Frustrating.

[southsider2k5]

I'm offended by it just the same. The onus is on the White Sox to field a team that people want to see.

 

The fanbase will just move the goalposts to something else.

[bmags]

I went to the game on Saturday, but I generally refuse to go to games in April unless asked. You couldn't have paid me to go to Friday night's extra innings game in rainy 30 degree weather.

 

When it is June and it's like this, then you can complain. But April baseball is horrible, I don't care how hardcore you are as a fan.

[Harry Chappas]

I'm offended by it just the same. The onus is on the White Sox to field a team that people want to see.

No reason to not like this team. I am tired of the derrick rose team needs to be great on paper to care. If verlander's arm falls off the Sox are the best team in the division. Then what will fans b**** about.

[DukeNukeEm]

I went to two games this week, including Opening Day.

 

Its really not a very good time when its cold, I basically am forced to buy bleacher seats which aren't nearly as cheap and kinda suck just to stay in the sun. Come mid-May and/or June when the weather finally turns and kids are out of school and numbers will increase. Making rash judgments about April attendance is just as bad as making rash judgments about April play on the field.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

So I made this pic.

 

If it offends you, you are a crappy fan.

 

 

Go Sox.

 

I understand your point, but in case you were wondering what a meme looks like, think of the opposite of what you just made.

[ScottyDo]

I went to the game on Saturday, but I generally refuse to go to games in April unless asked. You couldn't have paid me to go to Friday night's extra innings game in rainy 30 degree weather.

 

When it is June and it's like this, then you can complain. But April baseball is horrible, I don't care how hardcore you are as a fan.

Fair enough. It has been pretty dreadful the last week. And it really is too soon to know whether or not progress has been made. Results not encouraging thus far though.

[lostfan]

When you factor out the 05-07 spike in which it was pretty obvious what happened, the crowds we draw aren't really that far off averages for what we draw. There aren't that many of us, and you can't compare us to Wrigley either.

[LittleHurt05]

I'm offended by it just the same. The onus is on the White Sox to field a team that people want to see.

 

 

History has shown that the only team people "want to see" is a World Series champion. If the Sox don't win it all, they won't sell out the park, no matter what the cost for tickets is.

[Quin]

I'll be going 2 or 3 times, a far cry from the 7-9 I normally go to. But I won't be home this summer. I'll go to a few at Kauffman.

 

 

[chw42]

I'll go to as many as I can before I move to Austin in late June.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Then they're going to be waiting a long time for a dominant offense like 2000 or 2008 (before Quentin was injured) or 2005's dominant pitching, bullpen and timely hitting.

 

We have an entertaining team right now, compared to say 2007, 2009 or 2011.

 

The problem's simply that DET is perceived by most casual Sox fans as being too good to beat...part of that was proven by the last two months of the season (in their minds) and head-to-head match-ups, and also the fact that the Tigers reached the World Series (twice since we were last there) and are seemingly even stronger whereas we're basically viewed as treading water (because we let AJ go, IN THEIR MINDS, once again).

 

The fact of the matter that running out Josh Hamilton as our starting CFer or Zach Greinke instead of Chris Sale wasn't going to sell an extra 5-10,000 seats in April.

 

They would, however, contribute eventually to the idea that the team had the horses required to hold off the Tigers and advance deep into the playoffs.

I guess it's just me and I know how important winning is and all but wtf it's baseball, it's the Sox. Do you enjoy the game, your team , going out and having family fun ? It's not like you're looking at a really bad team here. We have the pieces to be competitive . Is it really that important to the experience to go home a winner ? I think you get more than your moneys worth on the other stuff I mentioned. Sucks being 2nd to the Cubs who haven't won in forever. Maybe it just is location location location.

Edited April 8, 2013 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

History has shown that the only team people "want to see" is a World Series champion. If the Sox don't win it all, they won't sell out the park, no matter what the cost for tickets is.

The Sox next promotion should be free tickets just to see if they can fill the park during crummy April weather.Just bring a non perishable food item that isn't past it's expiration date, Turn it into a food drive.Have it correspond with the National Food Drive the postal service does every year in May around Mother's Day. Actually not a bad idea if they fill the park with people paying for parking, food and souvenirs. Hand out brochures promoting all the different ticket packages. Try it once a month just for the hell of it. Create a demand and a frenzy for the free seats. Create a buzz. Imagine the press you would get. Do it for the worst drawing teams.

 

When I started writing this post I was being facetious but by the end I was serious.

Edited April 8, 2013 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[SleepyWhiteSox]

I went Saturday. Tix were cheap, and it wasn't cold albeit very windy. Woulda gone Sunday but had some stuff to do. It was just nice to finally go to the ballpark with some friends, have some beers, talk 50 baseball/50 BS, and enjoy a nice Sox win over king felix. And I will definitely be going to a lot more Sunday games. It's fun, reasonably priced, 2 train stops from where I'm staying, and I get to watch the team I'm passionate about. Might as well go...

[caulfield12]

The Sox next promotion should be free tickets just to see if they can fill the park during crummy April weather.Just bring a non perishable food item that isn't past it's expiration date, Turn it into a food drive.Have it correspond with the National Food Drive the postal service does every year in May around Mother's Day. Actually not a bad idea if they fill the park with people paying for parking, food and souvenirs. Hand out brochures promoting all the different ticket packages. Try it once a month just for the hell of it. Create a demand and a frenzy for the free seats. Create a buzz. Imagine the press you would get. Do it for the worst drawing teams.

 

When I started writing this post I was being facetious but by the end I was serious.

 

 

 

The biggest danger with this is eroding your core product by devaluing it.

