The Twins are going to increase capacity at Target Field, sort of.
They aren't adding seats, they're allowing people to stand all over the park.
A couple games ago, the announced attendance was over 40,000 - which surprised some, because the listed seating capacity for Target Field is 39,506.
"We could get 41,000 people in here if we really wanted to," said Dave St. Peter in an article from the Star Tribune (click Twins to Sell Standing room tickets for article).
Target Field does have many places for "standing-room only" around the ballpark. You saw a lot of that during the first few weeks of the season when the weather became less than desirable, especially during the night games.
It clogged the concourses, though. But it seems as though the Twins have worked all the details out and will be selling more standing-room tickets; and will also be installing more "drink-rails" around the stadium to accommodate more standing-room tickets being sold.
The Budweiser Party Deck out in left field, above the Administration Building has two spots for seating: there are more expensive "bar-rail" seats that are around $30-35 per game. Standing-room up on the Party Deck is $10-12.
Most of the seats up there go to groups, though. I believe the Twins were going to have single-game seats up there for select games. I checked with a ticket representative from the Twins; he tells me the single-game seats up in the Budweiser Deck are sold out for the season.
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Saturday, June 12, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
A problem of dishonesty
I couldn't think of another title, to be quite honest.
This morning in the Star Tribune, there is a story about handicapped seating at Target Field being sold, online, to people without disabilities. Click "A problem of dishonesty" for the story.
To my knowledge, new arenas, stadiums and ballparks must have wheelchair accessible seating available in most, if not all price levels. That includes the expensive seats too.
The Tribune reported this morning that ticket brokers buy handicapped accessible seats online and then sell them on other sites, Craigslist, eBay or what have you.
Kevin Smith of the Minnesota Twins was quoted in the article saying that the situation is "terrible" and it "will be fixed."
The Twins do make available to the public, usually on game day, accessible seating tickets that do not sell. I don't have a problem with that. As Smith also said in the article, there is no way to "police" how the tickets are sold, either over the phone or online. "You can't ask them to prove they're disabled" Smith continues. Which is true.
It certainly is a problem when the tickets are being obtained (legitimately or not)before game day, and then resold to people who certainly don't need them, making it difficult, if not impossible for those who do need those seats to get them. There actually was a story written about a disabled woman who had season tickets, and tried to obtain extra tickets for one game in that section for a couple friends. She was told by the Twins ticket office that they were sold out.
People sitting in her row told her, "we got these tickets on the Internet."
I will be interested to see how this situation is handled in the future.
This morning in the Star Tribune, there is a story about handicapped seating at Target Field being sold, online, to people without disabilities. Click "A problem of dishonesty" for the story.
To my knowledge, new arenas, stadiums and ballparks must have wheelchair accessible seating available in most, if not all price levels. That includes the expensive seats too.
The Tribune reported this morning that ticket brokers buy handicapped accessible seats online and then sell them on other sites, Craigslist, eBay or what have you.
Kevin Smith of the Minnesota Twins was quoted in the article saying that the situation is "terrible" and it "will be fixed."
The Twins do make available to the public, usually on game day, accessible seating tickets that do not sell. I don't have a problem with that. As Smith also said in the article, there is no way to "police" how the tickets are sold, either over the phone or online. "You can't ask them to prove they're disabled" Smith continues. Which is true.
It certainly is a problem when the tickets are being obtained (legitimately or not)before game day, and then resold to people who certainly don't need them, making it difficult, if not impossible for those who do need those seats to get them. There actually was a story written about a disabled woman who had season tickets, and tried to obtain extra tickets for one game in that section for a couple friends. She was told by the Twins ticket office that they were sold out.
People sitting in her row told her, "we got these tickets on the Internet."
I will be interested to see how this situation is handled in the future.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Can the Saints survive?
How many of you remember in 1993, when the Saint Paul Saints minor league baseball club took the field for the first time at Midway Stadium?
I vaguely remember it. Matter of fact, in 17 years, I've been to one Saints game (and having the best seats I've ever had for a sporting event, front row behind home plate). The Saints were a PR marvel back then.
Mike Veeck, son of Bill Veeck - who owned the Chicago White Sox at one point (those electronic pinwheels on the scoreboard at US Cellular Field...Bill's idea) owned the Saints along with funnyman Bill Murray.
