how would YOU fix the sox attendance woes?

[Iwritecode]

It doesn't change walk up though. The walk up this year was minimal.

 

I think that had a lot to do with ticket prices.

[southsider2k5]

I think that had a lot to do with ticket prices.

 

That has been pretty well blown out of the water too. Outside of a couple of series, there were pretty much always cheap tickets available somewhere.

[greg775]

They spent 120 days in first place. No one had any idea in April/May/June/July/August and the first two weeks of September that this team would run out of gas during the last two weeks of September. The whole "win and people show up" myth is busted as far as I am concerned.

 

I don't know if I'd call what the Sox did this year, "win." They floated about 8-10 over .500 and won five in a row; lost five in a row a lot. Depending on when you caught them, they were 'winning' some yeah. Also losing a lot.

[greg775]

That has been pretty well blown out of the water too. Outside of a couple of series, there were pretty much always cheap tickets available somewhere.

 

I think baseball generally is so unaffordable for the average Joe that it's just not an option anymore. People don't take the effort to hunt for the cheaper tickets. They've just pretty much eliminated baseball as an entertainment option. It would take several seasons of reduced prices to make a dent in that. Even if a college kid and his buddies in suburbia or a dad and his wife and kids wanted to search for deals on tickets, they still are looking at parking costs and food and drink. After years of not wanting to do that, it's just been crossed off their 'to-do' list for summertime fun. Maybe suck it up and go to one game a year, whereas many years ago, the same people might have gone to 10-30 games cause it was fun and affordable back then.

 

If I were the Sox, I'd cut parking to 10 bucks all of next season, take a bath on that, do a heavy advertising campaign on how the Sox are making an effort to work with their fans during the depression. Instead of "appreciate the game" do a whole marketing thing on reduced parking. I think a lot of people would rather be hit in the head with a hammer than pay more than 20 bucks to park their car. Maybe that doesn't matter to the Sox, but like caufield wrote, good luck when these older rich fans die and these younger kids are the older people and have never gone to baseball games.

I think baseball attendance will pretty much die in the next 20-30 years because of the economy. It won't die as a sport because of the rich TV deals.

Edited October 16, 2012 by greg775

[southsider2k5]

I don't know if I'd call what the Sox did this year, "win." They floated about 8-10 over .500 and won five in a row; lost five in a row a lot. Depending on when you caught them, they were 'winning' some yeah. Also losing a lot.

 

They spent 120 days in first place.

[Iwritecode]

People don't take the effort to hunt for the cheaper tickets.

 

This.

 

I imagine that the first place the casual fans (the ones that don't know much about baseball and that we desperately need to help fill the park) check for ticket prices is whitesox.com.

 

Seeing those prices has to be a huge turn off.

[Iwritecode]

They spent 120 days in first place.

 

It's hard to describe but there was never that "feeling" with this team that we got with the 05 or even the 08 team. It's like people didn't want to get too emotionally involved because they were all waiting for the other shoe to drop. And boy did it drop...

[thedoctor]

They spent 120 days in first place.

 

evidently it's going to take more than that for people to come out to the ballpark. the sox have been a pretty successful team in terms of winning games over the past decade. but they haven't posted consistent playoff appearances and that hurts. i think if you can post a three- to four-year stretch where you make multiple playoff appearances, you'd see a gradual and consistent increase.

[Dick Allen]

That has been pretty well blown out of the water too. Outside of a couple of series, there were pretty much always cheap tickets available somewhere.

Not walk up. Stubhub purchases don't increase attendance. There were some deals if people want to try and find them. Walk up attendance is usually pretty minimal even when there is high demand for tickets. Rarely do the Sox sell more than 5k tickets day of game.

 

Plus, dynamic pricing really blew any chance of a big walk up in 2012. If the White Sox season ticket base drops, their attendance will most likely drop no matter how well they do that season. The Sox attendance was higher in 2007 than it was in 2005. It was a residual of winning the WS.

