I commented on the new "Dynamic" ticket pricing early this year. I was looking to pick up a couple more seats for the Sox Scrubs Wednesday game and knew they would be available with it being midweek and a worse than terrible Cubs team. They (Ticketmaster/Sox) wanted 104 EACH for lower boxes (not that great 115 row 33) and 94 Each for reserved outfield. That is plain crazy. The tix I have are part of a season plan and Premium Boxes behind the dugout and they are 56 each face. This ticket pricing and lack of smart promotion might be a large reason they aren't drawing that well. Before KW and company throw arrows at the fans maybe they need to look at their approach.

everything you said pretty much represents this fan base. you tried to go to the one game there is demand for sox/cubs... aka, the one game they can overcharge. how much are tickets for a wed. game that isn't a crosstown rivalry?

why do you need to go to the cubs game if they are 'worse than terrible', when you could go see a better matchup for much cheaper? most of the people filling up the cubs/sox games are idiot cub fans that are used to drunkenly spending wads of cash.

Just use stubhub. I have gone to a few games this year and gotten seats 5 rows behind the dugout for $45. Plenty are available almost every game.

Amazing how people on this site can be so unaware of stubhub. Of course, nothing like paying twice as much at the box office for a worse ticket.

Guys,
I am aware of Stub Hub, Craigslist, and Gold Coast and E-Bay. I am sure that they all have tickets for a more reasonable price for this game. Those ticket sales don't represent additional fannies in the seat.
The point I am trying to make is don't complain about not selling out a game when you want to extract 100 bucks for an outfield reserved tickets.

You are right about the stubhub sales. The Sox/Cub series is not typical and not why they drew 20,000 yesterday.

Your probally one of the best posters on this board and I think we talked a few times last year so as a Tigers fan I will trust your judgement. I do not understand the whole attendance debate that shows up here and on the Tribe board. Here is my opinion which may not apply to your area because you have 2 teams.
When the Tigers came alive in 06 the fan base was very slow to come around and spent the whole season waiting for it all to fall apart and really missed out on some great baseball. In June 06 I went to a week day evening game and only 17k were there and I was shocked because we were in first and near 20 games over .500 or something. Of course we did fall apart but went to the Series and it was only the playoffs when the fans all jumped on the band wagon. Fast forward to now we are in 3rd place and all the home games are sold out or near every time. If you watched the Reds game our fans basically took over and it sounded like a home game during the rally last night.
I do not believe the ticket price stuff or the economy as no where is it worse than here. I believe when the fan base is disappointed several years in a row it takes half a season of good play for them to come around and even still fans are sceptical.
What surprises me is you guys are having the same problems as the Tribe. I would have thought that great win streak the Sox had would have gotten the fans in the seats. Yet people still go to Cubs games? I get the Tribe struggle for folks in the seats but not you guys it makes no scense being in first etc..
Can the city no longer hold 2 teams as an outsider I do not get it.

First, thank you for the kind remarks. With the White Sox and probably most teams, the season ticket base is the most important factor. If you win, people want to make sure that they are there for next year. After that, it is all the advanced ticket sales you do before the season starts. If you don't have a whole bunch of tickets sold before opening day, you got problems no matter how the team does. The idea of thousands and thousands of people walking up the day of the game just doesn't happen very much no matter how well the team is doing. There are exceptions like if you have the half price night or something very unusual. Sox crowds this weekend were small even by these standards.

Sox have several things that do hurt them in no particular order regardless of record.

-Neighborhood perceived as unsafe (not true) and not trendy with lots of bars and restaurants.
-They don't like the ballpark.
-Wrigley is the place to go for Chicago tourists and young people.
-My own pet peeve is they have a lot of imbecilic "entertainment" between innings and annoying sound effects during the game. If I wasn't a Sox fan, I would be going to Wrigley.

Sox still have their niche but Cub fans or Wrigley fans are there win or lose. Winning matters less to them than any team in baseball. For most of them, just being at Wrigley is all that they need even with virtually no parking and ticket prices that are near the top in baseball. Wrigley was pretty well sold out before the year started. I guess it was the hope of the new GM team but it is always something. Even after paying all that money for tickets, thousands don't show up and probably think they won't buy tickets next year but they will. Stubhub has thousands of tickets to sell at cheap prices for almost every Cub game. You never have to go to the box office.

BTW - I think Comerica is just about the nicest park in baseball but they also could tone down some of their sound effects during the game.

I went to six games last week. The tickets are really expensive and no reason for the upper deck to be 22 bucks each. I sat around the stadium in good seats and with the exception of the bs tourism promo code I used to get good outfield seats for 18 bucks, tickets were not worth the money. Beer is 7.75 and the beer man reminded me in 2005 beer was just 4.25. Shame.

$22 for a professional sports event is not expensive by any means, unless you ended up behind a pole or something. The concessions, I agree, are steep...and parking is an abomination.

if you're complaining about 22 bucks i don't know what to tell you. everyone has their own limits to what they'll spend... to me, that's not pricey at all.

22 bucks is pricey for a Tuesday game in the nose bleeds against a garbage team when tickets aren't in high demand. The upper deck was empty all year until they sold tickets for $5 and $10 against the Jays. It looked like the place to be for that series. Really live and filled in nicely except for the pole areas.

You can't possibly expect to have AAA prices as standard pricing.

No but have more dynamic pricing on tickets, beer, food etc. For games where there will be no attendance. Think about about if you're just gonna get 1 grand in the upper deck normally for a series why not lower the price and make more money by filling it up? Better to make something than nothing.

I know there isn't as much walk-up like back in the day, but I wonder if they could borrow a tactic from the theatres and offer half-price day-of-game tickets on unsold seats. It's worth a try.

So far, the $5 UD seats seems to show promise.

"I know there isn't as much walk-up like back in the day, but I wonder if they could borrow a tactic from the theatres and offer half-price day-of-game tickets on unsold seats. It's worth a try."

They do. It is called Stubhub. They don't even sell all those seats. I realize that those tickets are already sold but if they can't be resold at half price, it is hard to get someone to pay full price at the box office. They may have to go to a system where large parts of the UD are $5 and $10. Somehow that has to become a fun area to sit.

I;m not talking about stubhub and secondary market. I'm talking about 1/2 price tix being available from the Sox box office for unsold seats on day of game.

I personally have no problems with the ticket brokers taking it in the shorts. From sporting events to concerts, brokers are nothing but a stain on the experience to me.

Anyone that thinks $22 is too much for parking doesn't belong in Chicago.

You probably could only do that with certain seats. Otherwise, why ever buy an advance ticket except maybe for a few games. Ticket brokers are mostly OK. Stub is not really a broker. The whole thing is that it lets people who can't go to the game or concert sell their tickets. It is not a money making deal for those people. It also gives people a secure place to buy tickets. I don't even mind ticket brokers unless they are operating in collusion with the people at the box office. It is the free market system.

I am going to see the Sox in St. Louis. Bought some tickets on Stub for a little more than half including fees than I would be paying at the box office. You see something wrong with that?

In Chicago, we take pride in our price gouging unlike any other place on earth...and <fuck off if you don't like it! And it's $25 now, even if you have to park in the college lot all the way across the expressway.