Ask The Orioles

[weams]

Dear Orioles,

I have attended every Opening Day since 1998 but can't find reasonable tickets this year. Hook a brother up?

Yours,

Pedro

They might read this. You never know. Many of the employees, not just the Directors, read this site.

[Pedro Cerrano]

They might read this. You never know. Many of the employees, not just the Directors, read this site.

I hope they do. I'm just a PM away and I'm not picky!

[RavNMadMan]

Ticketing:
There has been a lot of discussion about ticket prices since our last post. We recognize that fans would want to pay less for a ticket to a game. We offer many opportunities for fans to save over a full price ticket, including: advance purchases, group purchases, Ollie's Bargain Nights every Tuesday home game (including prime games), Student Nights, discounts for non-profit organizations, the Junior Orioles Dugout Club, Left Field All-Inclusive Picnic Perch, and our free Birthday ticket offer. We also offer discounts for active, reserve and retired military members.

Draft:
We are committed to focusing significant resources on the amateur draft. However, it would not be appropriate for us to detail in specific terms our short term and long-term strategy with respect to scouting (or player development). While this is of great interest to many of you, we will not be able to get into the specifics some of you are looking for.

The investments we are making in amateur, professional and international scouting, as well as in organization-wide player development are significant, and we believe appropriate. These areas will remain a priority of the Baseball Operations department.

Opening Day on Good Friday:
We recognize that our Opening Day falls on Good Friday this year, and in partnership with Delaware North, we are prepared for a possible increase in demand for non-meat products. We will offer an abundance of suitable items including crab cakes, pizza, salads, prepared sandwiches without meat, and other seafood options throughout the ballpark.

While we haven't yet announced some of the exciting new concessions offerings this year, there will be at least one new location on Eutaw Street that will be particularly helpful in this regard. Stay tuned for more details.

Our Responses:
We know that what the fans in this forum are looking for is a transparent organization willing and eager to engage with its most committed fans in productive dialogue that will translate to a better fan experience overall. A lot of thought goes into these responses, and we ask that you understand even in this setting as we strive for transparency, our responses and language will always reflect our values and mission as an organization.

However, there are several topics that we cannot comment on in great detail at this time due to the competitive nature of our business. These areas include relationships with our corporate partners, agreements with broadcast rights holders including our team-owned regional sports network MASN, or player personnel strategy.

In your next to last sentence, you use the word "competitive". The Orioles have not been such in quite some time. I'm fine with dodging direct answers to direct questions as that is somewhat expected but please do not claim something that you (the Orioles) are not.

[RavNMadMan]

Dear Orioles,

Is it possible that Mr. Angelos would do a "state of the Orioles" address?

Thanks
Madman

[JohnnyK27]

Orioles,
What happened to the Mr. Angelo's that loved the Orioles? In his tenure as owner we as fans witnessed a owner who was willing o spend to bring In the best available talent. Since 2000 that guy obviously vanished into thin air and was replaced by a team philosophy of signing second and third tier caliper players. Players who were either far past their prime or weren't very good to begin with (G Atkins and V Guerrero) come to mind. I have boycotted the ballpark for ten years now...sad considering I once was a proud season ticket owner. All I can ask of the owner is to make us Believe again or sell the team to a new owner who will.
Regards,
JohnnyK 27

[Official Orioles]

What we can improve:

One of you asked specifically what we think we can improve as an organization, and besides the obvious answer of our on-field record, we believe there are many ways on the business side that we can improve. We recognize that there is always room for improvement and we strive for excellence both in the office and on the field.

Some specific areas where we see a need for improvement include doing a better job of communicating when a policy changes or a new one is instituted. We recognize that transparency is important in this area and a need to communicate the reasons behind why a decision was made is sometimes critical for public acceptance or understanding. While we cannot reveal privileged information that could harm our business, we are working to be more transparent through avenues like this forum and interacting through comments across all social media platforms.

Additionally, we need to improve upon highlighting the many people within the Orioles who are extremely dedicated to the betterment of this organization but may not have a public persona. We have many thoughtful people working here that we would like our fans to know more about and the jobs that they do. You will see that recently we listed our entire front office staff online, and we are looking into ways in which we can give a voice to the people in our various departments that make this place run.

We feel that we have made strides in several areas recently including addressing the fact that previously, there was not enough attention to international scouting or a uniform approach to player development. We recognize that these areas need dramatic improvement, and Dan Duquette and his team are focusing on advancing and improving them well beyond the initial investments we have made this offseason.

We have also made improvements to our ballpark that you will notice the moment you walk in the gates including our new Roof Deck, sculpture garden and Flag Court. We are offering new concession items that we have discussed on this thread before, and several new programs have recently launched.

We continue to attempt to demonstrate a strong connection with our history and former alumni through the Orioles Alumni program, continuing our popular alumni autograph series, anniversary reunions, first pitch participants, and of course, our new sculptures to be unveiled this year. We strive to not dwell in our past but to honor it, as our fans (and this organization) feel a deep connection to those players and teams of yesteryear.

We continue to expand our social media outreach which you can explore on orioles.com/connect. Including Facebook and Twitter we have also recently added Pinterest, Google+ , and soon, Tumblr. We foresee significant growth in all of our outlets and a new focus on engagement with our fans.

