 2016

Maris in a Night

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Giancarlo Stanton hit 61 home runs last night, and that caused a problem for the Marlins:

Earlier in the day, the Marlins sent an email to their fans advertising that “when Giancarlo homers, you score!”

The offer said that “each time G launches a home run out of Petco Park, we’ll knock a percentage point off future Marlins tickets.”

Unfortunately, the discounts are capped by the web site at 25%.

When reached Monday night, team president David Samson said that, although the terms were not specified in the initial email to fans, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which runs team websites, sets a maximum on these type of offers at 25 percent.

“What Giancarlo did was so cool that we are working on an additional offer,” Samson said. “We’re thinking about picking a game and offering 61 percent off.”

Stanton’s feat Monday night was reminiscent of Mark McGwire‘s performance at the Fenway home run derby. That alone should bring out more fans:

Too bad Zack Greinke left the Dodgers. You could redo this commercial with Stanton, Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw.

December 19, 2014

Ticket Contest

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I’m sure Baseball Musings readers would be interested in help buying tickets. Since it’s the holiday season, the site partnered up with Rukkus, a sports ticket search engine, to get you tickets to any baseball game of your choice for free. Click on the image below for details.

Rukkus contest

Teams have certainly shaken things up this off-season. I hope you win and get a chance to see the new players coming to your town!

June 10, 2014 August 28, 2013

Times Have Changed

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I just received an email from the Red Sox encouraging me to buy tickets for tonight and tomorrow’s games against the Orioles:

A great night out with
family or friends…

A forecast for incredible
late summer weather…

A ballpark filled with 35,000
people watts of energy…

A team that makes
every game exciting…

I’m somewhat surprised the games have not sold out. Thursday’s matchup of Jon Lester and Chris Tillman should be very good, and these games greatly impact the division. If you’re a student who just arrived in Boston, here’s a great chance to go to a game. I’m still kicking myself over 1978. I arrived for freshman week just as the Yankees arrived for the Boston Massacre. I wanted to go to one of the games, but I couldn’t find anyone in the dorm who wanted to go (I think they were afraid to venture out so early in their stay). I should have gone by myself.

July 22, 2013 April 29, 2013

Money for Nothing

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It seems Padres fans both made money off selling tickets to Giants fans and the satisfaction of knowing those Giants fans had to watch their team lose.

Godspeed to those season ticket holders who wish to bankroll their year’s worth of tickets by selling to the Giants rabid fanbase at a tidy premium. So long as you can tolerate your home stadium turning into an orange and black party, you do what you gotta do.

Padres pitchers held the Giants to a .248/.295/.345 slash line over the weekend, while the San Diego hitters came in at .269/.342/.435.

March 26, 2013

If You Build It, They Will Come*

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The Blue Jays mega-trade resulted in higher secondary market ticket prices.

The result of Toronto’s influx of talent is a great rise in average ticket prices on the secondary market. According to secondary market ticket aggregator, TiqIQ, the Blue Jays currently sit as the No. 3 team with the highest average ticket price in 2013 ($100.99). The only two teams with a more expensive secondary market average ticket price are the Boston Red Sox ($118.72) and Detroit Tigers ($111.72). Interestingly, even though the Boston Red Sox retain their position as the most expensive average home field ticket, the price is down 21.43% from last season at this time. However, Fenway Park hosts 6 of the top 10 highest priced games currently on the secondary market.

A hot start by the Blue Jays would likely drive those prices higher.

*Unless you’re the Pirates, Rays, or Marlins.

March 14, 2013 February 11, 2013 December 11, 2012

Dynamic Resistance

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Three big market Major League teams opted out of the new StubHub deal because their season ticket holders felt ripped off.

“Consumers aren’t dumb,” writes SeatGeek spokesperson Will Flaherty in an e-mail. “They’ll flee to the lowest prices, wherever those are.” He points to ticket pricing for the New York Jets football game against the San Diego Chargers on Dec. 23. The Jets resale service, run by Ticketmaster, sets the floor at $125 for lower-level end zone seats. Elsewhere on the Web, tickets in the same section are going for half as much. Any season ticket holder with internet access can see this. You might think that the Yankees, the team with the highest payroll in baseball, would recognize the futility of standing in the way of market forces and perhaps move to dynamic pricing. You’d be wrong.

The price information from the secondary market tells season ticket holders they can get a better deal, which should drive down prices as either fans refuse to buy or negotiate a better deal. That could mean a huge loss of funds. Of course, in years when the team is in high demand, this can work very much in favor of the team. These big market clubs shouldn’t throw those signals away.

November 30, 2012 October 25, 2012

Cubs Anti-Business

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I have to disagree with Aaron Gleeman here. The Cubs are cracking down on scalpers who buy season tickets:

The waiting list for Cubs season tickets is 115,000 strong, so they’ll have no problem finding takers and Cubs vice president Julian Green stressed that “this is about getting as many season tickets in the hands of fans that are interested in and intend to enjoy Cubs baseball at Wrigley Field.”

