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November 4, 2010Holmgren Seems In Control, Not Controlling
November 4, 2010I have had an inner debate for quite some time on what exactly would draw fans to Progressive Field to see the Cleveland Indians. Without any stars and not winning many games, the 2010 version of Cleveland’s baseball franchise pulled their worst attendance numbers since the 76-win season of 1992.
I’ve contemplated lower-priced food, gift certificates to nearly every shop or stand within the confines and even general admission seating. All would have their perks, yet they would also have their drawbacks.
But after a recent article by Darren Rovell of CNBC (albeit about the Tampa Bay Rays), the wheels started turning a little faster.
What about free admission? Yes, free…
“The business is about the bottom line,” [Kenny] Nowling, CEO of the ADRL said. “I have a great deal of confidence that their bottom line would go up and it would be a more viable franchise financially. We’ve learned how much more valuable our sponsorships have become because with a bigger crowd a company knows that they’ll be getting more impressions.”
The thinking is, as the Rays experienced toward the end of their season when they provided 20,000 free tickets to fans, that the unsold tickets are already a sunk cost. Getting fans to the stadium increases revenue from concessions and team shops while providing foot traffic to downtown establishments. And do not forget the $15 or $20 per car that the city would draw in from the nearby parking facilities.
As Knowling mentions further, when the ADRL gives away tickets, they use these opportunities to opt-in fans to marketing materials for the team and various sponsors. Rather than dropping a boatload of cash to get their name on the left field foul pole, perhaps companies would subsidize some of the lost ticket revenue to the team given the chance to be a part of a high-impression marketing opportunity that would ultimately get thousands of fans into the would-be empty Progressive Field.
Sure, dollar dogs, bobbleheads and Hall of Fame inductions work. But the fact that there are only so many Kenny Loftons (seriously, aside from Omar Vizquel, who in the last six or seven years will be Indians HoF material?) and various outfits that one can dress a nine-inch, plastic Shin-Soo Choo, the team has to consider other options. While they would undeniably take a hit on the ticket sales side of the ledger – something that has no bearing on revenue sharing – the revenue driven by the other areas of the income statement would be immensely upgraded.
It’s all about that bottom line.
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Photo courtesy of Couting Baseballs
30 Comments
Throw in a hotdog and you have a deal.
Iiinteresting…. I think I like it. It seems to make a ton of sense, and I would definitely hit a tribe game or 5 – even though I dont live in CLE anymore – if tickets were free. Of course, then spending as much or more on other things while there.
Nice.
Picking up the Jake and moving to Columbus would make things a lot easier for me to get to more games. But yeah, free tickets certainly helps and is an interesting business model to say the least.
As for the Indians HOF question, CC Sabathia has to be an automatic, doesn’t he?
I dont mind paying $15 a ticket. What irks me is shellling out $10 for parking, $7 per beer, and $6.50 for nachos, etc…
I think you would definitely get more locals to the game, at least. For those of us who live 2 hours or more away, it might be an incentive to go to at least one game – as long as we can get decent seats.
Ive often wondered why venues don’t drop their ticket prices right before a game, say an hour before. Any unsold tickets for half price. Seems to me that since they are losing money for unsold tickets anyway, they might as well make the ballpark look full.
it does seem like a good idea, and of course would entice people to go. and as mentioned, teams make a lot of money just by getting you through the gates and buying their overpriced stuff stuff. Buuuuut, who’s going to actually pay for ANY ticket, knowing free ones are coming? Maybe they could just do free outfield reserve seats, since there were games where ENTIRE sections were unpopulated last season. I wonder what normal priced tickets and reasonably priced food, drink and souveniers would do for business.
I think I would go to more Tribe games if they fielded a good team. Oh sorry…was that not one of the options?
…maybe if they didn’t let the best players leave through trade or by not re-signing them.
I agree with Tylor. My employer has season tickets and offers tickets up to employees for free. And they have a hard time getting any takers, I’ve never used them.
It’s not the ticket price, it’s the hassle of going downtown, paying $15 to park, $4 hotdogs, $8 beer, etc. Lower those prices and I might think about coming to see this joke of a team.
Obviously this is an entirely different story if the team is good, but when the team sucks, people just don’t want to hassle with going to a game and paying $60 to feed 4 people and park, free tickets or not.
Perhaps they could change the name of the field back to Jacobs Field so that we as fans can pretend it’s like old times. For that matter, why don’t we just put the names of our favorite players on the jerseys of the mediocre quadruple-A “talent” they throw out there.
Also, if you’re paying more than $0 to $5 for parking and have use of your legs, you’re doing it wrong.
Well, I suppose it’s a start. But given that the team has been punishing fans for deciding to go to a game at the last minute – an upcharge between $2 and $5 per game – a complete turnaround to free tickets seems like a pipe dream.
Anyone with half a brain knows that you *drop* the price of your unsold tickets closer to gametime, to make sure that you don’t have unsold tickets. While you may have a few holdouts who wait to save money, at least those people are actually coming to the games, where they can buy concessions and merchandise. The fact that the Indians have a marketing staff full of idiots is a huge problem. Bob DiBiasio is terrible at his job.
The Indians have been abusing their fan base for three straight years, treating fans like crap as they have refused to invest in the team and settled for terrible management. They wouldn’t need to resort to extreme measures like free tickets if they had more respect for their fans over the past few seasons.
@11
Yes, I may not have a problem with parking 4 blocks away , paying $3 and walking, but my wife isn’t too fond of walking that close to the east side ghettos when the game is over. I’m sure others have the same issue.
