how would YOU fix the sox attendance woes?

[Eminor3rd]

Yet getting people to spend five times that to go to a Bears game isn't a problem at all.

 

When people are saying ticket prices are too high, they aren't saying that only if there were less tickets for sale, they could afford to buy tickets. They are saying the price of tickets are too expensive.

 

Sox tickets are not too expensive for people to go to one game, they ARE too expensive for people to go to ten games.

 

Here's an exercise assuming that Sox tickets are $50, Bears are $200, and those capacity figures from before are true.

 

If you go to one Bears game at $200, you have gone to 1/8th of the games. The Bears need about 192,000 people to do that to sell every seat.

 

If you go to one Sox game at $50, you have gone to 1/81st of the games. The Sox to about 3.2 million people to do that to sell every seat. If the Sox wanted every fan to go to 1/8th of the games, like the Bears fans do, they would need every person to go to 10-11 games, at the cost of $500-550.

 

192,000 Bears seats x $200 = $38,400,000

3,200,000 Sox seats x $50 = $160,000,000

 

The toal amount of money that would have to be spent to sell out the Cell every day is over four times what it would require to sell out Soldier field every day, even considering that tickets to Soldier field are four times more expensive.

 

$38,400,000 / 3,200,000 Sox seats = $12

 

Sox tickets would have to be $12 apiece for you to be expecting the same amount of total spending from Sox fans as you would for Bears fans to go to the same fraction of the games that are played. Therefore, price is absolutely affected by the amount of home games involved and it is currently way too high to expect people to go to enough games to fill the place up every day.

 

Even if the Sox expected fans to spend the same $200 as Bears fans and go to four games a year, they'd need 800,000 to sell the place out every day, which is almost a third of the entire city - in a town with two baseball teams and with the other team having a much more desireable location and much more affluent fan base. This is more than four times the size of all the seats available in a Bears season.

 

EDIT: My point is that you can't draw conclusions about how dedicated much less dedicated the Sox fan base is than the Bears by comparing attendance figures and ticket prices. To say that a fan can or can't afford to go to a Sox game is NOT to say that a fan can or can't afford to sell the place out every night -- and in the case of the Sox, the numbers are too high to expect that to happen at ~$50 per seat.

 

In other words, supporting the Sox to the tune of nightly sellouts is a much, much larger financial burden than supporting the Bears to the tune of nightly sellouts, and it has everything to do with how many games are played.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Eminor3rd

[greg775]

I think whenpeople say "tix are too expensive", they really mean "lower deck tix are too expensive"

 

Too many lower level snobs. Upper deck tix with a code were as low as $7 thi year yet the upper deck was half empty.

 

That's probably a pretty good point. I know when I go to a game I don't wanna sit in the upper tank.

 

Hey here's a good one for you. I have some friends coming up from Chicago to go to the Kansas-Texas football game. No way I am going to pay money for Kansas football tickets for god sakes with the stands half full. So my rich car dealer, a very nice guy, gave me four tickets for the game. I looked at the ticket and they are 80 bucks a pop. Can you imagine??? Kansas football. 80 bucks a ticket. My car dealer gave me 320 bucks of goods for free. Nice guy, but my god, how could anybody pay 80 bucks to go see a Kansas football game!?

[My_Sox_Summer]

What happened on that random Tuesday in July against the Twins? Because it’s those days we need to focus on. Obviously the Cubs and half-price Mondays draw people in.

 

The Sox had 9 home games in July. The Twins series was near sold out for every game, even when it was 100 out.

 

Goes with the theory if they played less games, attendance would go up.

[Dick Allen]

If Sox tickets are too expensive at $50 for someone, Bears tickets aren't affordable at $200 for that same person.

Not necessarily.

[Dick Allen]

I think whenpeople say "tix are too expensive", they really mean "lower deck tix are too expensive"

 

Too many lower level snobs. Upper deck tix with a code were as low as $7 thi year yet the upper deck was half empty.

