Columbus isn’t Cleveland, Michigan’s New Song, and Law and Order: While We’re Waiting…
February 12, 2015
Indians baseball, Kluber extension and dynamic ticket pricing – WFNY Podcast – 2015-02-11
February 12, 2015Baseball fans who are used to those 7:05 p.m. starts may have to adjust their schedules a bit or 2015. The Cleveland Indians, with the help of their opponents and MLB scheduling, will have a host of games starting at earlier times this coming season, with an announcement as to why coming in the next few days according to Cleveland.com’s Zach Meisel.
The Tribe’s first game of 2015 will take place in Houston against the Astros, staring at 7:10 p.m. EDT—a 6:10 p.m. start for the hometown fans. The next two games in the series will be played at more traditional times, accounting for the different time zones. Once they return home, however, is when things get a bit interesting.
The Indians are trying something new this season, with six weeknight games in April and May being designated with 6:10 p.m. start times. Those games fall on the following dates:
• Tuesday, April 14 vs. Chicago
• Monday, April 27 vs. Kansas City
• Tuesday, April 28 vs. Kansas City
• Wednesday, April 29 vs. Kansas City
• Tuesday, May 12 vs. St. Louis
• Wednesday, May 13 vs. St. Louis
These earlier start times are running alongside several 3:10 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. starts, including Opening Day, Memorial Day, and their July 4 game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. The standard five-after time slots have also been adjusted to reflect a new 10-after start time across the board.
It’s safe to assume that the team is experimenting with these start times to make games more feasible for families, something likely born from focus groups and various trends in fan-behavior. A standard 7:05 p.m. game typically saw the final pitch occur around 10:15 p.m, meaning that these earlier starts could see a completion right around a mid-summer sundown. April alone has three 1:10 p.m. starts, three 2:10 p.m. starts, two 4:10 p.m. starts, and four 6:10 p.m. starts—very “school night” friendly.
Not to be overlooked, however, is the financial impact on local establishments who would otherwise be serving dinner and refreshments to those attending a game that would start two hours after the end of a typical work day. An earlier start means that those burgers and beers would have to be consumed inside the stadium—perhaps at their new, two-story bar in right field—rather than one of the neighborhood bars or restaurants, ultimately leading to a higher revenue-per-fan metric.
How this move impacts both attendance and the bottom line remains to be seen.
55 Comments
Then you don’t understand professional sports business models. The Indians offer one of the cheapest available products in the market. Are you advocating the Indians to fill the stands by selling $1 tickets? Price points are the result of extensive profitability analysis- you can trust me when I say every team out there exhausts a ton of manpower and resources to calculate them. Going to a baseball game is not some government subsidized right.
$1 tickets are a stretch. However, when concessions are marked up, say, about 500% (on the very conservative end), you can’t possibly convince me that is reasonable or even affordable for the average person, let alone someone living on minimum wage. And let’s not go too far bringing up subsidized stuff.
This can’t hurt to try new things. Good for them for trying at least.
Minimum wage? That is not MLB’s customer. What are you talking about?
Do the Indians charge too much for the baseball game experience compared to their peers?
No, they actually have one of the cheapest options available
Do the Indians charge more for concessions compared to their peers?
No, its actually also one of the cheapest
But “minimum wage” people cant afford tickets!
They also cant afford DirecTV, BMWs, opera tickets, etc. etc. etc. I dont get your point. Do you want to attack other companies as well?
Average Indians ticket price? $21 That’s absolutely fair. Oh, and the Indians are running a business, not some civic charity.
Now this is a fun rabbit hole to go down….
1. Play three 7 game series against each of your division teams.
2. Play two 5 game series against one team from opposing divisions.
3. Play one 5 game series against inter-league.
or something like this.