2 hours ago, 77 Hitmen said:

When Jerry and Eddie bought the Sox, within a year, they moved a vast majority of Sox games to Pay TV with a monthly subscription fee of between $15-$21. That's in 1982 dollars - that would be between $50-$70/month in today's dollars.

When Jerry got New Comiskey built, he saw to it that the design focused on premium/corporate customers as he had three levels of luxury seats/suites inserted between the lower and upper deck with the 500 level upper deck comprising of about 45% of the stadium's seats.

As you said, the reason why Sox tickets have been a relative bargain in the last few years is because the team has been so bad that they couldn't get enough people to want to come to the games. The upper deck seats, with the exception of perhaps the upper deck box (which aren't that bad), are affordable because they're lousy seats and a tough sell.

1) I always thought the Sportsvision/Pay TV channel flopped because the Chicagoland area was not wired for cable at the time. 2) I've always thought that the building the stadium at the present location where they did and the terrible stadium design was the biggest mistake of JRs ownership. Having 45% of the seats in the upper deck was crazy. Its simply too high up there. I'm hoping the new stadium design is much better than the present one.

1 minute ago, WBWSF said:

Having 45% of the seats in the upper deck was crazy. Its simply too high up there. I'm hoping the new stadium design is much better than the present one.

…especially when the upper deck is cut off from the rest of the stadium experience by guards. I like the current park but really hate the upper/lower caste system.

42 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

1) I always thought the Sportsvision/Pay TV channel flopped because the Chicagoland area was not wired for cable at the time. 2) I've always thought that the building the stadium at the present location where they did and the terrible stadium design was the biggest mistake of JRs ownership. Having 45% of the seats in the upper deck was crazy. Its simply too high up there. I'm hoping the new stadium design is much better than the present one.

39 minutes ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

…especially when the upper deck is cut off from the rest of the stadium experience by guards. I like the current park but really hate the upper/lower caste system.

Yes, that was the major problem with it. Chicago was one of the last cities in the US to be wired for cable and as of 1982 and 1983, the city itself was not wired though some suburbs were starting to get wired at that time. This meant that SportsVision was provided through a scrambled image on a broadcast TV station (Channel 60), which is much more expensive to launch and operate than creating a new basic cable channel. Even when SportsVision moved to basic cable after a couple of years, they kept charging for it as a premium cable service. It wasn't until a few years later that it finally became a basic cable channel.

As far as the upper deck, i believe the Sox finally did away with the upper deck restriction policy within the last couple of years. Even without the draconian policy, the 100 and 500 levels really feel far apart. In other newer ballparks i've been to, you can get to the next level of seats by either one quick escalator ride or a short flight of stars. At Rate Field, I'm not sure if they even have the escalators going downward during the game, so it's a long series of ramps to get down to the 100 level.

44 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

Having 45% of the seats in the upper deck was crazy. Its simply too high up there. I'm hoping the new stadium design is much better than the present one.

42 minutes ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

…especially when the upper deck is cut off from the rest of the stadium experience by guards. I like the current park but really hate the upper/lower caste system.

And, to add insult to injury, they couldn’t even be bothered to orient the stadium to have a view of the skyline, a view which would directly benefit the experience from the 500 level! If fans can’t go down to the main concourse’s level, at least give them a decent view!

I actually like the current park, but there are so, so many aspects of it that were robbed of a silver lining. Despite what the ISFA is wishing for, reasons like these are why there is zero chance the Sox stay at Rate Field as-is.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Mouthsider

18 minutes ago, 77 Hitmen said:

Yes, that was the major problem with it. Chicago was one of the last cities in the US to be wired for cable and as of 1982 and 1983, the city itself was not wired though some suburbs were starting to get wired at that time. This meant that SportsVision was provided through a scrambled image on a broadcast TV station (Channel 60), which is much more expensive to launch and operate than creating a new basic cable channel. Even when SportsVision moved to basic cable after a couple of years, they kept charging for it as a premium cable service. It wasn't until a few years later that it finally became a basic cable channel.

As far as the upper deck, i believe the Sox finally did away with the upper deck restriction policy within the last couple of years. Even without the draconian policy, the 100 and 500 levels really feel far apart. In other newer ballparks i've been to, you can get to the next level of seats by either one quick escalator ride or a short flight of stars. At Rate Field, I'm not sure if they even have the escalators going downward during the game, so it's a long series of ramps to get down to the 100 level.

From my story on the history of SportsVision:

"Over time both Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf commented on SportsVision, the idea, the execution and the aftermath; Einhorn in particular defended the decision telling Logan, “If you want people to come, you can’t give the product away. That’s the way it’s been done everywhere else except Chicago for years. The best organizations, the ones that draw the most people at the gate, don’t go that way. They have limited TV.” 

Reinsdorf though understood the reality of the situation when in 2004 at a luncheon promoting the start of the new Comcast Sports Network-Chicago regional channel he said, "Unfortunately, Chicago wasn't ready for us. There wasn't cable of any consequence, and we were on subscription pay-TV. I don't remember how many subscribers there were, but I know that more than that number went to Radio Shack and bought the parts for their own boxes." 

How to sum up the experiment known as SportsVision? 

Well you could do a lot worse than to say, ‘A brilliant idea that simply was ahead of its time, limited by historical factors as well as technological shortcomings.’

2 hours ago, 35thstreetswarm said:

…especially when the upper deck is cut off from the rest of the stadium experience by guards. I like the current park but really hate the upper/lower caste system.

Me too