Big League Prices
I had a chance to catch some big league baseball last Saturday night in Washington, at the new Nationals Park in D.C. That gave me a chance to gag at the cost of major league baseball in the capital city.
I usually attend 2-3 MLB games every summer, but I was shocked at the price of the tickets in Washington. We were 15 rows from the field, left field side, about midway between third base and the wall. They were good seats, not great. The cost? $58 per ticket, plus a $5 handling charge. The handling charge made little sense, since the only handling going on was the guy in the box office handling the tickets before he handed them over to me.
$63 per seat, to be 15-rows from the field, on the left field side. Anyone else think that's outrageous? We'll leave out the fact that the Nationals put a dreadful product on the field, a team that might go .500 in the Triple-A International League. How do they justify charging $63 per ticket for mediocre seats?
It made me think back to Buffalo's ill-fated attempt to get a MLB team in the early 1990s. Would mediocre seats here cost $50-or-$60 per ticket? Would anyone buy them? I never used to agree with those who've suggested we're better off having failed in Buffalo's big league push 18-years ago. But based on where ticket prices are now, we are better off. What's more, I don't know anyone who'd regularly pay that much money 81 times per season.
What do you think? Are we that far behind economically in Buffalo that we cannot imagine paying that much for baseball tickets? And are we, in fact, better off without big league baseball?
posted by John Murphy at
8:21 PM
2 Comments:
Baseball is boring to play, even more boring to watch in person, and boring beyond belief to watch on TV. I'd rather watch football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, or soccer before watching baseball.
There's just no action to it. I could care less about major league baseball and whether it's here. In terms of minor league baseball and the Bisons, I probably would forget they even exist if it wasn't mentioned in the paper or on the sportscasts.
I assume that satisfactorily gives my opinion on the matter. :-)
There is only so much disposable income in a city the size of Buffalo. I believe we have just enough to support the two major league teams we have, but a third would have been tough. Plus we don't have the corporate dollars like in DC, NYC, or have a tourism base that would come to Buffalo and also attend a MLB game, like you do on your trips. MLB would have been supported in the begining, but when money gets tight, WNYers would have been loyal to the Bills and Sabres first, and spend there money there. I do believe a Buffalo MLB team would not have gotten consistent support to field a decent product and in the end that team would have found a way to leave town, even with local Rich ownership. The money spent on MLB may even have hurt the Sabres and Bills with lower attendence. WNY is just not wealthy enough or large enough to support more than 2 franchises. I now only hope we can still continue to support and keep the 2 we have! Kinda ironic the team you are complaining about is the Washington Nationals, which were the Montreal Expos, which was suppose to be the expansion team Buffalo most likely would have gotten if the Lancaster dome stadium had been built.
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