They had promotions every night, massages in the bleachers, a live pig as a mascot (who has been replaced several times) among other quirky things. The major draw for the Saints was something the professional team across the river couldn't provide: outdoor baseball.
But, they are no longer the only outdoor game in town. So, can the Saints and their quirky PR stunts continue to get people through the turnstiles at Midway Stadium? According to an article the first week of May in the Star Tribune tickets are selling. The number they quoted in the article was just a little over 265,000.
The big disappointment for the Saints however, is group sales. Derek Sharrer, Saints executive vice-president says that groups "sheepishly say, 'we need to go check out Target Field.'" The early part of May, an exhibition game drew over 4,000 people; and that was with an evening low temperature of 40 degrees.
It might take a couple years, however, to see what the future holds for the Saints. Twins tickets are hard to come by, and people figure they can still see outdoor baseball, much cheaper than Target Field, just across the river at Midway Stadium.
I fear, however, that once the glow of Target Field wears off, and Twins attendance drops, Saints fans might take the chance and opt for the more expensive tickets to the newer ballpark. Financing for a replacement to Midway Stadium has died in the Minnesota Legislature the last couple years.
I also fear the same thing that happened to hockey around these parts could also happen. After the North Stars' departure for Dallas in 1993, the now-defunct International Hockey League awarded a franchise to play in the Saint Paul Civic Center (later replaced by the Xcel Energy Center). The new IHL team, the Moose, drew fairly good crowds in a market that suddenly found itself hockey-less.
The death nail was driven into the Moose, however in June of 1997 when the National Hockey League awarded a new franchise to begin play in 2000. Shortly after that announcement, the Moose headed north to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I have a nagging feeling that the Saints, in spite of their tremendous PR efforts, might succumb to the Twins' newer ballpark across the river, and depart for another market. We shall see....
I vaguely remember it. Matter of fact, in 17 years, I've been to one Saints game (and having the best seats I've ever had for a sporting event, front row behind home plate). The Saints were a PR marvel back then.
Mike Veeck, son of Bill Veeck - who owned the Chicago White Sox at one point (those electronic pinwheels on the scoreboard at US Cellular Field...Bill's idea) owned the Saints along with funnyman Bill Murray.
They had promotions every night, massages in the bleachers, a live pig as a mascot (who has been replaced several times) among other quirky things. The major draw for the Saints was something the professional team across the river couldn't provide: outdoor baseball.
But, they are no longer the only outdoor game in town. So, can the Saints and their quirky PR stunts continue to get people through the turnstiles at Midway Stadium? According to an article the first week of May in the Star Tribune tickets are selling. The number they quoted in the article was just a little over 265,000.
The big disappointment for the Saints however, is group sales. Derek Sharrer, Saints executive vice-president says that groups "sheepishly say, 'we need to go check out Target Field.'" The early part of May, an exhibition game drew over 4,000 people; and that was with an evening low temperature of 40 degrees.
It might take a couple years, however, to see what the future holds for the Saints. Twins tickets are hard to come by, and people figure they can still see outdoor baseball, much cheaper than Target Field, just across the river at Midway Stadium.
I fear, however, that once the glow of Target Field wears off, and Twins attendance drops, Saints fans might take the chance and opt for the more expensive tickets to the newer ballpark. Financing for a replacement to Midway Stadium has died in the Minnesota Legislature the last couple years.
I also fear the same thing that happened to hockey around these parts could also happen. After the North Stars' departure for Dallas in 1993, the now-defunct International Hockey League awarded a franchise to play in the Saint Paul Civic Center (later replaced by the Xcel Energy Center). The new IHL team, the Moose, drew fairly good crowds in a market that suddenly found itself hockey-less.
The death nail was driven into the Moose, however in June of 1997 when the National Hockey League awarded a new franchise to begin play in 2000. Shortly after that announcement, the Moose headed north to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
I have a nagging feeling that the Saints, in spite of their tremendous PR efforts, might succumb to the Twins' newer ballpark across the river, and depart for another market. We shall see....
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Did the Marlins make the right move?
Some of us have heard, and for some, it doesn't matter, but last Saturday, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies (Major League Baseball) pitched a perfect game against the Florida Marlins in Miami.
A perfect game in baseball is 27 batters up, 27 batters down. The feat has only been achieved in the MLB 20 times; however, it is the second perfect game this season (Dallas Braden had the other) and the third in the last calendar year.