You are correct, but I don't think people want to look for a code. What I don't understand is why they require codes for the discount. If they are willing to discount it with a code, just discount it for everyone.

 

I think the upper deck will always be problematic unless they either offer steep discounts or some other gimmick. There are some decent seats up there, and some real bad ones. I do think in the infield in the first few rows they are way better than downstairs in the corners or the outfield if your there to watch baseball.

[southsider2k5]

Sox tickets are not too expensive for people to go to one game, they ARE too expensive for people to go to ten games.

 

Here's an exercise assuming that Sox tickets are $50, Bears are $200, and those capacity figures from before are true.

 

If you go to one Bears game at $200, you have gone to 1/8th of the games. The Bears need about 192,000 people to do that to sell every seat.

 

If you go to one Sox game at $50, you have gone to 1/81st of the games. The Sox to about 3.2 million people to do that to sell every seat. If the Sox wanted every fan to go to 1/8th of the games, like the Bears fans do, they would need every person to go to 10-11 games, at the cost of $500-550.

 

192,000 Bears seats x $200 = $38,400,000

3,200,000 Sox seats x $50 = $160,000,000

 

The toal amount of money that would have to be spent to sell out the Cell every day is over four times what it would require to sell out Soldier field every day, even considering that tickets to Soldier field are four times more expensive.

 

$38,400,000 / 3,200,000 Sox seats = $12

 

Sox tickets would have to be $12 apiece for you to be expecting the same amount of total spending from Sox fans as you would for Bears fans to go to the same fraction of the games that are played. Therefore, price is absolutely affected by the amount of home games involved and it is currently way too high to expect people to go to enough games to fill the place up every day.

 

Even if the Sox expected fans to spend the same $200 as Bears fans and go to four games a year, they'd need 800,000 to sell the place out every day, which is almost a third of the entire city - in a town with two baseball teams and with the other team having a much more desireable location and much more affluent fan base. This is more than four times the size of all the seats available in a Bears season.

 

EDIT: My point is that you can't draw conclusions about how dedicated much less dedicated the Sox fan base is than the Bears by comparing attendance figures and ticket prices. To say that a fan can or can't afford to go to a Sox game is NOT to say that a fan can or can't afford to sell the place out every night -- and in the case of the Sox, the numbers are too high to expect that to happen at ~$50 per seat.

 

In other words, supporting the Sox to the tune of nightly sellouts is a much, much larger financial burden than supporting the Bears to the tune of nightly sellouts, and it has everything to do with how many games are played.

 

Except you can't draw that equivalency just because the math works. It is much harder to come up with $200 a ticket one time, than $50 a ticket four times over the course of a baseball season. The relationship behind how many games and how long seasons are is irrelevant if you are saying prices are too high. Just because of opportunity cost and limited resources comparing the two as if they are equal doesn't really make sense. The reality is that $50 is a number I plucked out of the air just for comparisons sake. The real average ticket price is MUCH lower than that, even without considering the umpteen million different ways to get cheaper tickets. Even comparing apples to apples with the two baseball teams, the Sox average ticket price is about 60% of the Cubs in 2012.

 

And the last sentence of the edit is missing the individual decision making point, and turning into a fanbase one.

[Dick Allen]

With the new playoff formats the only AL teams to go longer than the Sox current 4 years without a playoff appearance are Cleveland, Toronto, KC and Seattle. How are they doing attendance-wise.

[IlliniKrush]

You are correct, but I don't think people want to look for a code. What I don't understand is why they require codes for the discount. If they are willing to discount it with a code, just discount it for everyone.

 

I think the upper deck will always be problematic unless they either offer steep discounts or some other gimmick. There are some decent seats up there, and some real bad ones. I do think in the infield in the first few rows they are way better than downstairs in the corners or the outfield if your there to watch baseball.

A huge problem with the upper deck is that you can't go downstairs at all. How many teams have this policy? I know they claim it's for safety and code and whatever, but we all knows it's BS, as it started after the incident on the field and all the fights that would happen in the UD. They said hey, let's keep the idiots upstairs.

