Local media on permanent temporary seating
The PI wrote about this, albeit in passing —
Q: Samantha Marshall asks: “What’s the deal with the temporary bleachers installed in the center-field landing at Safeco Field? What do those seats cost? How do you purchase them?”
AG: Those temporary bleachers are considered Section 101 and cost the same as other outfield reserve seats ($24). These bleachers, which were only used for the most popular games earlier in the season, are in place for the remainder of the season. That decision was made in March and was based upon demand for tickets in past seasons; it cannot be rescinded now, despite diminished demand in this dreary season, because Section 101 tickets have been sold for remaining games. The great drawback to these seats is they severely diminish the amount of space on the center-field landing, one of the ballpark’s best features and the prime spot for singles to mingle. Those avid meet-and-greeters have tickets for other seats, so they provide no added revenue. Seats in Section 101 add to the team’s revenue, hence the squeeze on the mingle landing.
I love that he manages to take a couple shots in there without looking like he’s taking shots.
Anyway, there are a couple of interesting points that come out of this, but I’m particularly interested in one:
The Mariners decided before the season to use these all the time. They’re not temporary at all, not used for certain series, they decided before the season to sell them for every game this year.
Now, I may be wrong about this one: the Mariners made a decision to destroy the landing, and this is the only press it got. No one wrote a column about how the M’s made a deliberate decision in which they sacrificed the enjoyment of many for a modest increase in revenue, and the only paper willing to say anything was the PI.. on June 29th. The Seattle Times (“Paper of Quality”) hasn’t written a word about it.
I say that I might be wrong because searching through the archives of papers is always hit-and-miss. One of the ways the insane Ann Coulter lies is by doing searches where she says “The New York Times never mentioned how insane I am” and her endnote says “Lexis-Nexus search revealed no results for New York Times articles containing Ann Coulter, mental disorder, pathological liar, and marshmellow topping.” I was looking for anything refering to Section 101, the landing, the beer garden, temporary seats/bleachers — and I found zip in the Times on any of them.
I know I’ve said some mean things about the Times in the past. I’ve called their beat reporter “Pocket Lint”. This makes it absolutely clear that the Times has a rotten, corrupt sports section either so lazy-eyed they’re unable to see a set of permanent bleachers, straight out from the press box they sit in every single home game — or that they hold such a low, contemptable opinion of the fans that they don’t think that something this significant is something passing on to us, much less investigating.
And if they’ve written about it and I missed it, I’ll go back, edit this post, and apologize.
Comments
9 Responses to “Local media on permanent temporary seating”
I completely see the point of using them when its obvious there will be sellouts. However, completely replacing it with bleachers is a pretty sad way to ruin it. A lot of stadiums now have hang out places where you can watch the game without having to sit. None of those teams are doing this. So then why does ours? I guess I wouldn’t worry too much if they actually spent the extra money on players but they obviously didn’t do that.
Luckily for us these omissions and lack of speaking out against corporate interests are limited to the sports’ sections of papers, otherwise we’d all be in big trouble.
Um, Justin, sit down, I have something I need to tell you…
Tongue firmly in cheek, my friend. Unfortunately for my mental well-being, I know all too well the trouble we are all in.
Hey, I like Ann Coulter!
If you have Terrace Club tickets, you can sit at stools along the front window of the enclosed area. Of course, the Terrace Club isn’t worth the prices they charge, IMHO, and they’ll probably impose a two-drink minimum on the stoolies next year.
I’ll tell you whats up. The Mariners decided not early in the season, but after the first month that they would put in those seats. You see, they can make more money off of the seats (even if they don’t sell out) than they can the beer sells. The Mariners only get half of the proceeds from beer. With the seats, they don;t have to split any cash.
Then again, Derek, you may be a little hard on the Times, given that you didn’t notice the bleachers until a couple of weeks ago, either … Maybe they just haven’t seen them?
Ann Coulter probably decided to put those seats there. :p