ewokpelts

QUOTE (oldsox @ Nov 6, 2012 -> 08:47 AM) BoSox signed Ortiz for 2 yrs, making slightly less than Dunn.those guys are sure dumb in boston.

QUOTE (GREEDY @ Nov 5, 2012 -> 08:29 PM) Nice post.I can see " i live wayoverdere" on weeknight games, especially when the kids are in school. but weekend games had s***ty attendance too. even on hot summer days. no excuse.

QUOTE (GREEDY @ Nov 5, 2012 -> 07:37 PM) I attended 10 games in 2012. My reason for not attending more? I live in the VERY far south suburbs right off I-55. On a good night I can be to the Cell in 40 minutes. On a bad night it can take 120 minutes. The unexpected traffic tie-ups have forced me to turn going to a game into a major production. I can no longer get off work, grab the family and roll to a game on a Tuesday night with work/school on Wednesday morning. I've gotta take off work early, the kid's schedule needs to be cleared the next day etc. I know that "traffic" always will happen, and always has, but I just do not think it used to be this bad and especially this unpredictable. They have games on weekends too.

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Nov 5, 2012 -> 11:10 AM) I have said all year, and will continue to say that what's killing Sox attendance is how damn expensive the games are. I can't imagine being parents and having to take kids to games--unless it was a once-a-year proposition. The first clue to this was about mid-season when it was noted that TV and radio ratings for the Sox were actually UP but attendance was just pitiful. Hello! good thing they LOWERED prices for next year

New seating chart: http://twitter.com/VeeckAsInWreck/status/2...6414336/photo/1

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

heard some rumblings that the sox have a LOT more to announce price wise. no details, but you'll like it.....

QUOTE (My_Sox_Summer @ Oct 19, 2012 -> 04:19 PM) I am honestly debating a season ticket. At $810 for an upper deck one, I might just do it. Congrats to the White Sox for listening to fans, and maybe, just maybe, I provided a role in it. Ha. If you're still thinking about season tickets, let me know. I'll connect you with my rep.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 30, 2012 -> 02:45 PM) Were Dynamic Deals available at the Box office? I also don't think those $7 tickets were available for anywhere close to 53 games. I'm not doubting his numbers, just pointing out if they are accurate, he was doing something differently than dynamic deals and coupons. The sox had $5 tickets for the toronto series in june. Also, he bought from various sources, and some games were flat out free. He details it ALL in the blog. One method was the smart circle books(you pay $40 for a bunch of $1 ticket vouchers and 1/2 off coupons) And yes, dynamic deals were box office as well as online.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 2, 2012 -> 10:31 AM) They are going like hotcakes. Move it back to the Hyatt which can accomodate more fans so you can lower the price and have more attend and still have the money for the charity.soxfest is not a charity fundraiser. only the garage sale at soxfest is charity minded.

Solid Move. I was told he was offered the manager slot last year, but turned it down. This appears to be a better fit for him.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Oct 30, 2012 -> 12:21 PM) Lowering ticket prices and parking is a good start, but If they still have the tiered pricing system all season long it will mean little in overall attendance numbers.they said no prime or premier pricing. only OD and the cubs games are marquee games. also, notice the STH prices are the same per game. the big push is for season plans, even as small as 7 games.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 09:35 AM) It will but it will mean the Sox have some money to throw around. Not every team will be spending the money. I don't know if the luxury tax goes any higher. The Yankees are cutting payroll this year. Some of these teams, especially the big spenders, may have already spent it . Some other teams probably don't spend it anyways. It probably is one reason Loria paid Ozzie not to manage.luxury tax goes up every year. as for the marlins, they have a stadium where they will actually make money in(they made almost no money at joe robbe stadium).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 09:28 AM) It is just going to mean salary inflation.not every team spends that tv money. look at the royals. some teams use tv money to pay down debt. for the sox, it means that ticket revenue is not as important in 2014-2021. and when the LOCAL TV deal expires(the real moneymaker), then you may see even more cash coming into 333 w. 35th st.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 01:55 PM) I've organized group outings there the past few years, but to make it an event that non-baseball fans (or those who are more casual about it) want to attend I always have to convince them with the Patio Party bundle. It's fun times, and the group loves it, but we've had issues with travel every time (people showing up late cuz theyre dumbasses and drive there) and it's always a hassle to get back to the city to continue the drinking (red line is just flat out packed). I'd much rather be able to meet at a bar before and right after the game right outside the stadium and wait for the trains to get back to normal. sox took care of that for you. go to http://www.bacardiatthepark.com for details