We are constantly trying to find new ways to make our fans know how important they are to us and to feel connected to the organization they love. Some ways we are doing that this year include our recently launched license plate campaign, 2110 Eutaw Street, and online galleries such as "Where is Birdland" and another one coming soon to CamdenYards20.com. We work daily on how to benefit those in our community through OriolesREACH, and we recently unveiled a more efficient donation request system and a way for season plan holder to donate their season tickets. Another unique opportunity for fans this year will be to choose what our next bobblehead giveaway will be in our AT&T Fans' Choice Bobblehead promotion (more details coming next week).

License Plates:
We noticed a new thread started about the new Orioles license plates. We want our fans to know that plate #0001 is available in our #1 Fan Sweepstakes. We have also designated nine special numbers for our auction that benefits the Baltimore Orioles Charitable Foundation, and we have plenty of numbers that are available for purchase at the standard $50 rate (with half of proceeds going to Orioles Charities and half to the MVA). The MVA allows us to order in quantities of 100, so plates like 1954 or 2131 will not be available until we sell up to that point, then we will likely make those special numbers available through auctions or other similar promotions. We hope to get there soon, and we are thrilled by the response and feedback thus far.

MASN:
It is important to note that MASN is not a separate pay channel and is typically a part of the expanded basic package for most cable providers. MASN is available on all cable systems that carry MASN on the expanded basic tier.

For satellite providers, and cable companies, we recommend that anyone seeking MASN should ask the provider representative specifically what package is needed to receive the MASN channels, both standard and high definition.

Here is a link to a listing of MASN providers:
http://www.masnsports.com/masn_news_...find-masn.html

Fan having trouble receiving birthday tickets:
We're sorry that you're having some trouble receiving your Birthday tickets. Please email birdmail@orioles.com with your name, when you ordered and the specific issue and we will be happy to take care of that for you. Sometimes the vouchers when sent via email will end up in your spam or junk email by mistake.

Statistical Analysis:
We do hope to have some more information on this process for you soon and we do have a new analytics department within baseball operations. Stay tuned.

Opening Day:
Happy Opening Day to each of you! I know we are excited to be a part of a community like Baltimore (and all of Birdland) that celebrates Orioles Opening Day as a regional holiday. Hope to see many of you out at the ballpark Friday!

[Can_of_corn]

Thank you, that was a satisfactory reply to my inquiry.


Edit- So looking at the list MASN is carried, to some degree, in Maryland, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Impressive spread of providers.

[srock]

What we can improve:


Statistical Analysis:
We do hope to have some more information on this process for you soon and we do have a new analytics department within baseball operations. Stay tuned.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I'm sure this will spark some lively debate.

[Mayor McCheese]

Fan having trouble receiving birthday tickets:
We're sorry that you're having some trouble receiving your Birthday tickets. Please email birdmail@orioles.com with your name, when you ordered and the specific issue and we will be happy to take care of that for you. Sometimes the vouchers when sent via email will end up in your spam or junk email by mistake.

O the irony...

[luismatos4prez]

Thank you for the reply! The part about international scouting and a uniform approach to player development was interesting.

I also find it interesting that the significant portion of the last few pages that has been dedicated to Mr. Angelos was conveniently glossed over in the answer.

[McNulty]

We are constantly trying to find new ways to make our fans know how important they are to us and to feel connected to the organization they love.

Getting rid of the unnecessary walk up fees that do nothing but further line the owner's pockets would be a start.

[allstar1579]

Getting rid of the unnecessary walk up fees that do nothing but further line the owner's pockets would be a start.

Supporting lower group rates for loyal hardcore fan bases (like the OH) a couple games a year would be a pretty good move as well. I mean lets face it...there will be plenty of games NOT selling out this year, giving some of those empty seats away or at least at a big discount would be a smart way to win back some fan loyalty. (Worked for Leonsis in DC)

[canonfaz]

Best reply from the Orioles yet. Thank you!

[Mr Snuffleupagus]

What we can improve:

One of you asked specifically what we think we can improve as an organization

...

We feel that we have made strides in several areas recently including addressing the fact that previously, there was not enough attention to international scouting or a uniform approach to player development. We recognize that these areas need dramatic improvement, and Dan Duquette and his team are focusing on advancing and improving them well beyond the initial investments we have made this offseason.

...

Statistical Analysis:
We do hope to have some more information on this process for you soon and we do have a new analytics department within baseball operations. Stay tuned.

While many will say "I'll believe it when I see it", these two responses go a long way with me as I'm sure they do with a lot of other posters. I think all most of us are looking for is a little acknowledgment that this organization has been far from flawless over the past 14 seasons. We as fans are frustrated, all most of us want is to feel like our favorite organization shares our same frustrations. Opening this dialogue and expressing specific things the organization is doing to better itself is a good first step.

Frankly, I'm not going to whine about ticket prices anymore, I'm not going to whine about beer prices, no one is forcing me to go to a game, if I don't feel like I'm not getting my money's worth, I'll simply stay home. What I do care about is the W/L record and sustainable success of the organization. I think I can speak for a lot of posters in saying that I would hardly think twice about the cost of a ticket and concessions if it meant I was watching a team that was playoff bound... or at least competitive.

[grimed1]

Thank you for the reply! The part about international scouting and a uniform approach to player development was interesting.

I also find it interesting that the significant portion of the last few pages that has been dedicated to Mr. Angelos was conveniently glossed over in the answer.

I think it might be tough to say anything about Mr. Angelos in print. I know if i said anything about my boss, I might be gone.