12/18/24
May 18, 2009
Baseball Tickets Too Much? Check Back Tomorrow: The San Francisco Giants experiment with dynamic, demand-based pricing.
I think it's worth a shot at least. I imagine a few fans would benefit from this system.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:14 PM on May 18, 2009
I think it's a great idea, and although it's a perhaps a little early to firmly state that it is working, it sounds like the results so far have been positive. More teams could (and should) experiment with this.
Teams generally try to keep prices at a certain level to avoid devaluation. That's all well and good if the team is performing and fans are turning out, but for some teams that suck, it's just empty seats. This solves that problem, as it helps fill the stadium now, and it allows teams an easy avenue to charge more when the demand is there.
On a somewhat related note, I have been to two Nationals games (No, I'm not even a season ticket holder!) and have twice lamented that the seats behind home plate (all of them) were empty. That is completely ridiculous! I understand you can't always fill the stadium, but as an organization, you have to have people there. When those seats are clearly on the tv for every pitch, if you ever want to have people in the other seats in the stadium, you have to have those seats full.
posted by bender at 08:43 AM on May 19, 2009
The Giants' dynamic pricing experiment affects 2,000 of the 41,000 seats at the stadium . . . No season tickets were sold there.
And you can be damned sure you suckers who bought season tickets won't be allowed to do something similar.
posted by yerfatma at 10:53 AM on May 19, 2009
I guess that's a good idea. But, you might end up with people price-watching instead of actually attending. I do that far too often when I consider optional travel.