Thanks. I didn t figure they had one. The Cubs are going through a period of suck that we haven t se

The Cubs announced their new ticket prices for 2013 and Alvin is doing a victory dance with his bologna sandwich tonight because he is getting a ~10% reduction on his seats up there in the last row of the bleachers.
In fact, all season ticket holders are holding basically even or getting a slight discount next year from the 2012 prices. In addition to the cut in bleacher prices, the Upper Deck Box Outfield folks are also getting a ~10% reduction and the the Terrace Reserved Outfield people are getting ~5% off.
Everybody else pretty much holds even at the old levels. If we averaged them out weighting them equally hotels in jacksonville florida (which I know isn t 100% accurate, but it should be close enough for our purposes), the Cubs lowered their overall ticket prices by about 1.6%.
How did the season ticket prices come down while 56% of the price points actually went up? The key is how the games were distributed in the five pricing tiers. The tickets in the seating bowl have 4 fewer games in the Marquee tier than last year and 3 more in the Bronze tier. The Bleachers hotels in jacksonville florida have 7 fewer in the Marquee tier and 7 more in the Bronze. They also have 8 more Gold level and 8 fewer Silver. So even though many of the price points were raised, over the course of the season the total amount to purchase every ticket was lowered because there were fewer of the most expensive tickets available.
hotels in jacksonville florida This is clearly a move to appease their season ticket holders and indicates to me that the Cubs are extremely nervous about the attrition rate of their waiting list. They ll still claim that renewal rates are strong and the number of the people on the waitlist still tops 100,000, but when it comes to ticket revenues, actions speak louder than words.
For individual ticket purchasers, the news is not as good. For one, the prices listed above are generally $1 to $2 lower than they will be when single game tickets go on sale. That doesn t alter the percentage change on the tables above very much because season ticket holders saved $1-2 per ticket last year as well, so while the percentages might change by a tenth of a point or two, that doesn t mean a lot when we re talking about general trends.
Secondly, unless you buy Upper Deck Box Outfield seats, your individual tickets will generally cost you more than last year. Remember, the savings is a result of there being fewer Marquee games on the schedule. So while it is less likely you will be buying an individual ticket for a Marquee game than last year, if you do go to one, chances are you ll pay as much or more for that ticket. If you go to Gold, Silver, or Bronze level, you almost assuredly will pay more. In fact, the average Bronze level seat will cost you over 13% more than a Bronze game from last year.
I ll restate that. You can expect to pay about 13% more per ticket to watch two 90-loss teams play each other on a cold September weekday afternoon than you would last year. In some cases you ll pay significantly more than that. If you sit in the Terrace Reserved section for that horrid game, you ll pay 33% more than last year ($16 compared to $12 last year).
It s a bold strategy that seems on the surface like it may have been Todd Rickett s idea. Those Bronze level tickets were selling for less than a dollar on StubHub hotels in jacksonville florida last year because season hotels in jacksonville florida ticket holders were dumping them for anything they could get. Knowing that as we know now and knowing the team will most likely hotels in jacksonville florida be shitty again next year, why would anyone buy those tickets at the old face value, much less the new one?
The Cubs also will use dynamic pricing in the entire ballpark, Faulkner said, after experimenting with the concept in the bleachers in 2012. As ticket inventory decreases, the price of the unsold tickets will go up.
So while people might normally be inclined to wait and see if the team does, in fact, suck as much balls as it did last year before running out and buying tickets to see the Cubs play the Padres, they may feel compelled to buy the tickets early to make sure they get the tickets at the lowest price point. If they wait and the team is actually better hotels in jacksonville florida than they expect, it could cost more to buy the tickets later.
Plus, remember that dynamic pricing allows them to sell fewer tickets overall while maintaining a decent revenue stream because the price point keeps rising as the tickets are sold. So they can make up for lost revenue in the crappy games by selling lots of ever-more-expensive tickets to the popular games.
Plus, remember that dynamic pricing allows them to sell fewer tickets overall while maintaining a decent revenue stream because the price point keeps rising as the tickets are sold. So they can make up for lost revenue in the crappy games by selling hotels in jacksonville florida lots of ever-more-expensive tickets to the popular games.
This is a really good point. Also, they have about 100K to go before hotels in jacksonville florida they even get to me on the season ticket waiting hotels in jacksonville florida list. So lots of willing schlubs hotels in jacksonville florida to burn through to get some base revenue even if most of those tickets end up going unused.
