Dick Allen

A poster on another site hit the nail on the head regarding White Sox attendance. He wrote if no one is laughing at a comic, its not the crowd. Considering this is an annual topic, maybe JR needs to find someone who can do something about it.

Will they be hoisting the BP Cup after the game? I hope CSN shows all the festivities.

Bacon's a keeper.

Hopefully this is the beginning of Floyd's annual summer run.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 08:30 PM) Castro just rubs me the wrong way. Every time the camera goes on him he's either chewing or spitting or looking like a doofus He seems like one of those guys that is going to really start to suck as soon as he signs a huge contract.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) I could not possibly agree with you more Brotha! It's been several years (I think Maggs was in right), but I could not believe what a lousy experience I had the last time I sat in the lower level. I think my company at the time bought the tickets. When I go to a game, I for some unknown reason, want to actually watch a game. We were about 10 - 12 rows from the field along the right field line, slightly behind 1st base. People were constantly getting up and down, in and out of their seats, even during pitches. I don't know why people have such rude baseball, or any public event, behavior. I'm a very mild mannered man, and it takes a lot to get me angry; but boy was I pissed. I bet you I missed half of the game because someone was standing up to get in and out in front of me, usually right when the pitcher was starting his wind up. At that time I swore I would never sit in the lower level again and have not since. This is exactly why my seats were in the club level. You can actually watch a game there most of the time. Its amazing. Baseball is at least 95% dead time, but the guy in front of you or the guy with the cotton candy always seem to be up and in your way as the pitch is headed towards home and Dunn is at the plate. If you can get a premium club level seat, they are pretty reasonable on stubhub usually, its the ticket to none of that.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 06:27 PM) Taking bets on how many innings Floyd gets before he's pulled. Over/under is set at 4. I don't like Floyd, but I'll take the over. He's due for a good game, and it is the Cubs.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 03:28 PM) How much do you follow other team's local beat writers? As if you would even know if they were crying about funds. Secondly, I would love to hear the PR campaign you would have where money was never mentioned as an answer to "are you going to go out and acquire "Player X?" Team's cite money as a consideration all the time in this instance. You're just not a fan of theirs, so you don't pay it any mind. As for the attendance problems being overblown, do you really think that there is no additional revenue to be made from filling up your stadium? If not, why does every single team clamor for a new stadium? Do you not wonder what the money that a team like the Red Sox or the Rangers spends that money on? Do you think they pass it on back to their fans in the form of free beers or something? That is real money that could be applied to payroll, the draft, scouting, etc. OK, show me another team who cries about not being able to acquire players because attendance isn't up to snuff. Just one. You mention the Rangers spending money. You may be interested to know according to Forbes, the White Sox had more revenue than the Rangers last season. Attendance is overblown. Its not how many are at the games, its how much was paid to be there. If the Sox really wanted to sell the last 7000 to 10000 seats to last nights game, they would have had no problem doing so. They picked pricing them to where they would not be sold. The fact is its on the White Sox to draw fans. No one has an obligation to go to games. A restaurant doesn't say we will get you better food if you buy this crap first. They shouldn't even be publicly discussing it. They should be spending time trying to figure out how to fix it. Saying you would get better but can't because you're not getting enough business in a way is just showing you agree that your product should be better. Seriously, the franchise could probably be sold for close to $1 billion right now. If they don't feel they have the funds to properly run it, maybe they should sell. The other thing is, we have heard this so many times in the past, then Peavy gets traded for. Rios gets claimed. Manny get claimed. Edwin Jackson is acquired. Enough answering attendance questions KW. The Sox revenue was top 10 last year. That's the number that matters, not the total attendance figure. I just maintain if they lowered some prices, they would get more people into the stands and those extras would more than make up for the loss on the higher priced tickets.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 03:03 PM) And conveniently, they have the 11th highest payroll, after having the 5th highest payroll in 2011. The point is, they shouldn't cry about money. How many other teams cry about lack of funds? Of course many times when KW cites a lack of money, he spends some soon after. JR remembers where he hid it.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 02:57 PM) Then KW needs say I can't trade for Cole Hamels because he costs too much. It's simply not true. The White Sox had the 10th highest revenue last season according to Forbes. The only AL Central team with higher revenue was the Twins. They brought in $3 million higher. Their attendance problems are overblown. As we all know, if they dropped prices a bit, the attendance would go up. They are afraid of having great attendance but around the same or slightly higher revenue. It will make the $.50 vs. $1.00 argument look silly.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 01:35 PM) i'm planning on going today to the game. i only need a single seat. stubhub has single bleacher seats for $70. sox box office? $90 the ticket i buy on stubhub does NOT add to the attendance #. so dont blame me when your box office prices me out. But with the MLB/Stubhub partnership, the Sox will get a little kickback on that resale. The thing that bothers me about the attendance argument, is the Sox aren't really trying to sell all of their tickets. They want it both ways. Make more money per seat sold, price out a good percentage of your fanbase, but want the sympathy for the low volume they sell. They really need a new plan. Brooks and his crew should be on notice.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 01:29 PM) Its the Cubs, and only the Cubs, that tickets are prices like that for. There are 78 other games in the season which are much cheaper, and have way lower levels of attendance. They are cheaper, but not as much as you would think. Still at least $50 to sit downstairs most games. It would be hard not to argue price is one big factor keeping people away this year, especially when the team was going well. The people who seem to be most dissappointed in attendance, sportswriters, broadcasters, Sox employees, don't pay to go to games. I'd really like to attend tonight's game. I checked whitesox.com, I looked on Stubhub the last 2 nights as well, but there is nothing priced, and I'm not one of these guys that needs a half priced ticket, which makes it worth my while when I can sit in airconditioning on my couch, drink a 12 pack for what it would cost me for 1 beer and watch in HD and listen to the Hawkeroo. IMO, going is better, but not $100+ better.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 01:20 PM) How exactly should Williams answer questions about attendance when asked? How should he answer questions about adding players? He shouldn't answer questions about adding players. He doesn't give direct answers anyways. As far as attendance questions, he's the GM, he should tell them that is a question for someone else. Again, if the Sox are dissappointed with the attendance, they can do something about it, wouldn't you agree?

