Dick Allen

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Oct 19, 2012 -> 01:14 PM) How was this NOT Rios or Dunn? 0.60 ERA, 48 saves. I think Rodney earned it.

QUOTE (champs2005 @ Oct 19, 2012 -> 12:28 PM) A big takeaway from the Sox Market Research was that 70% of fans would rather watch the game on TV rather than go to the ballpark and that this ratio has basically flipped since 20 years ago when 70% said they'd rather go to the game. wow. tough crowd. Another big conclusion was no one said they werent going to the games because they didnt think the team was any good or werent winning. So much for that commonly-posted theory that if Sox win then fans will come. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/201...cket-price-cuts That's because they conducted the survey when the Sox were in first place. See what the same fans would say if they did the survey in June of 2007. Finances would still be an issue, but they would mention the bad team. The good news is enough went right this year to stop another big drop in season ticket accounts. It is pretty interesting people would rather stay home and listen to Hawk. Reading this board, I was under the impression Hawk scares everyone away. I do wonder how much that turnaround has to to with HDTV. You can get really nice TVs pretty cheap these days and also nice sound.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 19, 2012 -> 08:54 AM) Let's wait and see where the payroll stands after the ticket prices cut, next thing you know they might be trotting me out there to play 3b. According to Brooks Boyer, the ticket price slashing will have no effect on payroll other than perhaps increasing it. Also keep in mind, the television money is increasing.

It appears the 7th best team in the AL will be playing the 5th best team in the NL for the World Championship. Marty is probably going to want an asterisk by this one.

Ron Darling sounds a lot like Farmio.

Girardi should be fired.

IMO, the Sox have officially taken care of enough of the fans' complaints. Affordable tickets can be had without jumping through hoops, or going on Monday, the seats are green. They built a bar. I really think this new ticket scale will start a trend in the right direction.

It would seem ARod is probably going to at least attempted to be moved, but I think the guy in real trouble is Girardi. How he has thrown stars under the bus this series has been amazing. The only struggling guy he hasn't is Cano. He's totally panicked and it hasn't worked. Gardner with 4 AB since April?

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 01:40 PM) The prices changes are not for seats that were sold anyway so this really will have little affect on the bottom line. The good seats are still expensive. If the Whte Sox thought that this would negatively impact the bottom line, they would not be doing it. ? There are about 5,000 that are not getting decreased albeit the most expensive seats. It still effects about 20,000 seats sold per game in 2012, plus $3-5 a vehicle. Its a significant drop. If the team doesn't lose 90 games, the string of years of declining attendance will be OVA.

Some seats are going up. The premium lowers and premium clubs.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 11:12 AM) Has this been made official yet? Everything I read still refers to KW as the GM and Hahn as the asst GM. I heard Paul Sullivan say he heard it wasn't happening, at least not this year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 10:38 AM) Not everyone is aware of that, especially if one doesn't ride the CTA very often. The Sox would be well served to have some kind of advertising campaign to inform people of the Green Line option. Until 1991 or 1992, the stop that will be in play next year was the actual Red Line stop at 35th street.

They are being smart. The more season ticket packages they sell, the more single game tickets they will sell if the team is halfway successful. Hopefully, they will also step away from Dynamic Pricing. The more empty seats someone sees on television, the less likely they are to buy a ticket even if the team is playing well. Full-Season Ticket Packages: Outfield Reserved - Dropping 30% Bleachers - Dropping 32% Premium Upper Box - Dropping 17% Upper Box - Dropping 28% Upper Reserved - Dropping 17% The one thing to wonder is does this mean they are dropping payroll by the same percentage or higher?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 09:00 AM) I can almost always get under $100/night for a 4-star hotel downtown, especially in January, and if I need to make the trip on an even tighter budget I can get a 3-star hotel out by Midway for under $70/night and take the Orange line downtown, so in my mind the cost for Soxfest is about $100 more than the cost of the actual pass to the event. Priceline will get you ridiculous deals. When it was at the Hyatt, you could get a room on Priceline for less than $60 a night.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) So where can you get discount tickets to Soxfest? You get a discount if you buy early, just like Dynamic Pricing.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 18, 2012 -> 07:30 AM) If Stone is in the half a million range, Hawk has to be around a million. Its a nice gig. I don't blame him for never wanting to quit.