 

Going to the game with your kids and not being able to go downstairs and watch BP, etc. is going to make a difference. The food upstairs is also much different than downstairs. They've slowly brought stuff upstairs, but it's not on the same level.

 

 

[NorthSideSox72]

First of all, attendance isn't as huge an issue as you'd think. They are still outdrawing what they did from the strike until 2005, and doing it in the midst (or back end) of the worst economic recession since the 30's. The team itself hasn't been to the post-season since 2008, and was a huge disappointment for 3 straight years before this one.

 

Access isn't an issue either, I don't know where people are getting that. You have 2 El lines within 4 blocks, a major expressway right there, a Metra station right there, CTA buses, and shuttlle buses to various suburbs. Then there is parking, which there is plenty of, way more and closer than the other park in town has.

 

Boyer and the Sox have done a fantastic job of making some key improvements over the past decade or so. Look around the park - making the UD much more pleasant, adding a bunch of kid-specific stuff (which IMO is going to pay huge future dividends), better concessions, special sections, all kinds of stuff.

 

The Cubs' attendance has been going downhill for a few years too, by the way. They are not invincible.

 

--

 

So, what's the bad news? Why isn't attendance better? There is no one reason, or one fix. Here are the big reasons as I see them (some of which the team can control, some they can't):

 

1. The economy still sucks. People have less disposable income as a whole. There is no way around this.

2. Sox ticket prices, while cheaper generally than the Cubs, are still among the most expensive in baseball. That is a potential problem.

3. The neighborhood around the park still has no distinctive draw to it. Having the Rober Taylor homes razed helped things, people feel a little safer in the area, but there is still nothing to DO near the park, before and after games. Or very little.

4. The team had three straight seasons (2009-2011) of not only not making the playoffs, but of falling well below expectations.

5. The 2012 team was forecasted to be bad, and season ticket base fell as a result, before the season even started.

6. The 2012 team never built up that huge lead that finally told the always-paranoid Sox fan base that, yeah, we're here to stay.

7. Stub Hub integration. Great tool for season ticket holders, where they can easily send their tickets to StubHub right over the web, list them, and sell them for cashey money. But this is horrible for the club trying to sell individual tickets - it floods the market with available seats that were a lot harder to sell before. More of these people would have bought new/seperate tickets before.

 

Those were all significant negative effects on attendance, in my view. So what can the club do? What would I do? Here you go...

 

1. Keep season ticket prices identical- don't raise them.

2. Scrap the dynamic pricing nonsense that punished people for buying in advance - just have fairly cheap tickets available regularly, and throw in the occasional deal

3. Target families - this is where you make some bucks just because of the numbers of people involved, and getting the kids into it. This can be done via a few small shifts:

--A. Offer discounted parking for buying 4 or more tickets - this encourages ride-sharing, encorages more people to come, and makes it cheaper for families to go to games. It also recognizes the extra money larger groups and families are spending.

--B. Offer more cheap tickets on WEEKENDS - when families with younger kids can actually go. They aren't selling out most weekend games anyway, so why not?

--C. Something they already do but could market better... offer package deals of tickets and food/drinks, not just for specific games, but all the time.

--D. Work with the players to do more autograph time for the kids hovering near the field - this has diminished a lot over the years, and there is no doubt that having that moment with a player for a kid makes a HUGE impression, and gives you dedicated fans later.

4. Create a reward-points system like airlines have - a Sox membership card, if you will. You get points for buying tickets, spending money at concessions, anything in the park at all. The points can be used for merchandise or tickets. This will encourage people to go to more games. You can also partner with other retailers outside The Cell to offer discounts to card holders.

5. Work with the city and the neighborhood to see what sort of zoning variances are possible near the park, and invest in developing nearby restaurants, bars and entertainment. There has to be some places near the park to do this. And with property cheap and interest rates low, now is the time to make that sort of investment. Adding more reason to come to the park would be a huge asset.

6. Make sure to CONTINUE doing the following, that are huge advantages that the Sox currently have over their cross-town rivals: kids play areas (Fundamentals, etc.), fireworks games, parking spaces available, half price Mondays.

