O's to charge extra for tickets purchased on game day

[amateurfan]

This is complete bull szit. All the discussions on this board about how the Orioles spend their money are now impacting local fans directly. 6 of the last 10 seasons the Orioles have cut payroll. 2 of the last 3 they've cut payroll.

This is spit in the face. It's not about winning or losing now because there's only losing and cutting payroll. This makes no sense. How does MASN's revenue fit into this decision. I hope someone can explain how this is not further evidence that the FO is not dedicated to winning as much as they are to maximizing profits at the cost of winning.

[crowmst3k!]

Camden Yards opened and the cheap seats cost 6 bucks. It is now more than 10 years later and cheap seats cost 8 bucks. That is WELL below inflation and yes, the ownership has done a lot to keep ticket prices down over that time.

What the Orioles should have done is just say: there will be a flat increase across the board to all seats, no matter what time you buy. I'd be able to stomach it much easier than a "day of the game" increase. It discourages walk-up business!

Paying 11 bucks instead of 9 is not going to break anybody. But just have it become standard policy for all games, regardless. Don't tax the impulsive!

[fansince1988]

I've been a loyal "walk-up" ticket buyer for the last decade or so attending an average of 10 games per season. Increasing the price of tickets purchased the day of the game a few dollars is not going to some how encourage me to become a season ticket holder. Making a season ticket commitment for a team that wins 40% of the time where tickets are easy to come by for most all games doesn't make financial sense to me. Put a consistantly competitive team out there and change my mind that way, not by penalizing me for making a day of game ticket purchase.

[UMDTerrapins]

"In our mind, it accomplishes a couple of things. It rewards fans who buy in advance and make a commitment ahead of time to come to the park, and it has them make the commitment to come to the park," Bader said

How arrogant a statement is this! You're not "rewarding" fans who buy in advance, you're penalizing people for not committing their money to you in advance. It's not as if some horrible injustice has been weighing on advance buyers all these years and this move rights that wrong. The advantage of buying early is getting seats you want on the days you want. How stupid do they think we are?

And by the way, the game day buyers are your local fans, not your out of town fans. This is idiocy. And raising the prices for the Yankees and Red Sox just increases the percentage of Yankee and Red Sox fans....which is already a humiliating tradition for the team and its fans.

What I miss most about going to an Oriole game is the raw passion of the fans at Memorial Stadium. A game there was a working class event. The fans were raunchy and loud. They LOVED the Orioles and they could afford to go to a game on a whim. That demographic has been shut out more and more since we left M.S. and this is just another step towards making OPACY cost prohibitive for most area fans.

This is working backwards! This is the kind of thing that someone with a brain will have "undone" in the future to remedy the alienation of the local and lower to middle class fan. It's a tax, one that means little to a guy from the suburbs who's already going to drop $300 for a family outing. But for a lower income family who decide to jump on the bus to see a game from the nose bleeds on a Saturday, this is a disincentive.

Fill the seats!!! Make it CHEAPER for the lower priced seats. Get the place roaring again by making it an affordable outing for lower income fans. People will come if they can afford it. An empty seat is lost revenue, and at the concessions too. MLB talks so PC about restoring interest in the inner cities, but this is where it counts. Why would an inner city kid grow to love the Orioles if he can't even go to a game? Bring back the cache to an Oriole game at OPACY by bringing these fans back and making it loud again.

This move is just pure stupidity.....I mean really dumb!

[Frobby]

FWIW, Camden Yards is a relatively cheap place to see a ball game. Last year the average ticket price was $23.42, compared to the MLB average $26.64. Also, the "Fan Cost Index," which measure the cost of taking a family of four and feeding them, parking, etc. was $163.68, 10th lowest in MLB and well below the major league average of $196.89. By way of comparison, the Nats' average price is $30.63 and the FCI is $215.52. http://teammarketing.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/Fan%20Cost%20Index/MLB/MLB%20FCI%2009.pdf

[UMDTerrapins]

I think Oriole fans should unionize.

[Satyr3206]

I understand the need for any business to produce revenue and plan but this is terrible from a Public Relations viewpoint. Not to mention the dwindling fanbase is already irritated about the many years of losing. What's next, a fee to use the bathroom?

[Babypowder]

This is a huge dagger for me. I probably go to an average of 30 games a season, all on walk up purchases. With my schedule I can never commit in advance but I go whenever I have a free night and the O's are in town. I stick to the discount ticket nights to make it affordable for me to have this habit and slapping another 2 bucks on a 6-8 dollar ticket makes it much less appealing. The Eutaw Street Hooligans will be attending significantly less games this year, though I'm sure they aren't that concerned since it's not like we go in there and make it rain hundred dollar bills.

[Sports Guy]

The Orioles(or most teams for that matter) don't get a lot of day of game walk up business anyway.

Again, the timing isn't good at all and far be it from me to defend this horrible organization but this isn't that big of a deal.

[GoldGlove21]

Why do the Orioles care when people buy tickets, this has "season ticket or partial season ticket sales" written all over this move. Pretty dumb move by the Orioles IMO.

[JTrea81]

To me it's just another move for an organization that has no idea how to get its fanbase back.

You raise prices after you put a winning team on the field and increase the demand. Not before.

John is supposedly running the business side of things now and we all see how he bungled the ST situation, so this is just a taste of things to come if he inherits the team from Peter...

[Miller192]

This organization is lost.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I'd actually consider getting one of those 13 game plans (they're like $150 for upper reserve which is a good deal for 13 games) but the fact that they don't include opening day is somewhat stopping me.

Still, this $2 thing isn't a huge deal to me, we've been charged out of the anus for years with "service fees" and "convenience fees" and "fee fees" from ticketmaster so this isn't that huge of a deal.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Another example of having season ticket privileges for pricing is the Wizards. I sit center court upper deck (four rows up) and my face value on my seat is $48. I pay $14 per game as a season ticket holder.

[Mike B]

Once they start winning, nobody will care.

Until they start winning, people will be mad about anything they do and/or don't do.

I have to disagree Shack. I support the team as much as I can and have been patient while they rebuild but this is wrong IMO. There is a good chance payroll will drop again this year and IMO what they are doing is subsidizing the cost of game day ticket sales. In reality what they are doing is adding their own ticketmaster type charge.