 

In fact, stubhub having better deals with better locations than the Sox dynamic deals hurts attendance, and causes some to rethink their investment in season ticket packages.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Dick Allen

[Eminor3rd]

I think baseball generally is so unaffordable for the average Joe that it's just not an option anymore.

 

I think there's truth in this. Can you really expect people to pay $25-100 on a ticket plus parking plus food on something that happens 162 times over a 6 months span? I understand football being expensive as there are less than twenty games a year.

 

I always think the media is talking to me when they complain about attendance, but I always attend a handful of games each year. How much are we expected to attend? Am I really the problem or are they only targeting people that go to zero? We talk about prices like they're a one-time expense, but don't we really need a bunch of people going to a lot of games to improve attendance? If you want someone to go to ten games, you're asking for several hundred dollars. Now, if you're taking a family of four, you're talking potentially thousands.

 

[Dick Allen]

I think there's truth in this. Can you really expect people to pay $25-100 on a ticket plus parking plus food on something that happens 162 times over a 6 months span? I understand football being expensive as there are less than twenty games a year.

 

I always think the media is talking to me when they complain about attendance, but I always attend a handful of games each year. How much are we expected to attend? Am I really the problem or are they only targeting people that go to zero? We talk about prices like they're a one-time expense, but don't we really need a bunch of people going to a lot of games to improve attendance? If you want someone to go to ten games, you're asking for several hundred dollars. Now, if you're taking a family of four, you're talking potentially thousands.

I don't think there's any question if you asked 1000 random Sox fans why they don't go to more games in 2012 the #1 answer would be financial the #2 answer would be time committment.

[greg775]

I think there's truth in this. Can you really expect people to pay $25-100 on a ticket plus parking plus food on something that happens 162 times over a 6 months span? I understand football being expensive as there are less than twenty games a year.

 

I always think the media is talking to me when they complain about attendance, but I always attend a handful of games each year. How much are we expected to attend? Am I really the problem or are they only targeting people that go to zero? We talk about prices like they're a one-time expense, but don't we really need a bunch of people going to a lot of games to improve attendance? If you want someone to go to ten games, you're asking for several hundred dollars. Now, if you're taking a family of four, you're talking potentially thousands.

 

Great post. I think the Sox would be thrilled in this economy to have a fan like you go to "a handful" of games a year.

[southsider2k5]

Not walk up. Stubhub purchases don't increase attendance. There were some deals if people want to try and find them. Walk up attendance is usually pretty minimal even when there is high demand for tickets. Rarely do the Sox sell more than 5k tickets day of game.

 

Plus, dynamic pricing really blew any chance of a big walk up in 2012. If the White Sox season ticket base drops, their attendance will most likely drop no matter how well they do that season. The Sox attendance was higher in 2007 than it was in 2005. It was a residual of winning the WS.

 

In fact, stubhub having better deals with better locations than the Sox dynamic deals hurts attendance, and causes some to rethink their investment in season ticket packages.

 

If there were real demand, stubhub wouldn't be trading at a discount to face value. If demand were firm, there would be an equal or premium for tickets.

[LittleHurt05]

Great post. I think the Sox would be thrilled in this economy to have a fan like you go to "a handful" of games a year.

 

It's funny, everyone keeps blaming the economy and high ticket prices. Yet every other sports team in Chicago has relatively high ticket prices and seems to be enjoying tons of success at the gate. The Cubs did have a decrease, but even with a 100 loss team, they were still top 10 in attendance. Apparently, White Sox fans are the only ones affected by the economy.

[southsider2k5]

It's funny, everyone keeps blaming the economy and high ticket prices. Yet every other sports team in Chicago has relatively high ticket prices and seems to be enjoying tons of success at the gate. The Cubs did have a decrease, but even with a 100 loss team, they were still top 10 in attendance. Apparently, White Sox fans are the only ones affected by the economy.

 

The Bears, who have the highest ticket prices in Chicago, are always completely sold out.

