"variable market-based pricing" comes to MLB

[sweetcell]

aka "source scalping" 

in my inbox today, from tickets@redsox.com:

BID NOW ON RED SOX TICKETS

2009 Red Sox Ticket Auctions are live. Bid now for your chance to be atop the Green Monster on Opening Day. How about a suite for a game with the Orioles? Maybe you're just looking for some seats in the Bleachers to see the Red Sox battle the Yankees.

From Opening Day on Monday all the way through the Yankees first visit to Fenway, Red Sox Auctions offer a place to get your tickets for the entire month of April. Place your bid today!

the BoSox have held "official" ticket auctions before, but this year it's massive (and not for charity).  they have over 200 auctions (for 2, 4 or 6 tickets each) for just the month of april.  sounds like they'll be doing this every month.

a pure business move, which i don't blame them for.  not a coincidence that they have the most tickets up for auction for the most in-demand games: opening day, vs. the yankees, on weekends, etc.

a taste of things to come?

[sonickteam2]

this is humurous to me, mostly because i no longer live in Boston.  It kinda sucks that tickets have to be this high for a baseball game.  in 2000-2002, unless Pedro was pitching you could get tickets outside for maybe a bit more than face, but not much.

truth is though, if anyone is going to get $500 for a red sox ticket, i think it should be the Red Sox organization. 

This is a good way to stop after market scalping.  it wont be very profitable for someone to outbid everyone on a pair of tickets, then think they will make much of a profit reselling them.

 sure i say this as a Red Sox fan, but i dont even mind that teams like the Orioles have jacked up prices on "Prime Home Games" against Boston and NY.  if they can charge mroe and get away with it, whatever....thats what everyone else does!

  that said, i wont be bidding on any tickets!  but i would like to sit on the monster one day.

[Got Haggis?]

they have this for the O's as well - if you have tickets you can sell them on their site as well....i've heard its great for selling your o's vs yankees and o's vs red sox tickets  (fetching much more than you paid for them) and what o's fan really wants to go to those games anyway, terrible fans.

[sonickteam2]

they have this for the O's as well - if you have tickets you can sell them on their site as well....i've heard its great for selling your o's vs yankees and o's vs red sox tickets  (fetching much more than you paid for them) and what o's fan really wants to go to those games anyway, terrible fans.

which fans are terrible? the yankees and red sox fans for cheering for their teams? or the Orioles fans who sell their tickets to them to make a few bucks?

[vansmack]

I know quite a few people who buy season tickets in Anaheim and pay for the entire season by scalping the tix for the Yankees and Red Sox series.

[sweetcell]

they have this for the O's as well - if you have tickets you can sell them on their site as well....i've heard its great for selling your o's vs yankees and o's vs red sox tickets  (fetching much more than you paid for them) and what o's fan really wants to go to those games anyway, terrible fans.

what you describe is different than what i posted above.  my original post isn't fans re-selling tickets (good ol' fashioned scalping), it's about the team selling tickets at auction.  this is the first time the tickets are for sale, they aren't being re-sold here.

[sonickteam2]

I know quite a few people who buy season tickets in Anaheim and pay for the entire season by scalping the tix for the Yankees and Red Sox series.

but is it really cause the Yankees / Sox fans are that unbearable?  I mean, i believe the Angels kicked Boston's butt last year (not counting the ALDS of course!)

i had Capitals season tickets and Pitt/Philly/Detroit paid for all of my other tickets (of course, that left me with 20 some tickets to thrashers/Lightning/hurricanes/panthers games)

[Venerable Bede]

this sounds more like an auction than "variable market-based pricing". . .that would be what airlines do- prices fluctuate daily (or some other period of time) based on demand.....

i'm convinced that many baseball teams already do this via stub-hub; for example, for the giants as the hour of the game approaches, you go to stub-hub and there are blocks of tickets in the upper deck that are unsold, and the prices generally continue to fall.  last year, we went to see games at pacbell for $4 a seat (not including fees).  while stub-hub is billed as a market for ticket holders to sell tickets, while probably true, i'm convinced that the giants organization is also selling tickets at well below cost simply to get people into the stadium so that they can make money off of concessions.

[sweetcell]

this sounds more like an auction than "variable market-based pricing". . .that would be what airlines do- prices fluctuate daily (or some other period of time) based on demand.....

my use of "variable market-based pricing" was tongue-in-cheek, meant as a euphemism for scalping.  what the bosox are doing is definitely an auction (which one can argue is almost pure market-based pricing).

[vansmack]

but is it really cause the Yankees / Sox fans are that unbearable?

Actually, yes. When I was a kid, Yankees games were always the most uncomfortable for me to go to.  The Sox fans weren't really that bad until 2004, but I believe I may be in a mailbag (or had a conversation with Simmons offline, I don't remember) about Red Sox fans in Anaheim.

And success doesn't mean anything - we own the Yankees in the Mike Scioscia era and all beating them does is make their fans want to fight more.

[sonickteam2]

its strange because I go to 9 Red Sox / Orioles games a  year, and have (maybe sometimes only 6-7 a year) for 6 years now and not only have i never seen one fight, I have never seen a bunch of Red Sox fans taunting or berating or throwing anything at Orioles fans.

 Sure there are cheers and some "sweet caroline" singing at Pickle's afterwards.  Each game, however, I hear Orioles fans yelling "go the fuck back to BAHSTAN"  and "Manny sucks" every single game i attend.

  I suppose if by "terrible fans" you mean fans that go into another teams park and root heartily for their squad, then I guess they are, but otherwise, its a load of shit, spewed by a lot who doesnt even attend these games and/or is just pissed cause the Orioles lose all the time.

  Perhaps its different in other cities but dont tell me about horrible fans, cause it's just a cop out.

 now , for yankees fans, i cant speak cause the hell if i am paying money to see the Yankees win a game.

[vansmack]

You're comparing apples and oranges here.  Many folks from Boston take the train down to watch the O's and are real fans.

When you're talking about Anaheim, you get a bunch of douchebag transplants who's parents probably lived in NY and have never been to Boston and only became fans after the 2004 season.  They do their best to put on the act of being a real fan and to them that means beating the crap out of people.

Throw in some sun, cheap beer, and, unlike the O's, the Angels whipping them up and I have personally seen as many fights in the stands of Yank's and Sox games as I generally see at NFL games (when they were in the LA area).  Any other team in town and fights are few and far between.

I've seen this behaviour in Anaheim, LA, Oakland, Baltimore and San Francisco.  But to your point, I was treated very well when I was in Boston watching the Angels.

[siLent_jet]

This game must have a sorted tickets so that the all things must have come after, then they need to use the following massive for the event..

[Glywhede73]

sweet thanks, EXACTLY what I needed, how did you figure it out, or where did you read about it? Wondering if you know of some good documentation that I missed.

[kosmo vinyl]

sweet thanks, EXACTLY what I needed, how did you figure it out, or where did you read about it? Wondering if you know of some good documentation that I missed.

not quite sure what the point of this spam is...  maybe it was suppose to be in the thread pimpin' viagra that i deleted earlier...