I live nearly 2000 miles away from Cleveland, did not make it back to Ohio during the season, and probably bought more Indians tickets than most (as presents: birthdays, father’s day, and I threw an extra one in july 4th weekend as a ‘bonus’ gift for my parent’s anniversary).
going to baseball game = fun. yes, even during a losing season. go out and enjoy the game.
They should actually charge $5-10 per ticket instead of giving them away for free. People will assign less value to an event that they did not pay for, and will often not show up because they have no financial incentive to go. If you charge a small amount, $5-10, people will feel that they have something invested in going. So instead of skipping the game because you got out of work a little late, you would feel more obligated to go because you paid for the tickets.
I was probably offered 10-15 free tickets this year from friends. I went to one game, and it was only to watch Kenny Lofton get retired as an Indian. So my answer would be No.
My grandfather always tells me this was Bill Veeck’s idea. The concessions generate a ton of money… though Veeck’s teams were pretty good.
Tylor is right but I wouldn’t need free tickets to go just a better product. I never had a problem paying to go to an Indians game. I always thought the prices were more then reasonable, for the tickets, being at a baseball games is 1000x better then watching it on TV. What I do refuse to do however is pay to see a minor league team with an ownership that is CHEAP! An ownership that refuses to admit that if they put a better product on the field they’d have Progressive Field packed like back in the day. If I want to see minor league baseball I’ll go check out the Aeros or Captains. Haven’t made it to a Clippers game but maybe one day.
Free admission would be a great start, and i think it’s a great idea. But as mentioned before i still dont want to spend 8 dollars on a beer… Which until they start putting a better product on the field i would consider going once or twice a year…
Take the tickets and eat before you go. Also some downtown area’s have free parking areas or take the RTD to the game. There is a way to go and not spend a ton of cash.
so… free tickets for some of you isn’t enough, you also want free parking and free beer.
I agree with the article to some point, maybe making the upper right field bleachers a free section and have those seats raffled off or given to fans who purchase box seats for a different game. I do think that tickets for baseball games have become to high and 70-80 dollars for a prime seat 82 games a year is stupid. But, giving away some seats, selling some for 5-10 dollars and charging around 25-30 for prime seats makes sense to me, especially if you can increase advertising by guaranteeing a certain attendance each night.
Back to those who want everything free, I’m sure you’re the same fans who call the Dolan’s cheap… coincidence?
Back in the Bimbo Coles / Chris Mihm / Darius Miles era, I was working with inner-city Cleveland kids in a tutoring program. They *loved* the Cavs and talked for hours about the rare occasions when they could get down to the Gund to see a game. I mean, they lived for these games.
Having gone to more than a few of those games (back in 2001-2002), I would just shake my head at how many empty seats there were. I thought to myself: why not just give away these tickets to kids from Cleveland? They might buy some food; they would add to the energy of the arena; they might actually become “stickier” fans; etc.
Not a bad idea for the 2011 Indians, if you ask me.
Make the upper outfield seats free for specific weekday games (except maybe specific opponents), and I think a lot of people would show… and be far more willing to spend that $8/beer or whatever, too (“well, I didn’t pay for a ticket, so why not…”).
Free Works For Me!!!!!
This couldn’t be a regular thing, because, as someone else pointed out, it provides an incentive NOT to buy tickets. Sure, you could limit it to a nosebleed sort of thing, but even then, there’s no reason for an individual to buy a ticket.
That said, there are ways this could not only work, but also create a hook that works on the fan base as well. I could envision a scenario where at 3 or 4 PM on a given day, a Tribe Twitter or Facebook post that says “Hey, 10,000 free tix for tonight’s game.” At that point, anyone following Tribe social networking feeds gets the detail, places like WFNY would post it immediately, and you get practically a “viral” promotion. If you do it two or three times over a few weeks, you might get more people tied into the team feeds and news, and that’s a hook for other marketing or promotion abilities. Plus, if the 10,000 tix go, you’ll still get a share of people that went down hoping to get free tickets that say “screw it, I’m here, I’ll buy the cheap seats.”
I think some might be surprised what people will do for free stuff. Anyone remember the lines around Papa John’s when they did their “Free pizza apology” a few years ago?
Here’s another issue a lot of people aren’t considering – a lot of stadiums that have any amount of financing (bonds will be issued so that investors cover some of the costs of building a stadium) may in fact have their repayments tied to ticket sales (the new Yankee Stadium, I know for a fact, has issued bonds which are tied to ticket sales). As such, the teams may be in breach of contract to offer up free tickets. Food for thought.
As a fan? Yeah, I think even if you charged only $5 for most tickets, it would benefit everyone (ownership would be more likely to fill the stadium and create new generations of fans, and fans would get to see their team in person without having to mortgage their house).
@Jason – your wife just isn’t fond of walking and/or you’ve both convinced yourselves that the CSU campus is a ghetto. Aside from that, I remember the National City garage being $5. It was pretty awesome – only a block or two from the ballpark in the North downtown ghetto.
I don’t go because the front office obviously has no interest in winning, so why should i be there
Allow me to bring in a cooler full of beer and I’ll be more than willing to buy your hot dogs, nachos and peanuts.
I’m with the folks who say charge a nominal amount, or better yet, sell all remaining tickets at a nominal amount one hour before game time. One of the enduring legacies of the old Stadium is that I STILL think Clevelanders don’t think they need to buy tix in advance for an Indians game. There were always seats available. Another legacy of losing is it takes a lot to win fans back. Instituting that one hour heavy discount when the Indians are hot might encourage more to show up, which might make the team play better. Fans in the stands DO rev up players, I think, especially the younger ones.
By the way, way back when the Cleveland Press gave away seven pairs of tickets to straight A students. I must have seen 50 games from Row Q before I was 14. All that misery at such a young age.