It's what the Marlins are doing about this perfect game that has me a little confused. The game was played at SunLife Stadium. For those in Minnesota, it's like the Metrodome, without the roof. It's one of the few remaining "multi-purpose" stadiums that also serve as ballparks.
According to the Marlins website (click "Did the Marlins make the right move" for the article), the announced attendance was just over 25,000. To "commemorate" this occasion, the Marlins are selling the remaining tickets, online, for face value.
To me, this is a bad PR move by the Marlins. First, the Marlins didn't pitch the perfect game, the Phillies did.
Second, what is now likely to happen is that these "re-sold" tickets are going to go for a bundle on eBay and other online sites. Instead of creating a scarce memento, the Marlins are essentially crowding the market with tickets that were never used, and never sold for the actual game. If there's 58,000 tickets on the market, and 33,000 tickets weren't even used; it demeans the "rare" nature of a ticket for a rare occurrence.
Third, if anyone should get possession of the tickets, it should be the Phillies. I think the Marlins should have released the remaining tickets to the Phillies, and let them decide whether to resell them or not. Incidentally, because the Marlins are doing this, that will bump up the attendance for the game.
Marlins president David Sampson said this, "Any ticket revenue is part of revenue sharing and part of the local revenue. So it gets reported." So, essentially, they have to report these tickets as sold, even though more than half weren't even used for the game.
The ultimate solution, because a perfect game is such a rare occasion, the Marlins should have destroyed the remaining tickets, or left that decision to the Phillies, so as to put more of a collectible nature on the tickets that legitimately got people into the game; and weren't sold after the fact.
At any rate, there are now going to be 58,000 people who said "I was there when Halladay pitched that perfect game." And, unfortunately, they'll also have the ticket to prove it. What I am not sure of, is because of this, whether or not there was some sort of authentication given to the tickets that actually were scanned at the gates. Sometimes for special events or rare occasions, tickets can be stamped as a verification that they were in fact at the game.
As of right now, I am not sure whether the Marlins did this or not. Sadly, we will probably never know for sure.
A perfect game in baseball is 27 batters up, 27 batters down. The feat has only been achieved in the MLB 20 times; however, it is the second perfect game this season (Dallas Braden had the other) and the third in the last calendar year.
It's what the Marlins are doing about this perfect game that has me a little confused. The game was played at SunLife Stadium. For those in Minnesota, it's like the Metrodome, without the roof. It's one of the few remaining "multi-purpose" stadiums that also serve as ballparks.
According to the Marlins website (click "Did the Marlins make the right move" for the article), the announced attendance was just over 25,000. To "commemorate" this occasion, the Marlins are selling the remaining tickets, online, for face value.
To me, this is a bad PR move by the Marlins. First, the Marlins didn't pitch the perfect game, the Phillies did.
Second, what is now likely to happen is that these "re-sold" tickets are going to go for a bundle on eBay and other online sites. Instead of creating a scarce memento, the Marlins are essentially crowding the market with tickets that were never used, and never sold for the actual game. If there's 58,000 tickets on the market, and 33,000 tickets weren't even used; it demeans the "rare" nature of a ticket for a rare occurrence.
Third, if anyone should get possession of the tickets, it should be the Phillies. I think the Marlins should have released the remaining tickets to the Phillies, and let them decide whether to resell them or not. Incidentally, because the Marlins are doing this, that will bump up the attendance for the game.
Marlins president David Sampson said this, "Any ticket revenue is part of revenue sharing and part of the local revenue. So it gets reported." So, essentially, they have to report these tickets as sold, even though more than half weren't even used for the game.
The ultimate solution, because a perfect game is such a rare occasion, the Marlins should have destroyed the remaining tickets, or left that decision to the Phillies, so as to put more of a collectible nature on the tickets that legitimately got people into the game; and weren't sold after the fact.
At any rate, there are now going to be 58,000 people who said "I was there when Halladay pitched that perfect game." And, unfortunately, they'll also have the ticket to prove it. What I am not sure of, is because of this, whether or not there was some sort of authentication given to the tickets that actually were scanned at the gates. Sometimes for special events or rare occasions, tickets can be stamped as a verification that they were in fact at the game.
As of right now, I am not sure whether the Marlins did this or not. Sadly, we will probably never know for sure.
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