18 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

My ticket rep is already gone. She didn't even make it through one offseason. Yikes.

Out of curiosity  who was your rep?

1 hour ago, ThirdGen said:

Out of curiosity  who was your rep?

Natalia. She replaced my last rep, Colin, who I had for years and was very good. Not saying she was bad, but I never had any issues with Colin and he never tried to upsell me.

14 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

If we see any four digit numbers for April and early May, we’ll definitely know why the payroll is trending in the Guaranteed Rate downward direction.

I would say that's the base case. 100% the partial season tickets will drop. I can see that number halving. The full season base sometimes are locked up as corporate expenses + are generally less up & down. But even if that number drops 10% you're going to see single digits. 

If this year doesn't go well? Then you're likely headed for a "retooling" of the roster. Guys like Giolito will be gone. Hendriks, Lynn, Anderson, etc. etc will all be dealt and then you'll see that number really be tested. It's a dark road ahead if we have a poor season this year. If we win? Maybe Jerry & fans decide to rededicate themselves to the process for a year or two more. 

9 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Natalia. She replaced my last rep, Colin, who I had for years and was very good. Not saying she was bad, but I never had any issues with Colin and he never tried to upsell me.

Generally the reps I've talked to are pretty nice/respectful. They're doing their job at the end of the day. Just sucks they're basically Comcast door to door salesman at this point. Nobody wants the product and have a bad taste in their mouth at the outset of the convo. 

12 minutes ago, he gone. said:

I would say that's the base case. 100% the partial season tickets will drop. I can see that number halving. The full season base sometimes are locked up as corporate expenses + are generally less up & down. But even if that number drops 10% you're going to see single digits. 

If this year doesn't go well? Then you're likely headed for a "retooling" of the roster. Guys like Giolito will be gone. Hendriks, Lynn, Anderson, etc. etc will all be dealt and then you'll see that number really be tested. It's a dark road ahead if we have a poor season this year. If we win? Maybe Jerry & fans decide to rededicate themselves to the process for a year or two more. 

Partial plan people are the White Sox lifers that are looking to lock in on their games and seats.  Price isn't as big an issue. 

I get them to guarantee Opening day, go to 10-20 games and then there are playoff options.

 

9 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

Natalia. She replaced my last rep, Colin, who I had for years and was very good. Not saying she was bad, but I never had any issues with Colin and he never tried to upsell me.

Thanks, my rep sounded like she was regretting her career choice the last time we spoke. Really felt sorry for her but I think she understands what is happening here didn't seem shocked I was dumping my seats.

5 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Partial plan people are the White Sox lifers that are looking to lock in on their games and seats.  Price isn't as big an issue. 

I get them to guarantee Opening day, go to 10-20 games and then there are playoff options.

 

The last point is the reason why I’ve bought packages.  But you can get those playoff options by purchasing a package at the end of a successful/playoff season too, which incentivizes fans to take a wait-and-see approach (which is what I’m doing this year.) Until they sustain winning and actually have regular sellouts, though, season tix will be a tough sell.

Also got a new rep after about 3 months of one. Also don't know anyone who had seat plans last year who renewed. Looking appropriately rough.

But it's really hard to have anything but antipathy toward that ownership/front office group. 

24 minutes ago, ThirdGen said:

Thanks, my rep sounded like she was regretting her career choice the last time we spoke. Really felt sorry for her but I think she understands what is happening here didn't seem shocked I was dumping my seats.

For what they are paid, and for the grief they are probably getting from Sox fans, they are better off pretty much working anywhere else.

18 minutes ago, Harry Chappas said:

Partial plan people are the White Sox lifers that are looking to lock in on their games and seats.  Price isn't as big an issue. 

I get them to guarantee Opening day, go to 10-20 games and then there are playoff options.

 

I definitely see your point of view and was one I did for a handful of seasons. I also tend to disagree with it after those handful of years. The carrot definitely were/are the Opening Day access, same seats, playoff options, etc. That said, where I disagree is that you can go online today and get seats 20 rows behind the 1st base dugout for Opening Day. As mentioned by people above, more and more people can wait to see how the season is going and then lock in playoff tickets if they're doing well. I also was apart of a group that had incredible seats, but I only took about a dozen of the 81 games, so when it came to playoff access, although they had every game I was only guaranteed on Divisional game. I went online and was able to get all possible games for the ALCS And ALDS (in 2021) and most of my seat locations were in that same range of 15-20 rows behind the 1st base or 3rd base dugouts. After i saw that, I just said to myself, why am I locking into random dates of games months ahead of time, forking over thousands of dollars? I was generally unhappy with the situation. 

The carrot isn't as sexy when you have access regardless of your season tickets. The way I look at it is I can apply the money saved on a 10, 15, 20 game plan and just apply it to great seats a few regular season games and then just spend it on playoff games. Also, from a business angle, I couldn't find anybody who wanted to go in 2022. I was eating like $400 of seats a game cause I couldn't find anybody who had interest. 2021 was great, 2022 was a disaster and i suspect 2023 will be even tougher to get clients to a game. 