7. I hate to say this being a season ticket holder myself, but... work out a deal with Stub Hub where they increase the fee % to list tickets direct from Sox season ticket holders (electronic), and keep the added fee with the Sox. Don't advertise it, just bury it in the fee. Helps offset the loss of revenue from re-sold tickets.

8. Finally, and this is the hardest one to implement... give the team the money it needs to compete. A playoff appearance is a huge boost. This team could be better than last year with just a relatively small increase in player payroll - make the extra $15M investment now for returns later.

 

There's my take on what's wrong, and what I'd do. I'll be impressed if anyone read the whole thing.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

A huge problem with the upper deck is that you can't go downstairs at all. How many teams have this policy? I know they claim it's for safety and code and whatever, but we all knows it's BS, as it started after the incident on the field and all the fights that would happen in the UD. They said hey, let's keep the idiots upstairs.

 

Going to the game with your kids and not being able to go downstairs and watch BP, etc. is going to make a difference. The food upstairs is also much different than downstairs. They've slowly brought stuff upstairs, but it's not on the same level.

If you have season tickets in hand (whether or not they are yours), you can access the LD.

 

[cabiness42]

First of all, attendance isn't as huge an issue as you'd think. They are still outdrawing what they did from the strike until 2005, and doing it in the midst (or back end) of the worst economic recession since the 30's. The team itself hasn't been to the post-season since 2008, and was a huge disappointment for 3 straight years before this one.

 

Access isn't an issue either, I don't know where people are getting that. You have 2 El lines within 4 blocks, a major expressway right there, a Metra station right there, CTA buses, and shuttlle buses to various suburbs. Then there is parking, which there is plenty of, way more and closer than the other park in town has.

 

Boyer and the Sox have done a fantastic job of making some key improvements over the past decade or so. Look around the park - making the UD much more pleasant, adding a bunch of kid-specific stuff (which IMO is going to pay huge future dividends), better concessions, special sections, all kinds of stuff.

 

The Cubs' attendance has been going downhill for a few years too, by the way. They are not invincible.

 

--

 

So, what's the bad news? Why isn't attendance better? There is no one reason, or one fix. Here are the big reasons as I see them (some of which the team can control, some they can't):

 

1. The economy still sucks. People have less disposable income as a whole. There is no way around this.

2. Sox ticket prices, while cheaper generally than the Cubs, are still among the most expensive in baseball. That is a potential problem.

3. The neighborhood around the park still has no distinctive draw to it. Having the Rober Taylor homes razed helped things, people feel a little safer in the area, but there is still nothing to DO near the park, before and after games. Or very little.

4. The team had three straight seasons (2009-2011) of not only not making the playoffs, but of falling well below expectations.

5. The 2012 team was forecasted to be bad, and season ticket base fell as a result, before the season even started.

6. The 2012 team never built up that huge lead that finally told the always-paranoid Sox fan base that, yeah, we're here to stay.

7. Stub Hub integration. Great tool for season ticket holders, where they can easily send their tickets to StubHub right over the web, list them, and sell them for cashey money. But this is horrible for the club trying to sell individual tickets - it floods the market with available seats that were a lot harder to sell before. More of these people would have bought new/seperate tickets before.

 

Those were all significant negative effects on attendance, in my view. So what can the club do? What would I do? Here you go...

 

1. Keep season ticket prices identical- don't raise them.

2. Scrap the dynamic pricing nonsense that punished people for buying in advance - just have fairly cheap tickets available regularly, and throw in the occasional deal

3. Target families - this is where you make some bucks just because of the numbers of people involved, and getting the kids into it. This can be done via a few small shifts:

--A. Offer discounted parking for buying 4 or more tickets - this encourages ride-sharing, encorages more people to come, and makes it cheaper for families to go to games. It also recognizes the extra money larger groups and families are spending.

--B. Offer more cheap tickets on WEEKENDS - when families with younger kids can actually go. They aren't selling out most weekend games anyway, so why not?