 

For whatever reason/s, the White Sox have been content with their revenues over the past decade. Now, you can definitely make the argument that having that extra 5-7,500 in the fans per night would have meant more of a homefield advantage and arguably 2-3 more victories per season. I have no quantifiable way to prove this, just a gut feeling. That huge home park factor hasn't really worked in our favor since the 2008 campaign.

 

At any rate, it's basic marketing 101. 80% of your ticket sales and revenues are from the same 20% of fans, mostly the season and split and partial year ticket plan buyers. The White Sox have always been more concerned with improving and augmenting their ballpark experience (such as controlling people from the upper levels from coming down) than they were concerned with filling up the upper deck.

 

And you can go back to that argument that PERCEPTION of a filled stadium, being the "cool" or "in" thing to do...of looking like you're missing out on something when the game is on the tube and you see the beers and brats and hot dogs and atmosphere, well, you can never get that feeling when there's only 15-25,000 fans in the stands. You need to get upper 20's or low 30's for that.

 

For a long time, the Sox just lived off marketing the fireworks promotion/s on the weekends and that worked to an extent...but even that has worn off over time.

 

If you gave away tickets, even upper deck tickets, away for free is that you would really turn off and upset your paying customers. It's fine if it's for a specific target or niche, like perfect attendance or Boys & Girls Clubs or honor roll or whatever, that's building your future customer base of young fans and exposing them to your product.

 

But to make it just a general giveaway, that's something more in line with how a minor league team operates...and you don't ever want that perception to exist that your team has to GIVE AWAY tickets. Once that idea sets in, it's even more difficult to attract paying customers. Think about how easy it was to get minor league tickets for free...maybe you didn't end up going because you thought, how good could something be that's being given away for nothing?

 

Above and beyond that, numerous sports marketing surveys have verified that free nights don't end up with customers paying nearly what regular ticket buyers would in terms of concessions and souvenirs...it doesn't balance out like you'd think, in theory.

 

Rightly or wrongly, the White Sox see their core fanbase as a pretty inelastic one that will support the team through thick and thin, and they're never going to go out of their way to beg for fans or run out promotions like you'd see so frequently during the Veeck Years. Things are more corporate/profit motivated and less family-oriented, and that's not just sports, it's true of every segment of society and culture.

 

So, while the non-profit tie in is laudable, it's hard to think of a major league baseball team that makes more of an effort to promote its community relations and outreach programs, with arguably less reciprocal support than all but a few teams in baseball. That whole idea of "enlightened self-interest" and "corporate social responsibility" has been a hallmark of the Reinsdorf regime, but it hasn't paid off as well as it does in many other markets.

[Capn12]

Sure, just create a travel portal that can take me from Upstate South Carolina, to 333 W. 35th Street, Chicago, IL, in less than the 12.5 hours it would take me to get there. Then, I'd be at 2-3 games a week.

[caulfield12]

Sure, just create a travel portal that can take me from Upstate South Carolina, to 333 W. 35th Street, Chicago, IL, in less than the 12.5 hours it would take me to get there. Then, I'd be at 2-3 games a week.

 

 

Done.

 

 

Interstellar, the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie, about black holes and time warps, based on the book by Cal Tech professor Kip S. Thorne, Hawking foreward, etc., addresses this problem and more.

Edited April 8, 2013 by caulfield12

[Marty34]

Yeah, but how is that defined? I mean, it's self-evident that Sox fans don't consider this team to be good enough to watch, but there are many fanbases for whom a young, dominant true ace pitcher just coming into his own on one of the first nice afternoons of the season would be a big draw. That's not true here in Chicago.

 

Are you suggesting White Sox fans be punished for not attending games? Reminder: the team had an operating income of $23M last year.

[NorthSideSox72]

Leaving Marty's hilarity about this somehow being the Sox' fault aside for the moment... it is APRIL, and the team just played two teams with possibly the smallest national followings of any other teams we will play. With most games being in the 30's or 40's weather-wise. Of course attendance was bad. And of course, it will get a lot better as the weather does and we play more popular opponents.

 

Is this newsworthy?

 

[southsider2k5]

Are you suggesting White Sox fans be punished for not attending games? Reminder: the team had an operating income of $23M last year.

 

If Sox fans don't want to attend games, the organization won't put as good of a team on the field. That's the way it works in pretty much all pro sports.

[southsider2k5]

Leaving Marty's hilarity about this somehow being the Sox' fault aside for the moment... it is APRIL, and the team just played two teams with possibly the smallest national followings of any other teams we will play. With most games being in the 30's or 40's weather-wise. Of course attendance was bad. And of course, it will get a lot better as the weather does and we play more popular opponents.

 

Is this newsworthy?

 

It is always newsworthy if it is bad.

[Princess Dye]

My ticket was for upper tank,first base side and I got the heck out of there. Way colder than 3rd base side.

[caulfield12]

My ticket was for upper tank,first base side and I got the heck out of there. Way colder than 3rd base side.

 

 

You said Tanks.

 

"Your what hurts?" sayeth Whimperoo.

[Marty34]

If Sox fans don't want to attend games, the organization won't put as good of a team on the field. That's the way it works in pretty much all pro sports.

 

The team has one playoff win since 2006. They haven't been putting out a good product of late and they've made a decent buck doing so.

[southsider2k5]

The team has one playoff win since 2006. They haven't been putting out a good product of late and they've made a decent buck doing so.

 

The Sox have a bandwagon fan base. Nothing new there.

[pettie4sox]

FWIW

 

I plan on going to more Sox games this year with the prices dropped. I also work at IIT so it's a small trek to travel after work for the games.

 

I'm not sure why people keep bringing this topic up. The Sox fans are who they are and will probably never change so...

 

DEAL WITH IT!