In the pre Stubhub days ticket brokers were the main way to get good seats and they took advantage of their insider access by doubling or tripling face price. In Illinois the brokers were protected by laws making the resale of tickets without a license illegal. Not quite a monopoly for them but damn close.

Online markets have made the resale process transparent and available to all which has forced the prices on good seats down dramatically on the secondary market. Not good for teams in general as the free marketplace makes having season tickets to access good seats at a reasonable price no longer necessary or even cost effective.

35 minutes ago, ThirdGen said:

In the pre Stubhub days ticket brokers were the main way to get good seats and they took advantage of their insider access by doubling or tripling face price. In Illinois the brokers were protected by laws making the resale of tickets without a license illegal. Not quite a monopoly for them but damn close.

Online markets have made the resale process transparent and available to all which has forced the prices on good seats down dramatically on the secondary market. Not good for teams in general as the free marketplace makes having season tickets to access good seats at a reasonable price no longer necessary or even cost effective.

Yes -- I was honestly shocked at the per-seat/per-game cost of season tickets.  Even though I knew the secondary market had changed things dramatically I figured I'd get *some* meaningful "volume discount."  Not at all.  I was paying about $35/seat for lower-bowl tickets, which was definitely below single-game "face value" but above what the secondary market commanded for 70-80% of the games.  It was only a bargain for the Cubs series, really. 

40 minutes ago, ThirdGen said:

the free marketplace makes having season tickets to access good seats at a reasonable price no longer necessary or even cost effective.

This. I lost my shirt on tickets last year. 

End of the day, the only tickets that hold value seem to be weekend games. 

4 minutes ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

Yes -- I was honestly shocked at the per-seat/per-game cost of season tickets.  Even though I knew the secondary market had changed things dramatically I figured I'd get *some* meaningful "volume discount."  Not at all.  I was paying about $35/seat for lower-bowl tickets, which was definitely below single-game "face value" but above what the secondary market commanded for 70-80% of the games.  It was only a bargain for the Cubs series, really. 

The seats that seem to hold the best value relative to their ticket price are the outfield seats. The casual fan whos attending a game seems to gravitate out there. They're cheap enough, are lower bowl access, have the fundamentals deck, room to roam around, things to do, etc. They seem to keep that value in the $25-35 range which is about the cost of the seats.

I was getting about 40-50% of my cost on the 1st base line. I was just flushing money down the drain. A corporation can eat that cost, individuals cannot. 

33 minutes ago, he gone. said:

The seats that seem to hold the best value relative to their ticket price are the outfield seats. The casual fan whos attending a game seems to gravitate out there. They're cheap enough, are lower bowl access, have the fundamentals deck, room to roam around, things to do, etc. They seem to keep that value in the $25-35 range which is about the cost of the seats.

I was getting about 40-50% of my cost on the 1st base line. I was just flushing money down the drain. A corporation can eat that cost, individuals cannot. 

True - tough for a casual fan to justify spending extra for box seats when you can usually buy cheap bleacher tix and go sit there anyway if you want.  My kids and I bounced around from open seat to open seat almost every game.  We sat right behind home plate all the time. Unlike Wrigley you don't have to battle the straw hatted geriatric enforcement squad to get down every aisle

On 2/8/2023 at 12:30 PM, 35thstreetswarm said:

Does the org publish season ticket numbers anywhere or at any point?  I'd be curious to see how big the dropoff.

You’d only see something if they sold out of FSE(full season equivalent) tickets. And they haven’t done that since 2006

What the living bleep?

 

3 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

What the living bleep?

 

Does not surprise me one bit, One of the things I enjoy praised Jerry and the Sox for was being able to walk up to the gate the day of the game and being able to get a ticket for free for being in the military. They did away with that this season apparently. It’s not the fact that I can’t afford the ticket, I pour hundreds of dollars each year into additional tickets/Sox gear for myself and my kids, but it was nice to see the appreciation from the Sox to not only give a discount but to be generous enough to give my ticket on the house essentially. So having ticket reps trying to bash other fans for not renewing does not surprise me in the slightest. 

1 hour ago, Vote4Pedro said:

Does not surprise me one bit, One of the things I enjoy praised Jerry and the Sox for was being able to walk up to the gate the day of the game and being able to get a ticket for free for being in the military. They did away with that this season apparently. It’s not the fact that I can’t afford the ticket, I pour hundreds of dollars each year into additional tickets/Sox gear for myself and my kids, but it was nice to see the appreciation from the Sox to not only give a discount but to be generous enough to give my ticket on the house essentially. So having ticket reps trying to bash other fans for not renewing does not surprise me in the slightest. 

The arrogance flows down from ownership and it permeates the entire organization. "WE know what we're doing, how DARE you criticize us..."