Seattle Marination

I’ve been thinking a lot about ticket prices with the M’s packing it in this year (worst season attendance in Safeco history so far) and I wonder just how much of that is due to the exorbitant ticket prices as opposed to the lousy performance…

So, to tally things out, let’s compare our prices for say… my favorite spot a few rows behind (not too close)the dugout on the third base side to the rest of the MLB and see how things square up. Now, to narrow this down, especially with price differentials for certain games and days of the week, I’m not including so-called “premium-priced” games (which were almost always Red Sox or Yankees) and I usually catch a game on a Sunday, so I’m only taking that day’s ticket prices here. Also, these will be “day of game” prices, not season ticket or pre-purchased tickets. Imagine that I arrive, find an available seat and buy it at the gate for whatever each team charges. Here goes, from highest to lowest:

New York Yankees – $380

Los Angeles Dodgers – $130

Boston Red Sox – $90

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – $85

San Francisco Giants – $85

Chicago Cubs – $80

Washington Nationals – $75

Seattle Mariners – $65

Toronto Blue Jays – $65

Atlanta Braves – $60

Arizona Diamondbacks – $60

Texas Rangers – $60

Cleveland Indians – $55

Baltimore Orioles – $55

San Diego Padres – $55

Chicago White Sox – $55

Houston Astros – $50

Oakland Athletics – $50

Philadelphia Phillies – $50

Minnesota Twins – $50

Milwaukee Brewers – $45

Florida Marlins – $43

Tampa Bay Rays – $42

Cincinnatti Reds – $42

Detroit Tigers – $42 (And kudos to the Tigers for the simplest ticket prices)

Kansas City Royals – $37

Pittsburgh Pirates – $27

St. Louis Cardinals – Seats Not Available For Single Game Purchase

New York Mets – Seats Not Available For Single Game Purchase

Colorado Rockies – (Too lazy to figure it out… The site lists $47-$100 without laying out the differences)

Interesting, no?

And now, to get a vague (and I mean VAGUE) idea of which place has the best deal, let’s arrange the teams by last season’s win record!

Boston Red Sox – $90 (96-66), Won Division, Won ALCS, Won Championship

Cleveland Indians – $55 (96-66) Won Division

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – $85 (94-68), Won Division

New York Yankees – $380 (94-68), Won Wild Card

Arizona Diamondbacks – $60 (90-72) Won Division

Colorado Rockies – (Too lazy to figure it out… The site lists $47-$100 without laying out the differences) (90-73), Won Wild Card, Won NLCS

San Diego Padres – $55 (89-74)

Philadelphia Phillies – $50 (89-73) Won Division

Seattle Mariners – $65 (88-74)

Detroit Tigers – $42 (And kudos to the Tigers for the simplest ticket prices) (88-74)

New York Mets – Seats Not Available For Single Game Purchase (88-74)

Chicago Cubs – $80 (85-77), Won Division

Atlanta Braves – $60 (84-78)

Toronto Blue Jays – $65 (83-79)

Milwaukee Brewers – $45 (83-79)

Los Angeles Dodgers – $130 (82-80)

Minnesota Twins – $50 (79-83)

St. Louis Cardinals – Seats Not Available For Single Game Purchase (78-84)

Oakland Athletics – $50 (76-86)

Texas Rangers – $60 (75-87)

Washington Nationals – $75 (73-89)

Houston Astros – $50 (73-89)

Chicago White Sox – $55 (72-90)

Cincinnatti Reds – $42 (72-90)

San Francisco Giants – $85 (71-91)

Florida Marlins – $43 (71-91)

Baltimore Orioles – $55 (69-93)

Kansas City Royals – $37 (69-93)

Pittsburgh Pirates – $27 (68-94)

Tampa Bay Rays – $42 (66-96)

Do different parks offer better amenities than other parks? Yes, of course. Will you find me complaining about prices at Safeco anyway? Yup. But for all those Mariner fans out there who keep complaining and complaining about our team and keep insisting that good fans would stay away from the park to cause ticket prices to drop, I have only one thing to say. You’re a bunch of idiots. You can see on this chart a vague representation of how better teams usually charge more and lousy teams usually charge less, but you’re mixing up cause and effect. Ticket prices are only slightly affected by results. It’s more a matter of how big a fan base is. Need some examples? Check out Baltimore and D.C. (And that’s with them competing AGAINST each other in the same market!) Don’t kid yourself that Washington D.C. and Maryland are hotbeds for upper-class baseball fans. Have you ever been to our nation’s capitol? Not quite Wall Street elite…

And you’re really forgetting about how amazing it is to watch a game at Safeco. You think this is a lousy team? It’s lousy, but it’s only been truly lousy for ONE season. Get over yourself. Suffer through the bad times. You want bad teams? You want pathetic? There was celebrating in the streets in ‘91 when the M’s finally broke .500! No, I’m not kidding. I remember it!

And now I’m finished ranting. If anything, I’ve created a chart of how much it would cost to sit in the same seats in 30 different stadiums. Woohoo!