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

[Birds of B'more]

That's your choice...You deciding that you don't want to exchange your tickets and you deciding that you have to sit in the bleachers is your decision..The Orioles shouldn't have to continue to bend over backwards for you.

Since when is it "bending over backwards" for them to not charge a fee to fans who walk up to the window to buy a ticket to that day's game? I don't expect them to do me any favors, but I sure don't understand why they chose to specifically target their walk-up crowd to dish out a ticket hike this season.

[AlbNYfan]

The argument IMO is not that Baltimore is a good deal compared to other MLB teams it probably is. It's disguising an increase by charging a fee for a service they have to provide for a fan to get in. If ticket prices are too low, increase all by $2. Make the amount on the ticket reflect the actual cost. Buy the tickets a day or more early??? That's ecologically sound...drive, park, increase city traffic....few will do it and just pay the walk up charge. It's just hard to believe that in a stadium that is rarely half full that they find a way to discourage people from coming. Can't wait to go to the movies and it's $9.50 for the movie and an additional $2 for the ticket.

[SilentJames]

Since when is it "bending over backwards" for them to not charge a fee to fans who walk up to the window to buy a ticket to that day's game? I don't expect them to do me any favors' date=' but I sure don't understand why they chose to specifically target their walk-up crowd to dish out a ticket hike this season.[/quote']

No dude, you missed his point. Your argument is that if you buy season tickets you are somehow locked into those dates and they can't be changed. That is not the case, you can exchange seats for another game.

[Birds of B'more]

No dude, you missed his point. Your argument is that if you buy season tickets you are somehow locked into those dates and they can't be changed. That is not the case, you can exchange seats for another game.

If that's his point, then it's obvious why I missed it, with his use of the word "continue" when I've never owned season tickets. And I stick by my point with regard to the Orioles attempt to discourage game-day walkups. But I doubt I'll be making it to a game at OPACY anytime soon, so I'll put my sword down and leave it to their loyal and current paying customers like yourself.

[Birds of B'more]

The worst part about this news is that it gets all the negative nancies all riled up. I couldn't care less about this, honestly. I get to bring in food to the stadium and I can always get a ticket. Sure, have an extra dollar, whatever.

This doesn't even compare to what is going on in Boston. Sure they field a better product, but even with this price hike, going to an O's game is still one of the cheapest major sporting events to go to. Plus they usually have a slew of good promotions.

I dunno, I mean I get the pitchfork waggling to some degree and certainly we're all entitled to that given the state of baseball here, but.... I like to pick my battles, and this isn't worth it for me. I'll find a few extra bucks or I'll pay the same exact price that I was paying by hitting up the internet the day before. Meh.

The airlines must love you.

[terpspe]

I would say on average i've gone to 8-10 games a year for most of my life. My fiancee is a Yankees fan and we tend to go once each series the O's and Yanks play each year.

We have a Sunday plan, and enjoy going downtown, sit in section 17 behind first base and pay $15 a ticket (185 for the 13 game plan x 2seats). She does not go every game certainly, we'll sell the occasional pair to coworkers when we can't go and such, but we just dump for face and are ok with that. We then buy boxes at the STH price from our ticket office guy so thats another $192 for four box seats for the O's/Yanks games we don't have in our plan.

We end up going to 12 games or so and paying about $500 total. If we bought 6 box seats at the gate (2 for 3 diff yanks/o's games) we'd be paying $93 a seat this year I think. Why not have the plan?

I hate the prime game pricing because we end up sitting with more Yankee fans than anything else. And the idiocy of the gameday surcharge....especially on the Tuesday bargain nights, speaks to how pathetic the organization is.

[cm31]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-osnotes0116,0,4198979.story

An average of $2 additional per game-day-purchased ticket, also prime game ticket prices will increase roughly 10% from last season.

This is yet another awful decision by Orioles management. However, it's great news for places like pickles pub. I will end up staying there instead of walking up and paying extra for a ticket.

[RShack]

If it was $3 instead of $2, would people be any more mad? Or pretty much the same amount of mad? If it was $1 instead of $2, would people be only half as mad?

[JTrea81]

If it was $3 instead of $2, would people be any more mad? Or pretty much the same amount of mad? If it was $1 instead of $2, would people be only half as mad?

