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how would YOU fix the sox attendance woes?


ewokpelts

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Lower the price of tickets and parking. I shouldn't have to pay $25 to park at a Sox/Royals game coming from the West Suburbs. If they were just smart and lowered the price for the less in demand games for that and parking (a lot of their fandom resides in suburbs and Indiana), then they'd get a lot more attendance and it wouldn't look so pathetic on television.

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The quick and simple answer is lower the ticket prices. Obviously the demand for them has been decreasing steadily the past few years. Economics 101 dictates that they need to go down.

 

Create some cheap ticket packages that are offered for all 81 home games. $20 for a couple of upper-deck tickets, 2 hot dogs and 2 cokes. Something like that.

 

Also lower the parking prices.

 

 

The more difficult answer is make the post-season 3 or 4 years in a row. That get some butts in the seats.

Edited by Iwritecode
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I originally posted this in the "Nobody cares . . ." thread

 

(1) Special online promotions: On <DATE>, anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive a $5 discount on a prepaid parking pass. On <DATE>, anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive two Buy-One-Get-One Free coupons good for any food item at a concession stand.

 

(2) Mobile Ticket Van: On <DATE> the new Sox Mobile Ticket Van (and two lovely Chevy Pride Crew Girls) will be at <LOCATION> and anybody who buys at least 4 tickets to a Sox game for the next homestand will receive 10% off the face value ticket price (plus no Ticketmaster charges!)

 

(3) Radio Affiliate Head-to-Head Battles: On <DATE 1>, Sox radio affiliates in <CITY 1> and <CITY 2> will be selling tickets to the Sox home game on <DATE 2> at special discounted group rates. As an added bonus, ticket buyers from the city that sells the most tickets will receive a free hot dog at the game.

 

Another thing that will help is to be able to have more night games on Saturday. If JR has any pull at all in negotiating the next FOX contract, he needs to push for fewer night games for FOX, because night games on FOX force the Sox to play day games. I haven't looked, but I'd guess that attendance for Saturday day games lags well behind Saturday night games.

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Lower prices for games and parking for sure. I'm sure we can all agree on that. Lower prices on concessions. More promotions like half-price days, discounted beers, 2-for-1 deals, etc.

 

Other than that, what can they do? Put a better product on the field? The Sox had a pretty decent product on the field that was in first place for most of the season. That didn't seem to help. People are not going to spend a ton of money to go to many games in this econmoy.

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You have to figure the Sox have done the math that lowering the ticket prices wouldn't equal more revenue when accounting for the increase in attendance and money spent on concessions. The bottom line is revenue (at least that is the Reinsorfian model), so you would have to imagine, the set the prices for what they deem to maximize the revenue.

Edited by maggsmaggs
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Most half price Monday games are sell outs or close to it. If they can offer a 2nd half price day during the week (say on Thursdays), I think that will improve attendance tremendously. Those promotional codes are too 'secretive', let the fans know how to save money on tickets and they will show. White Sox nation is hungry for another contender and although we spent 100+ days in 1st place, this team still had too many missing pieces to be considered a contender and i'm guessing many other fans thought that as well.

Edited by GreatScott82
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Here's one more thing: Get CSN on cable satellite systems in the "fringe" areas of the Sox' territory. I'm thinking of Indianapolis in particular but I'm sure there are other areas that are within the blackout territory but don't get CSN.

 

The impact is more long-term than immediate, but you can start to build fan bases in those areas. People there are too far to go to a lot of games per year, but maybe the Sox start building a following and they decide to make their 1-2 games per year a Sox game rather than a Cardinals, Reds, or Brewers game. A lot of kids from these areas end up working in the Chicago area after college, and if you've made fans out of them at a young age, you'll get them to more games as adults.

 

I'm trying to find a job in either Indianapolis or South Bend, and one of the reasons I'm favoring South Bend is the availability of CSN.