--C. Something they already do but could market better... offer package deals of tickets and food/drinks, not just for specific games, but all the time.

--D. Work with the players to do more autograph time for the kids hovering near the field - this has diminished a lot over the years, and there is no doubt that having that moment with a player for a kid makes a HUGE impression, and gives you dedicated fans later.

4. Create a reward-points system like airlines have - a Sox membership card, if you will. You get points for buying tickets, spending money at concessions, anything in the park at all. The points can be used for merchandise or tickets. This will encourage people to go to more games. You can also partner with other retailers outside The Cell to offer discounts to card holders.

5. Work with the city and the neighborhood to see what sort of zoning variances are possible near the park, and invest in developing nearby restaurants, bars and entertainment. There has to be some places near the park to do this. And with property cheap and interest rates low, now is the time to make that sort of investment. Adding more reason to come to the park would be a huge asset.

6. Make sure to CONTINUE doing the following, that are huge advantages that the Sox currently have over their cross-town rivals: kids play areas (Fundamentals, etc.), fireworks games, parking spaces available, half price Mondays.

7. I hate to say this being a season ticket holder myself, but... work out a deal with Stub Hub where they increase the fee % to list tickets direct from Sox season ticket holders (electronic), and keep the added fee with the Sox. Don't advertise it, just bury it in the fee. Helps offset the loss of revenue from re-sold tickets.

8. Finally, and this is the hardest one to implement... give the team the money it needs to compete. A playoff appearance is a huge boost. This team could be better than last year with just a relatively small increase in player payroll - make the extra $15M investment now for returns later.

 

There's my take on what's wrong, and what I'd do. I'll be impressed if anyone read the whole thing.

 

I did read the whole thing. I think you're right about factor #1 being the economy. I also like your idea of a rewards system. The Sox have official sponsors. Give people Sox rewards points for patronizing those sponsors. If I still lived in the Chicago area, I'd seriously consider switching to US Cellular if it got me free or majorly discounted Sox tickets.

[My_Sox_Summer]

You are correct, but I don't think people want to look for a code. What I don't understand is why they require codes for the discount. If they are willing to discount it with a code, just discount it for everyone.

 

They make coupons too, should everything just be lower in price because people are too lazy to bring a coupon?

 

I mean come on. That is what dynamic pricing is supposed to do, no codes and you get that low price. I think they also only do it online because they re-coup some of it with the fees.

 

If someone is too lazy to use Google, they deserve to pay full price IMO.

[Dick Allen]

They make coupons too, should everything just be lower in price because people are too lazy to bring a coupon?

 

I mean come on. That is what dynamic pricing is supposed to do, no codes and you get that low price. I think they also only do it online because they re-coup some of it with the fees.

 

If someone is too lazy to use Google, they deserve to pay full price IMO.

Then the Sox lose out. My point being, is if they are willing to sell tickets at a certain price, sell them at that price rather than sitting on them because someone doesn't have a code. They become worthless when the game ends. I used to have season tickets, this year I did not. I used codes and Stubhub and never paid anywhere close to full price. It may seem crazy, but not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone is aware codes exist, and usually they are the people who can least afford paying full price.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Dick Allen

[southsider2k5]

Then the Sox lose out. My point being, is if they are willing to sell tickets at a certain price, sell them at that price rather than sitting on them because someone doesn't have a code. They become worthless when the game ends. I used to have season tickets, this year I did not. I used codes and Stubhub and never paid anywhere close to full price. It may seem crazy, but not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone is aware codes exist, and usually they are the people who can least afford paying full price.

 

Serious question, how many people who have no access to internet are able to buy baseball tickets? I am guessing those demographics don't overlap a lot.

[My_Sox_Summer]

A huge problem with the upper deck is that you can't go downstairs at all. How many teams have this policy? I know they claim it's for safety and code and whatever, but we all knows it's BS, as it started after the incident on the field and all the fights that would happen in the UD. They said hey, let's keep the idiots upstairs.

