Mariners hike ticket prices
DMZ · February 1, 2006 at 8:48 am · Filed Under Mariners
I just noted that they finally posted single game prices.
With 2005 single-game prices in ()s
Lower box: $55 ($50)
Field: $38 ($35)
Horribly overpriced Terrace Club Infield: $60 ($55)
Horribly overpriced Terrace Club Outfield: $45 ($43)
View Box: $25 ($24)
Lower Outfield Reserved: $25 ($24)
View Reserved: $18 ($17)
Left Field Bleachers: $14 ($13)
Center Field Bleachers: $7 ($7)
Not as bad as it could have been. And yet, still…
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39 Responses to “Mariners hike ticket prices”
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Just as long as the satellite season pass price isn’t raised… Safeco is a bit far for me to drive.
Lesser product for more money! Great idea!
That’s just crazy.
If the 2006 Mariners are as bad as the ’05 version, I’ll buy you a new hat, Steinberg.
And besides, Felix every 5 days. If you can’t get excited about that, you have no soul.
Stranger things have happened…
Does seem odd that a team with two bad seasons, looking at declining attendance (certainly some decline, not certain how much), would raise prices.
Maybe the airlines need to take a lesson from MLB on how to set ticket prices.
I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Actually, given the price distribution, I don’t find Terrace Club Outfield to be that overpriced at all. Best field angle in the stadium, wider seats, and no screaming kids running through the aisles throwing garlic fries at one another…
I ask a question as someone who gets the chance to only see ONE game a year in person. What is the best bargin available? Last year i got seats at field level for $35, now $38 (in right field) and wasn’t that impressed……Except to watch Vlad warm up throwing from the Right Field corner to Chone Figgins and air-mail a ball into the stands near third base!
As long as attendance stays low, the best value is the $7 center field bleachers. As soon as the game starts, move wherever you want.
I knew about these earlier since I get all the season ticket paperwork. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the Overpriced Terrace Club prices. Field seats going up nearly 10% is painful — we’re rapidly being priced out of the lower deck (although with those prices we’ll be able to move down earlier).
Yeah, view reserved is 125% more than comparable seats in the Kingdome circa 1995, but a $10 bump over 12 seasons is palatable. Terrace Club Infield has risen $10 in the last 2 years.
Best seats for the money? I like the views from 329-332 IF you’re in the View Box level or the first couple of rows of view reserved. Our section (328) is a bit sucky because you lose a chunk of the field.
Otherwise, if you can swing the Lower Outfield in the two sections north of the foul pole, they’re not bad.
Hey, gotta pay for Washburn somehow…remember, he’s pitching every 5 days, too.
Is this an unreasonable amount o pay for a team that I’m pegging at around 81 wins, plus or minus 6? Well…it’s less unreasonable than the last two years, and I have season tickets.
Yeah, I posted about this a month ago when I first got all my season ticket holder stuff too. It bugs me because I tend to go to plenty of games outside my plan anyway, so the single game prices still get me. Hell, at this rate, I can barely swap two of my View Reserved season tickets for a single View Box one.
(Oh, and it’s not just Terrace Club infield rising so quickly — Box has also jumped $10 in the last two years, which bugs me more. I like going to a few games and sitting close enough to see the wrinkles on Jamie Moyer’s face.)
I have a 16-game plan in section 334, and I actually think the seats in that area are great for the price, but if you’re just going to one game per year (like poster #7 asked), my idea of “bargain” seats is basically to find a seat or two in like, the front half of section 142 or 118, where you’re basically paying Field prices for Box seats. The other “bargain” is, yeah, getting the $7 centerfield bleacher seats and then standing behind the bullpen or moving up somewhere.
I might actually bother getting cable TV this year rather than just going to a bazillion games on a whim like I’ve done the last few years. The schedule this year actually somewhat sucks for good teams visiting us, too, though I suppose we may get to see more games won at home if we’re always playing Tampa Bay and Detroit and such.
I’ve really liked Terrace Club when I’ve sat there (two games this last year).
It’s definitely spendy, but it’s worth it to me to have a more comfortable seat, less general foolishness from people around me, and access to the club level restrooms.