He makes a great point that if they re lowering ticket prices then they re worried about that reserve list. The season ticket prices don t come down for any other reason. Even in bad economic times Cubs tickets were increased hotels in jacksonville florida and now that the economy is slowly hotels in jacksonville florida improving they decrease it? Either they ve had a lot of season ticket holders the last couple years give up their tickets (true, I d suspect) and/or they ve had a lot of people on that list drop out (also probably true).
The attrition rate appears to be about 10K a year. I put my name on the list about two years ago and I was at 120K or so, now I m near 100K. So I wouldn hotels in jacksonville florida t be surprised if they are burning hotels in jacksonville florida through it rather quickly, hotels in jacksonville florida but it would still take them about a decade to get to me at that rate. I m not an economist but I feel like if they were truly desperate they d probably offer an even bigger discount than what s been reported.
Today I found out there is a 10% chance I might have to move from Chicago to Pittsburgh. I never thought hotels in jacksonville florida I could see the bright side as being able to see a real baseball game next year (dying laughing)
The attrition rate appears hotels in jacksonville florida to be about 10K a year. I put my name on the list about two years ago and I was at 120K or so, now I'm near 100K. So I wouldn't be surprised if they are burning through it rather quickly, but it would still take them about a decade to get to me at that rate. I'm not an economist but I feel like if they were truly desperate they'd probably offer an even bigger discount than what's been reported.
They re not desperate, but they must be concerned about the burn rate at which they are going through willing customers. They also know that it is highly unlikely that this team is going to sell tickets on its own merits this year (or even probably next year) so they are doing a PR job here.
But it s a shell game. They actually raised ticket prices hotels in jacksonville florida while getting to say they lowered them. All that has to happen is for them to shift a few of those lower-tiered games back into the Marquee column and they raise their revenue without raising prices.
In most cases, moving even one game from each level to the next highest level would result in those seats going from basically holding even to rising slightly. Move a couple of games and you are going to see significant rises in season ticket costs.
So in two years, they ll talk about how they are only raising prices 2% or whatever after a promising season, but they ll shift it back to having 13 Marquee games and only 6 Bronze like it was a couple of years ago. So those packages will shoot up in price.
Fucking shit. I was trying to watch the game last night, but you know how when you re watching and you can t concentrate because there aren t enough camera angles? Why the fuck can t we see all the camera angles? I don t want to just watch the game, I want to spend all my time hunting hotels in jacksonville florida through camera angles!
Agreed. It may only be 10K right now, but fans were expecting hotels in jacksonville florida the 2010 Cubs to contend. A large portion thought the 2011 team would because they won a lot of games down the stretch and the evil Lou Piniella was gone. 2012 was really the first year the fans expected hotels in jacksonville florida nothing from the team. Now they expect even less. I d think if the attrition was 10K over the last 2-3 years that we ll see it increase quite a bit. I wouldn hotels in jacksonville florida t be at all surprised to see that list down to 10K by the time the Cubs contend hotels in jacksonville florida in a few years. It s a great safety net to have, but it will go away quickly.
The other thing is that you can buy tickets to a late season game for next to nothing. It even has me interested in attending a game at Wrigley late next year. Obviously the cost of travel remains the same, but it s much more of an incentive to go there if I can get tickets for as cheap as they were late in the season this year. I expect they ll be that cheap even earlier in the season hotels in jacksonville florida next year.
When the Cubs come to town Cubs fans outnumber Pirate fans. Those games are really hotels in jacksonville florida fun. And PNC Park is awesome. And tickets are CHEAP. Also Pittsburgh is pretty nice. Personally, I d jump at the chance.
I don t think they had any net before 2003. There might have been small waiting lists while Sammy was clubbing HRs left and right, but I bought in 1998 and I had a friend buy in with no wait in 2001. Both the end of 2001 and 2002 sucked so I can t imagine there was a wait list after that until the after 2003 playoff run.
Thanks. I didn t figure they had one. The Cubs are going through a period hotels in jacksonville florida of suck that we haven t seen them go through in awhile. There are a lot of Cubs fans who became fans during or after 2003 that will probably give up or already have given up on them. Those fans were expecting the Cubs to contend every year from 2004 through 2010 and many of them in 2011. My guess is that by the time the Cubs contend that list will be down to 10K or be nonexistent and the Cubs won t be selling out many games either.
You always hear people citing tradition, but that s true