how would YOU fix the sox attendance woes?

[Cali]

It is crazy to think, but the Sox have the 9th oldest stadium in all of baseball. FWIW, #8 is the Sox almost home of the Trop.

 

Yeah they've built so many new parks in the last 20 years, it's crazy.

 

And honestly even though I've only been to two of them -- Safeco and Petco -- I'd trade just about every park built after for the one we get now. Except the Marlins park... F that place.

[klaus kinski]

And they should have built the Metra Station on the tracks WEST of the park. Easier to get to, and connections to other UNION Station trains to go North & West would be available. Those are areas it is hard to drive from.

[Princess Dye]

Tickets on the secondary market are already cheap. People are under the impression that they HAVE to buy a few beers and food. Buy your ticket, and just go watch the game. Of course, people don't do that and as a result don't attend -- and get to keep the excuse alive that everything is too expensive.

 

In today's day and age, if you are someone who budgets ANY money for entertainment purposes, then there's no reason why you can't make the Sox the recipient of that money. If the fanbase was big enough, we'd all be able to do that--enough to make the team fairly well attended.

 

The total fanbase, however, is not big enough..to make each game fairly well attended (unless there is really good buzz in a particular year).

 

 

 

This is good though. You should want the organization to be driven by a need to win. I can live with that, considering we are what we are as an organization.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Jose Paniagua

[flippedoutpunk]

Decrease the prices for tickets and parking. Hire robocops to make the red line going towards sox 35th safer, no one likes taking the red line at night, especially when you have nice things like an iphone, or a wallet with money inside of it.

[Thad Bosley]

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.

Our pricing model is on par with all of the other teams in baseball, more or less. All teams charge exorbitant amounts for parking, tickets, and concessions, yet this isn't preventing or deterring fans of these other teams from coming out and supporting their ballclubs in droves. So I'm not one that sees the cost as the primary reason for the depressed attendance.

 

I think the attendance problems are primarily due to the continued inability of the White Sox to market or sell the "U.S. Cellular Field" experience. Harry Caray comes to mind when I mention this. When he first arrived with the Cubs (and the Sox, for that matter), the Cubs weren't drawing like they are now. But from the day Caray joined the Cubs, day in and day out, he would constantly talk about how beautiful Wrigley is, how much fun it looked like people were having in the bleachers, and then when the rooftops started getting populated, he would draw attention to that as well. His constant selling and promoting of the Wrigley experience on TV is what eventually made that ballpark the destination it is and remains today. The WGN TV producer back then was also instrumental because he would constantly bring in camera shots from around the ballpark to show all of those different things going on.

 

For the life of me, I don't know why our TV producer, Jim Angio, doesn't do the same thing. He should be directing his cameramen to pan around the Cell during the home broadcasts - to the Fan Deck, to the FUNdamentals field, to the Comiskey shower, to the outfield concourse, to fans dancing in the stands, etc., and show all of the fun things that are always going on in our ballpark during the games. There is certainly a lot to feature! And Hawk should spend less time complaining about umpires and more time promoting the Cell experience as well. Our TV ratings suggest we continue to miss this opportunity to "sell the Cell" during our broadcasts. I think if we improved in this area we would see an increase in attendance.

[Iwritecode]

Except it did ramp up in 2005 and 2008 while we were in contention. It didn't in 2012.

 

It started to. They were averaging almost 25,000 per game in the month of September before the 1-5 road trip through KC and Anaheim. After that I think a lot of people lost faith in the team.

 

2005 is obvious but in 2008 they were actually up 1/2 a game on Sep 24 and never fell more than 1/2 a game back after that.

[Iwritecode]

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

 

This. It's all about building up the season-ticket base which happens in the off-season.

[ewokpelts]

Except it did ramp up in 2005 and 2008 while we were in contention. It didn't in 2012.

sox had larger ST bases in 2005-2011.

 

[Princess Dye]

I think the core issue with sports teams that irks today's general population-- they know if they cater to big spender people, and try to just keep Average Joe somewhat in the picture... they can operate while keeping their eye on a big prize. The years the Sox are very good likely attract BOTH the spender and the average joe, and said year is a big win for them. Big enough perhaps to make up for what would've been, say, some imagined year where we were awful and we lowered prices way low to compensate for that.