And really, when considering ticket prices, the quality of the team is almost irrelevant; when I go to a game, I go for the experience as a whole.
Last season I bought my tickets for 2 games in May as soon as the single game tickets went on sale. I got annoying seats ($35 RF field seats – view blocked by foul pole) and lousy seats ($17 1B view reserved).
My lawyer tells me he has a trick for getting better seats for single games. I’ll have to try his method.
It’s funny how different people value seats differently. If there are tickets available in View Reserved between 1st and 3rd, there’s no way I’m going to pay more than $18 to sit in the outfield. Yet, there are some people who are quite willing to pay more money and sit 300+ feet away from the action just so they can be on field level. I don’t get it, but it’s to my advantage, so I’m not complaining.
At any rate, as long as the View Reserve seats stay in the ~2 movie ticket range, I’ll be grudgingly content with the pricing.
I don’t think Detroit’s a pushover this year, Deanna.
Our best chance to sweep anyone at home is probably Colorado’s visit in June/July.
Detroit may not be a pushover, but they’re certainly not exciting to watch.
CHOICE SEATING ON THE CHEAP ? (See # 8 & # 9) – Now you’ve done it. You’ve alerted those @$%^&**% to this situation. They’ll probably start checking tickets. *(Once, in the Kingdome, where they had parking spaces for wheelchair users, I saw them send away a wheelchair user who was “illegallly parked.”) Pay $7.00 for a seat, and you’d better stay put–now that they know.
__________
*These frustrated policemen wannabes will probably have time on their hands to do this.
heh, to #15 – yeah, what #16 said. I agree they’re not likely to walk into town and hand us a cake, but they don’t really excite me as a team either (unless they’re going to pull a prank like putting a lineup of 9 lefties against Gil Meche. That still cracks me up).
(also, Evan, did you order online or in person or over the phone? the “trick” for me is to not use the online interface, which has a different idea of “best available” than I do.)
to #17 – Right, because they’ve never thought of it before, of course.
“The “trick†for me is to not use the online interface, which has a different idea of “best available†than I do.”
No kidding. I hate having to order using the online form, as sometimes I’d much rather move over one section and down a few rows. I’ve been too lazy to try ordering in person since I’ve been here, though, can you avoid the convenience charges by ordering in person?
My Dad’s been a huge Giants fan since he was a kid and I’ve always been an M’s guy, so we’re definitely going to all three Giants games on June 16-18 at SAFECO. My dream would be to have Felix beat Matt Cain 1-0 while striking out Bonds thrice with a weak grounder.
“Can you avoid the convenience charges by ordering in person?”
Yeah (at least, at all the team store and stadium ticket booths; I have no idea if there are others or what happens if you go to a Ticketmaster place). You also avoid them by ordering from the Mariners on the phone, but to be honest I don’t know what it’s like for non-season-ticket-holders.
#5–Does seem odd that a team with two bad seasons, looking at declining attendance (certainly some decline, not certain how much), would raise prices.
No. Happened in pretty much every other market.
RE: #12
Jeff,
I tend to agree. When my wife and I go, it’s Terrace Club all the way, with lunch at the Hit it Here first. (Weekend day games only, I can’t leave until it’s over, so 16 innings on Wednesday night is out of the question.)
When I take the kids and the MIL, it’s bleacher time; no lunch, snacks from outside Safeco, for the most part.
That said, I am part of declining attendance, partially due to family issues, (last years reunion, my end was $6K) and partially due to the poor record. I still catch every game on TV or radio, including spring training, but it is expensive to go to the park, and I sure like watching a win more than a loss. Perhaps I’m in touch with my inner “Pinealla”.
I’m at a point in my life where I wouldn’t pay to see the Eagles at the Tacoma Dome if the tickets were free, but, I’d do a $750 each ticket for the wife and I at a nice winery, with a meal and table cocktail service. That’s why the Terrace Club works for me. I think it’s well marketed.
Hey Deanna, which 16-game plan you on?
I swear I asked you last year and we had different ones.
