Value Priced Season Tickets (2)

In Part 1 I laid out the idea the Giants are using this year with regard to season ticket prices. I have attached the schedule according to ticket price. One of the problems this idea poses for my ticket partners and I is that we can't pick the number of games in advance with a set price in mind. Traditionally, we've picked the number of games we all wanted to see, then later had a draft. Either we need to do the draft earlier this year, or we need to adjust for ticket prices after we pick. Somehow or other, it should be worked out, although it will surely be more complicated.

Value Priced Season Tickets (1)

The Giants have initiated this year a value priced scheme for season tickets. They have been doing some of this with public sale for a few years now, but this is the first for season tickets. Value pricing is the idea that a weekend Dodger game (or Red Sox this year in interleague) should be a higher price than a mid-week Nationals game for the same seat, etc.

Traditionally, tickets have been priced the same for all games, based on seat location and level of amenity. Back when I first started attending Giants games at Candlestick regularly (1981), box seats were $6, reserved $5 and bleachers $1 (going up to $2 the following year). There were only three price categories. What I always thought strange, was that box seats in the upper deck in center field were the same price as box seats in the front row behind home plate. Most teams today have made many adjustments to seat prices, depending on location.

What the Giants have done is to create four categories of prices, but totalling up over the entire season, the total cost for season tickets remains the same. They are priced roughly 72%, 91%, 115% and 164% of last year's prices. There are more cheaper games than pricier games. This all makes sense from a marketing standpoint, because the Dodgers and Red Sox games will still sell out, while Nationals games (and other lesser draws) should gain higher attendance due to lower prices. And, those dreaded exhibition games the weekend before Opening Day are now far less!

There are three categories of comparables for which tickets vary in value: team played, weekday vs. weekend games, and mid-summer vs. spring and early fall. So, Rockies games in July will be more than Rockies games in April, etc., but Dodger games in April will be more than Rockies games in July. A Thursday night game of a four game series will be less than the Saturday and Sunday games.

I'm hoping this will allow us to sell our tickets in a better way, but there are other problems that have arisen. More on that in another post.

See Part 2

Tickets Have Arrived

I received my season tickets today from the FedEX driver. Bless you. It's always exciting to open the box and find out what they look like this year. Maybe I'll post a scan soon.

The Giants have their season tickets printed in book format, with sheets of tickets. Each sheet has usually five or six tickets, perforated between them, and perforated at the book binding. Tearing each ticket out and dividing them up between all the buyers is a very time consuming task. The sheets must be bent at the book binding, back and forth to weaken the perforation before tearing. Then each sheet must be folded up like a road map, first in one direction, then in the other, again to weaken the perforation. If you don't, the tickets will tear. One year I let a buyer do all the ticket logistical work, making a distribution spreadsheet, tearing out, passing around, etc. He swore never to do that again. I'll be sitting down to separate tickets here soon.

My First Ballpark Road Trip (7) - Ticket Stubs

Read entire series here.

These are the ticket stubs from my first ballpark road trip in August, 1985. Notice the "Swinging A's" logo on the Angels ticket at the right, and Mike Davis' autograph on the first ticket. The first two tickets were bought from Ticketron and Teleseat, and have no baseball design to them like the third. This played a big part in future tickets that I bought. If I could get an "official" ticket direct from the team, I always did. Heck, the first ticket looks no different than a Santana concert in Berkeley. Okay, call me a ticket stub connoisseur. I'm VERY picky about my ticket stubs.

Tickets Are Here - Draft Day

My season tickets arrived a couple of days ago. Last night the main players (myself, Mrs. Scott, Mike and Nora) had our annual ticket draft party where we divided up games for the season. Each of us has other buyers that take a few, and we speak on their behalf. We had burritos and beer and each kept a list. Mike and Nora each brought their laptops, but I stuck to the pencil and paper. Each year, the four of us take in Opening Day together. We have some "the four of us" games, some "girls night out" games and some "guys night out" games. It should be a fun season watching a losing team play in a half filled ballpark. The beer line will probably be shorter. Can't wait.

A Double Header the Hard Way

A few days ago on Wednesday, a rare occurrence occurred. The A's and Giants played home games on the same day, the A's a day game, the Giants a night game. Every off-season when the next year's schedule comes out, I check it to see if this occurs, and plan to buy tickets. This doesn't happen every year, as baseball's schedule makers make a point of scheduling teams that share a metro market with opposite home/road schedules. So the A's and Giants rarely play any home games on the same day, and it's even more rare for them to play at differing times during that same day. But this year it did. What a day it was.

I took the day off work, and took the train to both games. The A's beat the Angels in the afternoon, while the Giants squeaked by the Cardinals in 12 innings in the nightcap. That's 21 innings of baseball. Pujols and Bonds both went very deep, with awesome shots each. It was a cold windy day, and even colder night. It took a while to thaw out.

The A's game took only a bit over 2 hours to play, so I got to The City really early. I took in some BP from the knothole area in the first few archways until the gates opened, which is 2 hours before game time. Once in, the Giants were still taking BP, and I caught a home run ball in the bleachers, right in my glove. I didn't even have to move. I couldn't tell which player hit it, since they were wearing their warmup jackets.

I sat in the bleachers for the A's game, and there weren't that many fans there. There were enough vocal bums there for some good heckling. Garrett Anderson, the Halos' left fielder, was a choice target. A good time was had by all. I had a guy right in front of me and another behind me (on the aisle), and we talked some good ball all day. All of us had a bag of spits, and we even compared seed brands. The Giants game proved good for heckling the Cards' bullpen, too. To tell a pitcher that Bonds is gonna go yard on him, then to see it that inning is pretty fun. As an added all-time record, set by me and anybody else who went to both games, I saw all three Molina brothers - Jose (Angels), Yadier (Cards) and Bengie (Giants) start at catcher in the same day.

Our Two Year Old Ticket Holder

Our youngest child turns two this year. At two years of age, both the Giants and A's require tickets. Meanwhile, down in San Diego, tickets are required based not on age, but height. In 2004, we saw the new ballpark. Our oldest son was three, but since he wasn't yet 36", he didn't require a ticket. Our youngest is small, so he might get in free at Petco for quite a few years.