 

Going to the game with your kids and not being able to go downstairs and watch BP, etc. is going to make a difference. The food upstairs is also much different than downstairs. They've slowly brought stuff upstairs, but it's not on the same level.

 

How many people do you think would go sit upstairs when they see a ton of empty seats downstairs? I agree that it sucks to not have access to the entire park, but as many have said the Cubs have similar policies as well as other teams.

[Dick Allen]

Serious question, how many people who have no access to internet are able to buy baseball tickets? I am guessing those demographics don't overlap a lot.

All you really have to do is check the lines at the ballpark ticket windows when tickets first go on sale.

I actually know 3 huge baseball fans that do not have computers at home. They can get on at work and go to the library, but there are a lot of people that don't have a computer at home or cable. The question is do the Sox really want to sell the tickets or not? If they do and are willing to sell them at a certain price for those that go on the internet find a code and enter it, why not just sell them to someone walking up the day of the game at the same price? Why eat it?

 

What the Sox should do is throw a bunch of tickets on Stubhub.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Dick Allen

[My_Sox_Summer]

Then the Sox lose out. My point being, is if they are willing to sell tickets at a certain price, sell them at that price rather than sitting on them because someone doesn't have a code. They become worthless when the game ends. I used to have season tickets, this year I did not. I used codes and Stubhub and never paid anywhere close to full price. It may seem crazy, but not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone is aware codes exist, and usually they are the people who can least afford paying full price.

 

I disagree, not that you are wrong, I just don't think that people are not going to games because the tickets are too expensive. There are codes for basically every game. They cannot discount every game. Now, what I do think they should do, is the areas that they usually mark down the tickets is just sell them for a lower rate to all games. The corners upstairs for $15 the lower corners for $25.

 

Why did you stop getting seasons? That is something the Sox need to focus on.

 

I don't think the demos would show that people buying tickets without the internet, go to multiple games. Which is where Dynamic Pricing comes in, those deals are available at the box office with no code and no fees.

[Y2Jimmy0]

That's probably a pretty good point. I know when I go to a game I don't wanna sit in the upper tank.

 

Hey here's a good one for you. I have some friends coming up from Chicago to go to the Kansas-Texas football game. No way I am going to pay money for Kansas football tickets for god sakes with the stands half full. So my rich car dealer, a very nice guy, gave me four tickets for the game. I looked at the ticket and they are 80 bucks a pop. Can you imagine??? Kansas football. 80 bucks a ticket. My car dealer gave me 320 bucks of goods for free. Nice guy, but my god, how could anybody pay 80 bucks to go see a Kansas football game!?

 

When I go I usually sit in the Upper Deck. I love getting seats on stub hub for the first couple rows behind home plate in the UD. The seats are good and the Burrito stand and Import beers stand is right by the seats.

[Dick Allen]

I disagree, not that you are wrong, I just don't think that people are not going to games because the tickets are too expensive. There are codes for basically every game. They cannot discount every game. Now, what I do think they should do, is the areas that they usually mark down the tickets is just sell them for a lower rate to all games. The corners upstairs for $15 the lower corners for $25.

 

Why did you stop getting seasons? That is something the Sox need to focus on.

 

I don't think the demos would show that people buying tickets without the internet, go to multiple games. Which is where Dynamic Pricing comes in, those deals are available at the box office with no code and no fees.

Day of game, dynamic pricing is outrageous.

We were debating it, and were probably going to drop them, then my ticket partner was in an accident and died. We realized Stubhub was a better option. I could still go to the games for a lot less money. The only thing we would be missing out on is playoff tickets. From what we save during the season,we could pay up for playoff games or watch them on my sweet Samsung 46" HDTV, and still come out ahead.