 

The White Sox could probably lower prices and be thought of as just some bar you can go to... yet in the past, we saw on-field problems (bad publicity) to the point where they had to lock up the concourse level to anyone in the upper deck.

 

Suites, private boxes, etc -- today's game revolves around getting companies to bring clients, groups, spend a bunch of money. And yes you have to pay an expensive roster of high priced players, but that doesn't explain the entire story. They are gambling on a winning year resulting in big buzz for the team and tons of lucrative interest from any number of directions--not necessarily the family of four hoping to see the occasional game. That's the route this thing has gone -- but it comes down to the Sox not having a large enough total number of fans to achieve their goal every year.

[Iwritecode]

Our pricing model is on par with all of the other teams in baseball, more or less. All teams charge exorbitant amounts for parking, tickets, and concessions, yet this isn't preventing or deterring fans of these other teams from coming out and supporting their ballclubs in droves. So I'm not one that sees the cost as the primary reason for the depressed attendance.

 

Tigers have $5 tickets in their upper deck for all 81 home games. They also have an official parking lot that costs $5 to park in.

[Princess Dye]

This. It's all about building up the season-ticket base which happens in the off-season.

 

 

The smart fan perhaps comes to this site, but the general Sox fan has to learn about the team in advance..and the casual fan needs to ...hear...HEY they got a free agent blah blah.

 

Hate to say it, but the Sox would probably make more money next year if they took that Peavy/Pierzynski money and instead gave all of it to Josh Hamilton with no other additions. Then the casual Sox fan would think to themselves: "oh, they were pretty surprisingly good last year-- and now they added Josh Hamilton!"

 

Neverminding the fact that, overall, the team would be worse (if that was the only move)

[ewokpelts]

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.

the state of illinois owns the parking lots. but the sox get virtually all the parking revenue. city and county get tax revenue upwards of $6 per game.

 

sox control 99.9% of USCF. And own 0% of it.

 

[ewokpelts]

And they should have built the Metra Station on the tracks WEST of the park. Easier to get to, and connections to other UNION Station trains to go North & West would be available. Those are areas it is hard to drive from.

It wasnt the Sox' call. IIT gave the land to Metra FREE. And the site was more "shovel ready" than the west end. Metra has said they are open to moving the other south side lines to stop at 35th, but that involves rerouting the lines a bit.

 

And dont forget, the green line is two blocks north of union station.

 

[Princess Dye]

Tigers have $5 tickets in their upper deck for all 81 home games. They also have an official parking lot that costs $5 to park in.

 

 

Chicago metro area: 10 million

Detroit metro area: 3.7 million

 

A couple considerations -- lets say you reduce parking for all games, then you are losing all that parking $ generated for the surefire winners (i.e. hosting the Cubs).

 

What if the team is awful? Then you just lost all the money for those well-attended games that are a sure bet...AND you lose in general overall attendance.

 

Point being - a sharp decrease in prices ain't happening. We are what we are -- a giant city with a lot of potential interest, but as of yet, not enough truly interested people.

[ewokpelts]

This. It's all about building up the season-ticket base which happens in the off-season.

The Sox have been good about pushing "buy tickets for next year and get playoff tickets for this year". Hell, they had the playoff payoff ad running right til the magic number went to 1.

 

In 2005, the day after the sox clinched the AL Pennant, I was able to add four 2006 full season seats to my plan so my brother could get world series tix. He ended up with club level seats for the WS, much better than my Lower Reserved seats I had through my partial plan.

 

[ewokpelts]

Chicago metro area: 10 million

Detroit metro area: 3.7 million

 

A couple considerations -- lets say you reduce parking for all games, then you are losing all that parking $ generated for the surefire winners (i.e. hosting the Cubs).

 

What if the team is awful? Then you just lost all the money for those well-attended games that are a sure bet...AND you lose in general overall attendance.

 

Point being - a sharp decrease in prices ain't happening. We are what we are -- a giant city with a lot of potential interest, but as of yet, not enough truly interested people.

the cubs series failed to sellout 2 years in a row.

 

[flippedoutpunk]

I think the sox need a young stud to build around like a Giancarlo Stanton, its hard to get excited about our lineup on paper for the casual fan. But yeah winning cures all, even the freakin Chicago Fire are selling tickets after the successful season they have been having.

