04/19/24
May 30, 2004
Uncle Carl gives away $9.9 million worth of baseball tickets to local school kids.
This is a great story. I never thought I'd see a baseball owner give away nearly $10 million worth of tickets. Some of the other low-attendance franchises could probably learn from this. If no one is going to buy the tickets anyway, it makes sense to at least have warm bodies in the seats. The more I look at the NL Central, the more I think that those teams are just going to beat the heck out of each other all season and the division will be up for grabs until the last day. I wouldn't be surprised if the unbalanced schedule cost the 2nd place team in the central the wild card.
posted by Jugwine at 11:12 AM on May 30, 2004
Um, if "no one is going to buy the tickets anyway" how is this giving away $1 much less several million? Think about it differently: even if the other seat goes to a parent, how many of the kids are only children and if not won't the parent(s) buy a ticket for the other kids too? Or if both parents want to go. And what about spending on such things as parking, souvenirs and food? If you ask me, this will add a couple of million dollars or more to the Reds gross revenues for the season. Look just a little bit deeper before going all weak in the knees, please.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:37 PM on May 30, 2004
true, but it is not like every team is giving away tickets even though in many cases such a move would seem to end up bringing in cash, as you point out. and how about those first place Reds.
posted by gspm at 01:48 PM on May 30, 2004
true, but it is not like every team is giving away tickets Someone has to be the first. Watch and see how many other teams with poor attendance averages try this if it works well for those first place Reds.
posted by billsaysthis at 06:04 PM on May 30, 2004
I still think it's pretty cool to give tickets to kids, no matter the motivation. Having said that, will someone please shoot this writer? Some of us would love Lindner to spend all that good will on a couple starting pitchers. He might learn the value of seven strong innings every day in September. He could "study" that. Blech.
posted by dusted at 11:38 PM on May 30, 2004
Look just a little bit deeper before going all weak in the knees, please. Cynic. If we fault every business owner for giving back to the community because they might benefit for it as well, we've truly lost perspective. Even if it's a P.R move, the fact of the matter is that a lot of kids will be going to ballgames they might not otherwise be able to go to. "Good" motives or not, it's still a charitable and admirable act.
posted by dfleming at 04:50 AM on May 31, 2004
If it was purely a business move he would have given the tickets to people in the business community, they'd spend more on beer than a 12 year old. Lindner has a histroy of philantropy, even buying the Reds was more of a philinthropic act than anything (which some argued wasn't a good thing, but at least the team didn't move).
posted by mick at 09:03 AM on May 31, 2004
My Fiancee's oldest kid (who isn't the best student) got a voucher but her youngest (who's an A/B student) did not. That, in conjuction with the letter urging kids to study and learn something everyday, makes me wonder if they were given to struggling students as an encouragement. /veiled attempt to start a conversation about the first place Reds