[Eminor3rd]

Except you can't draw that equivalency just because the math works. It is much harder to come up with $200 a ticket one time, than $50 a ticket four times over the course of a baseball season. The relationship behind how many games and how long seasons are is irrelevant if you are saying prices are too high. Just because of opportunity cost and limited resources comparing the two as if they are equal doesn't really make sense. The reality is that $50 is a number I plucked out of the air just for comparisons sake. The real average ticket price is MUCH lower than that, even without considering the umpteen million different ways to get cheaper tickets. Even comparing apples to apples with the two baseball teams, the Sox average ticket price is about 60% of the Cubs in 2012.

 

And the last sentence of the edit is missing the individual decision making point, and turning into a fanbase one.

 

With parking and food, it absolutely is not lower than $50. And you're right, it doesn't add up 1 to 1, but make any reasonable concession and the fact that the Bears sell 3.2 million is the difference. It's supply and demand; Sox sell 2 million+ tickets a year, they would absolutely sell out 8 games at Soldier field if that was their season.

[My_Sox_Summer]

Day of game, dynamic pricing is outrageous.

We were debating it, and were probably going to drop them, then my ticket partner was in an accident and died. We realized Stubhub was a better option. I could still go to the games for a lot less money. The only thing we would be missing out on is playoff tickets. From what we save during the season,we could pay up for playoff games or watch them on my sweet Samsung 46" HDTV, and still come out ahead.

 

I bought my Dynamic Deals before the day of game, so I have no idea what they sell for day of game. I was under the impression at most games it is the same as it was before or still cheaper than the list price.

 

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/ticket...content=pricing

 

So a $9 upper deck ticket is outrageous? Or a $20-$25 lower deck seat?

 

On StubHub, isn't it about $10 more than the price listed? That is why I stayed away from it. I could get them cheaper at the box office or even from a scalper.

 

Bottom line is if you want to put in the work to get cheaper tickets it can be done. People that can't do that will walk up and pay full price. Or benefit from the Dynamic Deals.

 

And as a former season ticket holder, you are pricing out your season, which takes time and effort. I did the same thing. If you wanna save money you have to put time into it.

[southsider2k5]

With parking and food, it absolutely is not lower than $50. And you're right, it doesn't add up 1 to 1, but make any reasonable concession and the fact that the Bears sell 3.2 million is the difference. It's supply and demand; Sox sell 2 million+ tickets a year, they would absolutely sell out 8 games at Soldier field if that was their season.

 

If they had Bears ticket prices? I doubt it.

[Dick Allen]

If they had Bears ticket prices? I doubt it.

First off, the Bears have a much larger pool of fans than the White Sox. Secondly, many people put a value of attending a Bears game higher than that of a White Sox game. Just because someone thinks something is too expensive doesn't necessarily mean they cannot afford it. If they had 8 opportunities instead of 81, they may value a White Sox game more than they do now.

As long as people will always think there are plenty of good seats available, there probably will be plenty of good seats available.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Dick Allen

[Iwritecode]

With all this discussion about ticket prices, I really think that's only a small part of the problem. The biggest problem IMO, is the performance of the team on the field.

 

The excitement and expectations for the team are low right now. The season ticket base is probably only around 13,000 or so. The best way to build that up is to win and continue to win. And by "win" I mean post-season baseball. Not just hanging on to first place for a few months out of the season.

 

I can pretty much guarantee that if they make the playoffs 3-4 times in the next 5-6 years it won't matter how much the tickets cost. The place will be full.

 

[Dick Allen]

With all this discussion about ticket prices, I really think that's only a small part of the problem. The biggest problem IMO, is the performance of the team on the field.

 

The excitement and expectations for the team are low right now. The season ticket base is probably only around 13,000 or so. The best way to build that up is to win and continue to win. And by "win" I mean post-season baseball. Not just hanging on to first place for a few months out of the season.

 

I can pretty much guarantee that if they make the playoffs 3-4 times in the next 5-6 years it won't matter how much the tickets cost. The place will be full.

That's probably right. I posted last night how things have changed. Making the playoffs once in a while isn't as tough as it used to be, the only teams in the AL to have a longer playoff drought than the White Sox 4 years are Cleveland, KC, Toronto and Seattle and there are tons of empty seats at those ballparks, 3 of which used to be filled every night.