MLB '09

[Ghoulish Delight]

These numbers might be off a few dollars as I didn't look to hard at whether these were for the most recent seasons, or the prior season, but I doubt any of them changed significantly in relation to each other:

League-Wide Average Ticket Prices:
NFL - $72
NHL - $49
NBA - $48
MLB - $25

So yeah, MLB is still the best deal of the bunch from that perspective. Of course with double the games in a season as basketball and more than double average seating capacity...

Approx. Total Season Attendance (again might be off a bit depending on which year came up first in my search):
NFL - 17 million
NHL - 21 million
NBA - 22 million
MLB - 79 million

So baseball makes it up in volume.

[Alex]

In fact, in some baseball stadiums that actually have the problem that there are so many tickets available for sale that it actually suppresses ticket sales.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Is that, as I've heard, due to league parity rules, trying to keep those teams from drastically out-revenuing the others?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh yeah, two more details in the Dodgers' favor. Almost half of that $45 million contract is going to be deferred payments over 5 years, without interest. And, having already cut their payroll, signing Manny means they can shop Juan "How the Fvck Do You Field a Fly Ball" Pierre and his remaining $28.5 million contract around. They aren't going to get anyone to pay that salary for them, but Juan will accept a deferral or other agreement that gets him somewhere that will let him play (if he's lucky he'll be playing at a field like Fenway or Wrigley where there's an outfield he stands a chance of covering).

Man, the Dodgers are looking at a lineup with #7 & #8 hitters that each had a slugging percentage of .460 last year. If they can get hold of enough duct tape to keep their pitchers' arms together for the season, it's going to be a good one.

[Alex]

No, it is because of shopper behavior. Very Broad Example:

Scenario 1:
There is a game on July 16. The stadium seats 100,000. History suggests that 60,000 people will attend.

Before the season starts you are thinking about going to the game on July 16. You don't really care where you sit so long as you're at the game.

Do you buy the ticket now or wait and buy it at the gate? You probably wait.

Then on July 16th it is unusually cold or you have a sniffle or something else comes up and you decide not to go to the game. Team loses a sale.

Scenario 2:
There is a game on July 16. The stadium seats 65,000. History suggests that 60,000 people will attend.

Before the season starts you are thinking about going to the game on July 16. You don't really care where you sit so long as you're at the game.

Do you buy the ticket now or wait and buy it at the gate? Maybe you decide to gamble, but while there's a good chance of tickets being available you can easily imagine something making it a sellout (they announce that Bono will sing the national anthem at that game, the team is on a 19 game winning streak, absolutely perfect baseball weather). So you decide to buy the ticket before the season even starts.

Then on game day if you don't show up for whatever reason the team still has your money.


The Athletics actually did this and it impacted my behavior. They never sell out games and so long as I can sit in a certain range of seats I was happy. Since that range was, for almost any game guaranteed to be available on game day I never pre-purchased tickets.

Then a few years ago they completely closed the third level for all games. Reduced capacity by something like 15,000 seats (from average to the smallest in the majors). So now if I am interested in any specific game that I think will be at all popular I make sure I pre-purchase tickets since I don't want to risk getting there on game day and ending up out by the BBQ pit or behind the foul pole or something.

This is taken to extremes in the NFL where they can frequently say, "hey, you want guaranteed access to one game? Well you've got to buy all 8."

[Ghoulish Delight]

Supply, demand, scarcity. Gotchya.

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Word on the street in these parts is that T.O. is coming to the Redskins. Bleh.

No such luck

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Supply, demand, scarcity. Gotchya.

No such luck

"No Luck" would be if he did come to the Redskins. Good luck to the Bills...

[scaeagles]

It is amazing how one athlete can be such a cancer. I was actually surprised that the Celtics took a risk on Stephon Marbury for the same reason.

In seeing an interview with Manny Ramirez, though, he seems like a good guy. I don't know anything of him except that one interview, but he doesn't seem like a prima donna.

[Ghoulish Delight]

April's here! April's here!

[Kevy Baby]

5 days, 2 hours, and 34 minutes as of this post.