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 01:09 PM) Yeah wasn't the much-publicized slogan last year "All In"? Fans could have had a bitter, cynical taste in their mouth after last year. There's almost always a carryover effect. Both good and bad. Sox attendance has declined 5 straight seasons. This is almost definitely going to be 6 in a row. Winning is probably the easiest way to fix it, but short of a WS or mulitple playoff appearances, something needs to be done to stop the downward trend. I'm sure if they had an great idea or were given any great idea, it would have been used by now. I don't even know if they can, but what I would do today is drop the dynamic thing, make all prices of tickets for the rest of the season $1 higher than what season tickeholders paid, and see what happens.

QUOTE (ewokpelts @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 12:54 PM) in short , kenny should b**** at brooks and the ticket department for dynamic pricing. expensive, UNSOLD tickets is worse than cheap but SOLD tickets. While true, when the media, a group of people who don't have to pay to get in the ballpark, ask him about attendance, he should have zero comment, or even have them direct their questions to Brooks. He should be in a better position to answer the questions. I'd like someone to ask Brooks if he really thinks $90 for a bleacher seat is really going to attract anyone. I would really love to see who, if anyone, is actually buying at this price. I would imagine the number is extremely small. Is the number enough to offset the 7000-10000 empty seats that could have easily been sold if the price was reasonable last night?

The question should be has KW maxed out the talent level with the resources provided?I think the obvious answer is no.

So the Sox won't have the cash to bring in Youk. There goes the playoffs.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 12:37 PM) I know last year, the Sox had the 4th highest tickets in baseball, behind NYY, BOS, & Cubs. It's funny how that is never mentioned when attendance is brought up. A fanbase that has proven to be fair weather has to deal with expensive tickets. This new system has made tickets way more expensive although they could probably say "officially" ticket prices went down or remained the same.

Lower box in the corner is only $105 right now on the Sox website. Gee, I wonder why they don't sell out? There's no doubt there has been some Sox fan apathy, but its a 2 way street. The Sox have been one of the top 4 or 5 priced tickets in MLB for several years and their new system makes buying tickets during the season even more expensive. Its really a remarkable way to try to cure your attendance "problem".

Attendance is a non issue. If it were important, the Sox wouldn't be charging $90 for bleacher seats against one of the worst teams in baseball.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 20, 2012 -> 06:33 AM) http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=320619120 Joel Peralta tossed for having a significant amount of pine tar on his glove, and Maddon calls it bush league that he was called out. I havent liked Maddon too much this season. Yeah, its still cheating and if he knows the other team knows why would he use that glove during a game? Maddon really is lookin like a crybaby this year.

Rogers showed Sox 3B are hitting worse than Nationals pitchers. They also are fielding like Nationals pitchers playing 3B.

In all fairness to Hudson, he's playing out of position. His pop up with the bases loaded an one out was at least close to as bad as his throw, and you can throw blame at him for that. All the mess ups at 3B, that's on KW and the White Sox. The guy isn't a thirdbaseman.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 10:15 PM) I'm assuming your wife is not Japanese, Korean, Dominican, Venezuelan or Puerto Rican, lol. The funny thing is, she actually likes going to games.

QUOTE (Baron @ Jun 19, 2012 -> 10:11 PM) Im not mad at all actually. Its a game in the end. Not anything thats going to affect my life more than I want it to. That's true. When it bothers me too much, I just remember what my wife once told me when I was a little too consumed by the game... Its just a bunch of uneducated men in silly costumes, running around in dirt, trying to hit a ball with a stick.