Isn't the qualifying offer over $12 million or close? Just read it should be between 12-13 million this year, and will probably be close to that next I would imagine.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:46 AM) With all this discussion about ticket prices, I really think that's only a small part of the problem. The biggest problem IMO, is the performance of the team on the field. The excitement and expectations for the team are low right now. The season ticket base is probably only around 13,000 or so. The best way to build that up is to win and continue to win. And by "win" I mean post-season baseball. Not just hanging on to first place for a few months out of the season. I can pretty much guarantee that if they make the playoffs 3-4 times in the next 5-6 years it won't matter how much the tickets cost. The place will be full. That's probably right. I posted last night how things have changed. Making the playoffs once in a while isn't as tough as it used to be, the only teams in the AL to have a longer playoff drought than the White Sox 4 years are Cleveland, KC, Toronto and Seattle and there are tons of empty seats at those ballparks, 3 of which used to be filled every night.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:22 AM) If they had Bears ticket prices? I doubt it. First off, the Bears have a much larger pool of fans than the White Sox. Secondly, many people put a value of attending a Bears game higher than that of a White Sox game. Just because someone thinks something is too expensive doesn't necessarily mean they cannot afford it. If they had 8 opportunities instead of 81, they may value a White Sox game more than they do now. As long as people will always think there are plenty of good seats available, there probably will be plenty of good seats available.

QUOTE (My_Sox_Summer @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 08:52 AM) I disagree, not that you are wrong, I just don't think that people are not going to games because the tickets are too expensive. There are codes for basically every game. They cannot discount every game. Now, what I do think they should do, is the areas that they usually mark down the tickets is just sell them for a lower rate to all games. The corners upstairs for $15 the lower corners for $25. Why did you stop getting seasons? That is something the Sox need to focus on. I don't think the demos would show that people buying tickets without the internet, go to multiple games. Which is where Dynamic Pricing comes in, those deals are available at the box office with no code and no fees. Day of game, dynamic pricing is outrageous. We were debating it, and were probably going to drop them, then my ticket partner was in an accident and died. We realized Stubhub was a better option. I could still go to the games for a lot less money. The only thing we would be missing out on is playoff tickets. From what we save during the season,we could pay up for playoff games or watch them on my sweet Samsung 46" HDTV, and still come out ahead.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 08:23 AM) Serious question, how many people who have no access to internet are able to buy baseball tickets? I am guessing those demographics don't overlap a lot. All you really have to do is check the lines at the ballpark ticket windows when tickets first go on sale. I actually know 3 huge baseball fans that do not have computers at home. They can get on at work and go to the library, but there are a lot of people that don't have a computer at home or cable. The question is do the Sox really want to sell the tickets or not? If they do and are willing to sell them at a certain price for those that go on the internet find a code and enter it, why not just sell them to someone walking up the day of the game at the same price? Why eat it? What the Sox should do is throw a bunch of tickets on Stubhub.

QUOTE (My_Sox_Summer @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 08:12 AM) They make coupons too, should everything just be lower in price because people are too lazy to bring a coupon? I mean come on. That is what dynamic pricing is supposed to do, no codes and you get that low price. I think they also only do it online because they re-coup some of it with the fees. If someone is too lazy to use Google, they deserve to pay full price IMO. Then the Sox lose out. My point being, is if they are willing to sell tickets at a certain price, sell them at that price rather than sitting on them because someone doesn't have a code. They become worthless when the game ends. I used to have season tickets, this year I did not. I used codes and Stubhub and never paid anywhere close to full price. It may seem crazy, but not everyone has access to the internet, not everyone is aware codes exist, and usually they are the people who can least afford paying full price.

With the new playoff formats the only AL teams to go longer than the Sox current 4 years without a playoff appearance are Cleveland, Toronto, KC and Seattle. How are they doing attendance-wise.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) I think whenpeople say "tix are too expensive", they really mean "lower deck tix are too expensive" Too many lower level snobs. Upper deck tix with a code were as low as $7 thi year yet the upper deck was half empty. You are correct, but I don't think people want to look for a code. What I don't understand is why they require codes for the discount. If they are willing to discount it with a code, just discount it for everyone. I think the upper deck will always be problematic unless they either offer steep discounts or some other gimmick. There are some decent seats up there, and some real bad ones. I do think in the infield in the first few rows they are way better than downstairs in the corners or the outfield if your there to watch baseball.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 03:17 PM) If Sox tickets are too expensive at $50 for someone, Bears tickets aren't affordable at $200 for that same person. Not necessarily.