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 01:24 PM) Is there anything to be said for the fans taking the lead here? What I mean here is in terms of atmosphere. At the end of the day, the main reason people attend the stadium is to go and support their team. The other stuff is really just superfluous. Welcome additions, of course, but at the end of the day the main thing is to watch and get behind the team. Nothing creates a great experience (outwith the performance on the park) like an electric atmosphere created by the fans. Talking from my own experience, it is the supporters that largely shape the quality of 'experience'. A few years ago, the atmosphere in Celtic Park had become really really flat and quiet. The club tannoy played music at half-time and before games, sometimes there were live bands, and there was plenty of food on sale both inside and outside the park. Yet the place was like a library during games. A fans group took it upon themselves to gather in a section of the ground and create an atmosphere by singing throughout the games, whether we were winning or losing. It took a long time, but gradually the enthusiasm spread throughout the ground so that Celtic Park often sings en masse in support of the team. Here's a couple of examples: Just a couple of my thoughts. I think nothing would create a buzz, and also attract people sitting at home watching to get their arses down to the park, than some good old fashioned fan created atmosphere. I appreciate I'm coming from a totally different fan culture, so this might not be an easy starter. In that case, with a view to the future, you need to teach your kids to be like this young rocker : P.S. Apologies for my repeated profiling of Celtic in this post, but it's what I'm most familiar with in this regard. soccer and baseball are two very different fan experiences.

QUOTE (joeynach @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 10:43 AM) Thrown out some age old ballpark classic promotions. $1 dog day (and don't make it pre-game only). How about turn back the clock day, all food prices goo back to what they were when the park opening in 1991. Id like to see more promotions to get regular old people into unused premium seats. How about random drawings or random sox people grab ppl with crap UD tickets and park a family or two, or some out of towners in the scout seats or those goldcoast tickets section. Discount the club level tickets that are down the line more, give a few lucky people the opportunity to enjoy the club level for $20 that aren't the best seats in the house. Get some food vendors/trucks on the streets or parking lots after the game for ppl to grab something on their way out of the area, this would also create a bit more hangout and ppl still around the park after the game. sox have a promotion where upper fans gets some lower deck tix(thanks to a sponsor). they used to offer the same promotion for scout seats, but that ended after 2005(with the scout seats selling out thier season ticket inventory) club level wont go down, seeing as the sox put $20 tickets on the lower deck for all but 3 games. food trucks is bad, as it'll kill traffic in the area. plus, the sox vendors(sportservice, levy, bacardi bar) may not like that.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 02:48 PM) I've always thought doing Take Me Out to the Ballgame was a bit stupid for the Sox to do. Something else would help differentiate us from the Cubs and rest of baseball. Something like Amazing Grace, God Bless America (every night)... I dont know. As for atmosphere, lowering ticket prices will get more of the kinds of rah rahs in the crowd. I can assure you of that. nothing screams baseball like amazing grace. and god bless america is overplayed at games as it is.