I’ve had Plan E the last two years, and will probably end up with it again this year out of laziness. Which one did you have? Mine had the first home Felix start, which was pretty cool, but I don’t remember if that’s when you asked me.
I’ve come to accept that the laws that govern ticket pricing are similar to the laws that govern arbitration … it’s more about service time than merit.
We have the same one we have had since ’02 — Plan C, aka The Plan That Never Has Cool Giveaways. Looks like no Felix again this year for us, too. We did get Palmeiro’s 3000 game, whatever that was worth.
Felix WILL probably get me to another game or two – I’d love to see the King face off against Bonds – but is a 94 loss season really that out of the question? Felix is great and Johjima has to be an improvement, but I’m not really sold on the middle infield, the outfield, the other pitchers, or the bullpen.
Ah spring, when every fan can think that their team will suck.
Re: the online interface
The trouble for me being that I’m incredibly anti-social, and will endure significant hardship to avoid actually having to interact with people.
dw — you saw the thing where season ticket holders can actually order “a whole set of giveaways” for like $65, right? I wish they’d had that two years ago. I really wanted an Edgar Duck.
Evan — me too, but there are some things I’ll get over it for. For example, the single seat the ticket booth guy found me in Sec 135 Row 9, two feet behind the Diamond Club seats, when Kevin Millwood was pitching last year… there’s no way in hell I would have gotten that from the online interface. Plus, I got a ringside seat for the ensuing brawl! Whee!
Most of the ticket staff is really nice, too.
I have shared a season’s ticket package for a few years now, and I, too, think View Box is the way to go.
We’re in Section 334, too. I get every fourth game, but I don’t know which rotation it will be this year yet.
As a Red Sox fan living in Massachusetts, I look at those prices and sigh. My god. Those prices are fantastic. I mean fantastically good. Holy s–t!
Working away from the field at Fenway, the prices go:
$275 (yes, that’s for one ticket to one game) in the first two rows.
$100 for lower field box (not 100% sure on this price)
$85 for loge box seats
$45 for grandstand seats (the ones under cover from first to third)
And there are also some very expensive seats >$100 per ticket in the upper level sections behind home plate.
You guys have got it good. Enjoy it.
Does anyone think its significant how much better Sexson’s 2nd half was, given that he hadn’t played in a year coming into the season?
The difference between Sexson pre-all-star and post-all-star was basically three doubles turning into home runs. His BA/OBP/SLG improvement was .011/.015/.082. The improvement was basically all in the SLG%, and the percentage of XBH/H wasn’t really all that different. A few more long flies cleared the wall.
There wasn’t any real dramatic improvement.
Gotta love those straightaway bleachers.
Amdream – I think it’s good that you wouldn’t go and see the Eagles playing in Tocoma.
I wouldn’t go and see the Eagles if they were playing in my basement.
One of the best bets for cheap seats is the family section in center field (assuming you don’t mind not drinking beer for a couple hours). I got a seatin one of the first few rows, day of the game, for Felix’s start against the Royals last year. This section is usually less crowded anyways, so I’m sure you can just buy the 7 dollar ticket and walk down.
Seeing a game from (almost) straight-away center gives you a very different perspective on defensive alignment, outfielders’ routes to balls, how the ball comes of the bat, etc.
I grew up a REd Sox fan in MA, and I hate to tell you what the tickets cost then. I remember $3.00 field level box seats and $2.25 grandstand tickets. And no, I am NOT old enough to be your grandfather! 🙂
I’d like to try a variety of seats like that family section just for fun, but you don’t get that with the multigame ticket packages.
Nice gesture on their part, after claiming to the press that they would not raise ticket prices this offseason.
Sure, they didn’t touch season tickets, but they better not recoil in shock if they see slight drops in average attendance, even if the team’s competitive or in contention.
As for the CF bleachers tactic… the thing is that that’s your seat. You can’t just seat yourself in better sections, as attendants WILL check your tickets at the aisle entryway… but if you want to stand elsewhere and watch the game from there, that’s fine. Parts of the concourse offer better views if you’re willing to stand, and as long as you’re not in anyone’s way.