Given the effort being put into the ML product it should be -$2 or -$3 off the ticket prices.

What have the Orioles done to deserve any ticket price increase for their fans?

It's not like we need to increase prices to retain talent at this point, nor have we raised the payroll to the point where we can't make the expenditures.

It seems like it is purely a deterrent from walk up sales to increase the demand for season tickets. And that's pretty bad that the Orioles have to resort to such tactics to get people to buy season tickets.

Maybe if they put some actual effort into the on-field product, people would want to commit to more games.

[Sports Guy]

Given the effort being put into the ML product it should be -$2 or -$3 off the ticket prices.

What have the Orioles done to deserve any ticket price increase for their fans?

It's not like we need to increase prices to retain talent at this point, nor have we raised the payroll to the point where we can't make the expenditures.

It seems like it is purely a deterrent from walk up sales to increase the demand for season tickets. And that's pretty bad that the Orioles have to resort to such tactics to get people to buy season tickets.

Maybe if they put some actual effort into the on-field product, people would want to commit to more games.

You must not understand how business works.

Its funny that you would be pissed about this since you are one who cries about them spending money...This will give them more money to spend.

[Sports Guy]

If that's his point' date=' then it's obvious why I missed it, with his use of the word "continue" when I've never owned season tickets. [b']And I stick by my point with regard to the Orioles attempt to discourage game-day walkups[/b]. But I doubt I'll be making it to a game at OPACY anytime soon, so I'll put my sword down and leave it to their loyal and current paying customers like yourself.

They aren't discouraging it...they are just trying to profit from it more.

[Kevin Lomax]

Given the effort being put into the ML product it should be -$2 or -$3 off the ticket prices.

What have the Orioles done to deserve any ticket price increase for their fans?

It's not like we need to increase prices to retain talent at this point, nor have we raised the payroll to the point where we can't make the expenditures.

It seems like it is purely a deterrent from walk up sales to increase the demand for season tickets. And that's pretty bad that the Orioles have to resort to such tactics to get people to buy season tickets.

Maybe if they put some actual effort into the on-field product, people would want to commit to more games.

Trea - Did you read Mad Mark and LuckyJim's posts on page 7?

My personal opinion on the matter, seeing has how the ESH decide the day of if they are going to the game almost 70% of the time, is that this is pretty uncool.

I like AlbNYFan's point. If you need to raise ticket costs, why punish just one group of consumer? It would seem a lot less underhanded if they raised all prices instead of just adding a service charge.

Dan-o...it's not just an extra dollar. It's TWO extra dollars. Sure it seems insignificant now but this is another step in the direction of losing the things you love about coming to the game. Soon it will be $5 more. Soon you won't be able to bring in food. Sure we may be spoiled by these luxuries but we don't fill the stadium as it is. And the economy is rough right now. You should be offering incentives to the person who hasn't planned on coming to the game and might want to on a whim...not discouraging them.

So to sum up: 1. You should be offering incentives to consumers who will pay to watch a team lose for a decade or so. 2. If you must raise tickets, raise all ticket prices and it will come off less sheisty.

Although what can we expect from an ambulance chaser, right?

[Sports Guy]

I agree completely. This is the 4th post I've seen advocating this position. I think it has merit. I'd be willing to put up a recurring sum to get him off this board. Something like 10-20 bucks per week. I think we could make this happen.

Come on now, that's not fair...Besides, if we are going to do that, we should be doing it for Shack.

[JimDH]

After awhile you just get tired of this nickle and dime stuff. Surcharges and convenience fees. C'mon man!

Business 101. Encourage your customer to buy your product and make it as easy as possible for them to do that. You start selling out the place again and then worry about squeezing more dollars.

[JTrea81]

You must not understand how business works.

Its funny that you would be pissed about this since you are one who cries about them spending money...This will give them more money to spend.

I haven't seen too many teams hike the price of tickets before they do anything that warrants that hike.

When the demand increases for tickets, then that's usually when prices go up.

If the Orioles intent is to raise revenue to spend on a payroll increase, they are going about it in a backwards fashion. However if they are looking for purely profit, the increase makes sense.

If MacPhail were to pull off a trade for a high salary player before the season were to commence, say a Miguel Cabrera, then the increase would be justified on a payroll ramping scale.