[Iwritecode]

Chicago metro area: 10 million

Detroit metro area: 3.7 million

 

A couple considerations -- lets say you reduce parking for all games, then you are losing all that parking $ generated for the surefire winners (i.e. hosting the Cubs).

 

What if the team is awful? Then you just lost all the money for those well-attended games that are a sure bet...AND you lose in general overall attendance.

 

Point being - a sharp decrease in prices ain't happening. We are what we are -- a giant city with a lot of potential interest, but as of yet, not enough truly interested people.

 

Like I said in my first post in this thread, demand has been going down for years. They need to do something to increase it. If you have a product that isn't selling, start dropping the price until it does.

 

[SexiAlexei]

 

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/...prices-decrease

 

The White Sox dropped ticket prices 29% this year. Did the attendance go up?

 

People say parking is too high, tickets are too high, concessions are too high. Well, if they drop all these, then they have to sell MORE just to return to the same level they were at. At some point there is a point of no return.

 

I hate to say it, but this is professional sports at the highest level. If you want to take a family of 4, park, get food, and have a night out, expect to pay for it. If you want to do this stuff at $100 total, there are other options. Go to the Cougars, etc.

 

People are always going to have excuses.

 

To me, the way to get more fans into the stadium isn't to drop prices, it's to make it more appealing. How do you do this?

 

1) Advertising. Appreciate the game? Does that push your average baseball fan over the line to buy a ticket? No. Does the GM coming out and saying in a round about way that this is a rebuilding year? No... You need to advertise the team as a winner, and focus on fans "having" to come out to see the game.

 

2) Win. This team would go out and beat the top dogs, then come back and lay an egg to the KC's of the world. Building a consistent winner will build the fan base.

 

My own personal issue, was why would I want to go to a Wednesday Mariners game when I could go to a Saturday Angels game? The price didn't matter, it's how am I going to spend my time. I'd rather see the better games. You need to fill up the stadium for the Angels games, and then people will have to go to the Wednesday night games if they want to see their team. This is done (in my mind) by the above.

[Marty34]

Except it did ramp up in 2005 and 2008 while we were in contention. It didn't in 2012.

 

Why do you think that was?

[Steve9347]

Chicago metro area: 10 million

Detroit metro area: 3.7 million

 

A couple considerations -- lets say you reduce parking for all games, then you are losing all that parking $ generated for the surefire winners (i.e. hosting the Cubs).

 

What if the team is awful? Then you just lost all the money for those well-attended games that are a sure bet...AND you lose in general overall attendance.

 

Point being - a sharp decrease in prices ain't happening. We are what we are -- a giant city with a lot of potential interest, but as of yet, not enough truly interested people.

Chicago MLB Teams: 2

Detroit MLB Teams: 1

[IlliniKrush]

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.

Guy moves to the suburbs, wants to take the Sox with him. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

 

In all seriousness...moving to the suburbs would actually be really wise. Throw the team in the middle of Schaumburg, and you'd have a lot more young Sox fans.

[Cali]

Guy moves to the suburbs, wants to take the Sox with him. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

 

In all seriousness...moving to the suburbs would actually be really wise. Throw the team in the middle of Schaumburg, and you'd have a lot more young Sox fans.

 

Since I don't live there anymore are there actual feasible places to build a ballpark in the suburbs? (In this complete fantasy of course)

[ewokpelts]

Guy moves to the suburbs, wants to take the Sox with him. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

 

In all seriousness...moving to the suburbs would actually be really wise. Throw the team in the middle of Schaumburg, and you'd have a lot more young Sox fans.

you try getting to schaumburg on a wed night for a 7pm game.

 

I have done just that. for a flyers game. took us well more than an hour to get there from the city.

 

 

attendance would crater in the burbs.

 

[DukeNukeEm]

Making games harder to get to is not going to help attendance. Chicagoland all flows to the middle. Metra, the L, the highways... all roads lead to the city. Take that away and you're 1) forcing people to drive and pay ridiculous amounts of parking no matter what and 2) pissing off a lot of the fanbase.

 

If they want to build a fanbase you slice prices in half, trim the hell out of that payroll and make the Sox the lean, cheap "Let's go to a ballgame and not go broke" option. Were in an awful division that doesn't spend money, especially when Ilitch dies.