QUOTE (staxx @ Oct 29, 2012 -> 03:03 PM) half-price or lowered beer price weekend night games.... attract the college kids i know what comes along with that, but it will put more people in the seats why would you DISCOUNT beer on the weekends? sox average more fans on the weekend(sth sales as well as individual games sales). also, you target college kids on weeknight games, because they typically dont have to work the next day. AND, you want to BOOST attendance on weaker nights.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 25, 2012 -> 09:10 AM) What's interesting about this is, the Cubs themselves sell tickets on the secondary markets as well - acting as for-profit ticket brokers. This is just eliminating their competition.it's kettle meet pot syndrome. the books on Wrigley Field Premium's ticket inventory is very murky. and they have the balls to fight paying customers.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 26, 2012 -> 07:08 AM) Notre Dame does this too. If your season tickets are swept up in a scalping arrest, you lose your tickets permanently. Yes but illinois law allows people to resell tickets. AND the cubs have a partnership with stubhub.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 26, 2012 -> 06:58 AM) Is posting the same thing multiple times a pr stunt too? Im postin on my iphone. Sometimes double posts happen.

QUOTE (retro1983hat @ Oct 26, 2012 -> 01:01 PM) It has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but I think the Sox missed their opportunity when they had the chance to move to Addison. Yes, some of the old-time, die-hard Southsiders would be upset and may be lost as fans. However, the Cell is cut off from the more trendy parts of the city. Yes, the South Loop is improving, but that's several miles north. (Moving there would have been a great option) Anyways, a great majority of the old Southsiders moved their families out to the burbs. Studies have shown a vast majority of the Sox fans live outside the city limits. So by moving to Addison, where 290 and 355 meet, just north of I-88, just south of I-90, and just west of I-294, the Sox could basically own everything from the city limits out. Easy access in and out. Public transportation would have been an issue, though. The Angels embraced being in the OC and they let the Dodgers have LA. Now Anaheim is a major market team. Also, 355 did not exist when they looked at addison. And if it did, I'm not sure fans would want to spend $4 to take that tollway to a game 81 times a year. Simply put, Addison was not a good option, even if Jerry had a hard on for it.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Oct 25, 2012 -> 03:59 PM) Whatever their reason for it was (is it really that 35th & Shields story?), a big strike against this ballpark was permanently made when they built it facing away from the amazing view of one of the best skylines in the world. No matter how great the modifications and renovations over the years have been (and they have done wonders for the place), it'll never be as good as it could have been. I hate to use a stale meme, but this is a profoundly epic fail. that might have been the ONLY option as you have an expressway one block from the park on one side, and a train line one block on the other side. any potential "footprint moving" would have had to force redesigns of the ramps and exterior of the park. and as we all know the state cut the budget, the sox were probably not going to want to absorb the costs of rejiggering the park. oh, by the way, when the sox were drawing 2.8 million or higher(1991-1993, 2006), no one seemed to complain about the view. also, people weren't complaining about the skyline view when it was at old comiskey. you couldn't even see the skyline in the old park unless you were close to center field!

QUOTE (Paint it Black @ Oct 26, 2012 -> 12:33 PM) Is there an explination as to why this was not done? I just wish we could roll back the clock and put the stadium right in the south loop. How great would that have been? Simple. The STATE OF ILLINOIS said they had to stay at 35th/Shields. Mainly due to the fact that the infrastructure was already in place(2 cta lines, Dan Ryan). The Reinsdorf group never really looked at the South Loop. They wanted Addison. Also, the South Loop is STILL NOT designed well to accommodate 30-40k baseball fans a night for 6 months. The Roosevelt exit on the Ryan is gridlocked 18 hours a day as it is, and the Roosevelt cta station did not exist for the orange and green lines. Also, no one was really in the mood to sell it to the sox/state/city. Mostly because developers knew they could make MORE money with condos/stores. Point is, the South Loop, while a sexy choice to this day, is not a good fit. The sox would have similar problems drawing fans from the burbs. OH, and let's not forget that IF the sox built there in 1991, they would have been virtually alone in that area. The "scary black people" myth would haunt them there as it does in Armour Square.