Normally this is where I’d make some snide remark about how tough it is to enjoy a team that’s lost 101, 91, and 87 games during the past three seasons, but I actually think what the Cubs are doing here sounds like a good thing.

What makes Green think that scalpers are not selling tickets to “fans that are interested in and intend to enjoy Cubs baseball at Wrigley Field?” Also, what’s to stop the new season ticket holders from selling their tickets, since they seem to be worth more than face value. This is about the Cubs wanting to control the profit from their own sales. They could at least be honest about that.

September 17, 2012

Selling the Indians

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Did the Tribe Win Last Night discusses the Indians image problem and a disturbing phone call from the season ticket office:

However, two things stunned me from our very brief conversation. First, the season ticket representative seemed scared and tentative on the phone. I can’t blame her. While none of the problems on the field or in the organization are her fault, I’m sure she hears plenty of the complaints while making calls about renewals and customer service issues.

But secondly, and more concerning to me, she didn’t try to sell me on 2013. I’ve been undecided about renewing before and I’ve always heard a sales pitch about the direction of the team, the core of players it has moving forward, etc. This time, however, I just heard a simple, “ok.” No sales pitch, nothing.

The Indians have had an image problem for many years now, but what’s more frightening is that it seems the Indians no longer know what their image is.

I wonder if the representative was just worn down from all the other call she made.

May 4, 2012 March 11, 2012 March 5, 2012

Run on Tickets

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Angels fans seem excited about the upcoming season:

Angels single-game tickets went on sale on Saturday morning at 9 a.m., at the ballpark’s ticket windows and through Ticketmaster outlets, online and by phone.

But it was at 7 a.m., when Angels security personnel opened the gates to the stadium lots at Orangewood Avenue and State College Boulevard that the morning’s first amazing race began.

“It was like the running of the bulls,” said longtime Angels fan Zane Woller, 44, of Chino Hills. “I ditched my flip flops and was running like a crazy person. Kids were passing me. Next year, I’m going to borrow someone’s 12-year-old to run for me!”

Bringing in big free agents has Angels fans believing they will win this year. That’s great for ticket sales and for the franchise.

March 3, 2012

Ticketing Analytics

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The first session of the morning discusses how teams and leagues are using ticket data to understand their customers.   Lou DePaoli of the Pirates is on the panel along with Cole Gahagan of Ticket Master, Brian Lafemina of the NFL, Danielle Maged of StubHub, and Jessica Gelman moderates.

Update: DePaoli gets the first question, saying teams need to model how to maximize ticket revenue without hurting attendance.

Update: StubHub collecting information from the bar code on the ticket for MLB.

Pirates used the data to decide to do some dynamic pricing, releasing 1400 tickets 10 days before a game and using secondary market data to set the price.

Update: Gahagan discusses the Insanity statistics, the increase in Google searches, ticket searches, then ticket sales.

Maged notes that teams dynamically price up, but don’t price down.

The panel:

image

Update: Pirates see data every morning, and try to learn why a game became valuable.

Update: Number one reason for canceling season tickets is they don’t use them. Ticket exchange helps solve that problem.

Update: The discussion shifts to stadium size.

Update: DePaoli notes that smaller, intimate stadiums allows higher prices as fans are closer to the action.

Update: How do you improve the value of a ticket?

Update: Suites need to be more flexible, and seating in general.

Update: Tickets becoming more digital, allows clubs to collect more data. Tickets are easier to transfer.

Update: There was a difference of opinion between the clubs and the ticket sellers on if brokers and scalpers are the same thing. Clubs thought yes, Gahagan thought brokers tried to be fairer.

Best time to buy tickets is 20 minutes before the game.

Update: This was a very good panel. There’s a lot of experimentation going on, and the teams seem very open to the idea of dynamic pricing.

March 1, 2012 February 22, 2012 February 8, 2012 January 28, 2012

Digital Cheap Seats

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The Red Sox take on the scalpers:

Fans with seats in the $12 upper bleacher section for high-demand games will receive only digital tickets. They will be required to swipe the credit card used to purchase them at the gate.

Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark in baseball, and it is also among the most expensive. The Red Sox say they’ve left the upper bleacher seats below market price to help families get into the ballpark. But that also makes it a lucrative option for the resale market.

The biggest worry about scalpers is that the Red Sox don’t play well, and are no longer a hot ticket. I would not be surprised, however, if this was a dry run in an effort to expand this to all tickets and drive the secondary market out of business. Of course, technology cuts both ways. I can see the scalpers buying single use credit cards and selling those.

January 23, 2012

Tickets for Food

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The Braves will give season ticket holders a 33% discount on food and non-alcoholic beverages this season. That’s seems like a sweet deal, as long as the team doesn’t jack up the food prices too much.

The Braves are trying to boost attendance after ranking 14th in the majors in 2011 with an average home attendance of 29,296. They sold 2,372,940 tickets at Turner Field, their lowest home total since 2.32 million paid in 2004.

I like that the Atlanta stadium people are thinking a bit outside the box here.