[thedoctor]

It's funny, everyone keeps blaming the economy and high ticket prices. Yet every other sports team in Chicago has relatively high ticket prices and seems to be enjoying tons of success at the gate. The Cubs did have a decrease, but even with a 100 loss team, they were still top 10 in attendance. Apparently, White Sox fans are the only ones affected by the economy.

 

it should be noted that baseball attendance rose by about 2 percent across the board this year. mlb averaged 30,895 fans per game, the highest total since 2008. it rose in 2011 as well after three straight years of a drop.

[Dick Allen]

It's funny, everyone keeps blaming the economy and high ticket prices. Yet every other sports team in Chicago has relatively high ticket prices and seems to be enjoying tons of success at the gate. The Cubs did have a decrease, but even with a 100 loss team, they were still top 10 in attendance. Apparently, White Sox fans are the only ones affected by the economy.

The Sox average more customers per game than the Blackhawks and Bulls. Comparing them to the Bears with 8 home dates isn't fair. Plus those 3 are the only teams in town in their respective sports. If ticket brokers owned the same number of season tickets for the Cubs as they do for the Sox, their attendance would be far less, but we all know there are more Cubs fans in the area than Sox fans. The Sox are drawing from a fairly small pool compared to the others except probably the Blackhawks, but if they go a few seasons without the playoffs, their attendance will be dismal. People will come, but pricing is a problem.

[Iwritecode]

It's funny, everyone keeps blaming the economy and high ticket prices. Yet every other sports team in Chicago has relatively high ticket prices and seems to be enjoying tons of success at the gate. The Cubs did have a decrease, but even with a 100 loss team, they were still top 10 in attendance. Apparently, White Sox fans are the only ones affected by the economy.

 

The Cubs are an unfair comparison. They are the only team in MLB that can draw almost 3 million people to watch a 90+ loss team. It's gradually starting to change but for the most part, the performance of the team on the field has almost no affect on the number of tickets they sell. That's not true for any other team.

 

[Iwritecode]

The Bears, who have the highest ticket prices in Chicago, are always completely sold out.

 

They only play 8 home games plus they don't have to share the city with another team.

[Dick Allen]

Weren't the Sox TV ratings up this year as well? People are watching, just not at USCF.

[bmags]

The Bears, who have the highest ticket prices in Chicago, are always completely sold out.

 

8 home games with only 26,000 seats more than white sox games.

 

If baseball were 8 home games, i'm pretty sure the sox would sell out.

[Iwritecode]

The Sox average more customers per game than the Blackhawks and Bulls.

 

US Cellular capacity is almost 40,000.

 

UC capacity is less than 24,000.

[Iwritecode]

Weren't the Sox TV ratings up this year as well? People are watching, just not at USCF.

 

IIRC, Sox TV ratings were up. Cubs were down.

[southsider2k5]

8 home games with only 26,000 seats more than white sox games.

 

If baseball were 8 home games, i'm pretty sure the sox would sell out.

 

If the argument is price points, then the amount of home games is immaterial.

[Eminor3rd]

If the argument is price points, then the amount of home games is immaterial.

 

That's not true at all. You pay more for something in higher demand. With unlimited supply, there is no surplus demand to accommodate high prices.

 

Like I said before, how often are people "supposed" to go? The typical football game attender probably goes to one game a year. That's plenty to fill 8 games. How many people do you need to go to one game a year to fill up 81 games?

 

It's actually kind of ridiculous to compare the Bears and the White Sox in this case. Typical White Sox fan probably shows up several times more often than the typical Bears fan, yet former has an attendance problem and the latter never fails to sell out. It's apples to oranges.

 

EDIT: Using iwritecode's capacity numbers above, the Bears have 192,000 seats to sell every year. The White Sox have 3,240,000 seats to sell every year. Everyone in the entire city of Chicago (2,707,120) could go to one Sox game a year and they'd still be ~500,000 short of capacity.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Eminor3rd