This is one of those times
Recently, some friends and I purchased tickets to go see the Brewers take on the Dodgers in July. Now, we’re all college students, and I’m pining for cash just as much as the next kid with $10 grand in debt, so I can’t really afford to take time off of work on a Friday, buy tickets to two games, and spend the gas needed to drive from Minneapolis to Milwaukee too often. We got tickets the first day they came out.
The Brewers have made the jump in the last few years from small-market crybaby (Bud Selig) to a mid-market team. This is a direct result of the Brewers winning more ballgames and principal owner Mark Attanasio willing to spend the extra few dollars and make the extra effort to get the Brewers to the postseason. Attanasio and crew have changed the face of the organization by bringing in a fan-first attitude to the team, doing everything from offering nice ticket packages to minimizing fan costs. Let me explain.
Ticket prices went up last year by nearly 11 percent. That’s understandable, because despite Bud Selig’s shortcomings as the Commissioner, he’s still skyrocketed the popularity of baseball and people love it more than ever. A big market means big demand for tickets, and a hefty demand for tickets means that the club can afford to jack up ticket prices to afford those monstrous contracts. The objective of a baseball team is to make money, you know — I have no problem with higher ticket prices as long as it’s obvious that the ballclub’s intent isn’t out to gouge your wallets in the name of cash.
The Brewers have not done that. They have kept ticket prices wonderfully low compared to the rest of the MLB. Take a look at 2008′s Fan Cost Index (FCI) among MLB teams. FCI is a measure of the combined price of four average tickets, two small beers, four small sodas, four hot dogs, parking for one car, two game programs, and two adult-sized caps — in other words, the average cost for a family of four to attend a ballgame.
Milwaukee raised their ticket prices by nine percent in ’08, but that’s below the league average and still a wonderful deal when compared to the rest of the teams in the major leagues. The Brewers have the third-lowest
Check out this really interesting article written by Chris Jaffe in 2007 that lists the different fees tacked onto the ticket prices. The Brewers have the cheapest fees attached to each ticket of any team in the majors, as it appears they are either inefficiently operating in this regard, or they want to keep costs down so more fans will come in. I tend to be swayed towards the latter; one would think a major-league organization should be well-familiarized with the art of gouging money and would know that fans, by now, are used to the “convenience fee” that tends to make ticket prices 20% more than what they claim to be.
So, the Brewers keep their ticket prices cheap. They keep their convenience fees almost nonexistent. What does that mean? Are they simply desperate to get butts in seats? Doesn’t seem like desperation here, just legitimate excitement. That makes me think that Attanasio and the Brewers are committed to keeping fans happy.
So, when I see things like this, I can’t help but still feel good when I’m dropping $125 for two baseball games. Rooting for this team is awesome.