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QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 02:33 PM)
So. That doesn't affect what happened in that current timeframe. When we were in 1st place for 120 days, no knew that the team would choke away the division in the final 2 weeks. That argument only holds water if we are all soothsayers.

 

Attendance increases th year after they win provided they continue to win.

 

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 02:27 PM)
The team was in first place for about 120 days this year. I'd call this Myth Busted.

 

If you take a look at attendance numbers from late 2005 & 2006, it turns out that a good team on the field didn't bring out that many Sox fans fans. There were still some brutal crowds in September 2005 depsite being one of the best teams in baseball.

 

The fans finally came out in 2006, which is kind of silly if you think about it. Teams always decline the year after winning it all, 2005 was when you wanted to be there.

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QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 02:14 PM)
You have to figure the Sox have done the math that lowering the ticket prices wouldn't equal more revenue when accounting for the increase in attendance and money spent on concessions. The bottom line is revenue (at least that is the Reinsorfian model), so you would have to imagine, the set the prices for what they deem to maximize the revenue.

 

Exactly. Lower ticket prices & higher attendance could actually lead to a lower payroll.

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Asking what you would do to increase attendance is the wrong question.

 

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 03:14 PM)
You have to figure the Sox have done the math that lowering the ticket prices wouldn't equal more revenue when accounting for the increase in attendance and money spent on concessions. The bottom line is revenue (at least that is the Reinsorfian model), so you would have to imagine, the set the prices for what they deem to maximize the revenue.

 

Yep. So, the real question is, what would you do to increase revenue?

 

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 03:26 PM)
Here's one more thing: Get CSN on cable satellite systems in the "fringe" areas of the Sox' territory. I'm thinking of Indianapolis in particular but I'm sure there are other areas that are within the blackout territory but don't get CSN.

 

The impact is more long-term than immediate, but you can start to build fan bases in those areas. People there are too far to go to a lot of games per year, but maybe the Sox start building a following and they decide to make their 1-2 games per year a Sox game rather than a Cardinals, Reds, or Brewers game. A lot of kids from these areas end up working in the Chicago area after college, and if you've made fans out of them at a young age, you'll get them to more games as adults.

 

I'm trying to find a job in either Indianapolis or South Bend, and one of the reasons I'm favoring South Bend is the availability of CSN.

 

I really like this idea. The Sox could do a lot better about reaching new fans nearby-but-outside Chicago. When I lived in Peoria, there were almost no Sox games, and I had trouble getting the Sox on TV. If the Sox learned anything about their ill-fated switch to 'pay TV,' it should be that accessibility to the product matters when building and maintaining a fan base. Look at the TV ratings this year: fans were paying attention!

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DISCLAIMER: I know this isn't going to happen any time soon.

 

 

The Sox should move to the 'burbs. Let the cubs have the city, they already get all of the tourists and most of the younger city dwellers anyway. Focus your attention on families and easy accessibility. Not having your parking lots owned by the city would go a long way.

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QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Oct 12, 2012 -> 02:14 PM)
You have to figure the Sox have done the math that lowering the ticket prices wouldn't equal more revenue when accounting for the increase in attendance and money spent on concessions. The bottom line is revenue (at least that is the Reinsorfian model), so you would have to imagine, the set the prices for what they deem to maximize the revenue.

 

I'm sure they do, but I'm not sure they're adequately taking long-term/harder-to-quantify factors into account. You might not raise more revenue for a particular game by lowering prices, but you're helping to expand your fan base, make games actually look like they're popular and fun, etc... All stuff that can pay off down the road. Maybe I'm off base, but I still have a hard time believing that it's in the franchise's interest to have so many empty seats.

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Lower parking & concessions. The experience starts in the parking lot-you are out $25 before you turn off the car. Come after work with the family without supper and have to buy it? This after buying tickets? See how much that costs. It just gets the event off to a bad start. This results in many "one game a year" type nights.

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