Okay, it’s not actually literally true that nobody is going to Miami Marlins games. Some people, it turns out, will go so long as they don’t have to pay anything:
For a game against the Phillies, the Kendall couple accepted four free tickets from the Wellmax van driver who cruises local neighborhoods and hawks giveaways to promote the medical clinic. The Acevedos parked at a friend’s house near the stadium and ate dinner early at home. They plan to do it again during the homestand that starts Thursday against the Cubs.
Total expenditure: zero dollars.
Other ways to get into Marlins Park for free, according to the Miami Herald: test-drive a new car, buy a pizza, or visit a museum. The downside: You have to watch the Marlins.
They didn’t even leave a bottle of wine!
Cheap bastards. They ain’t parking at my house again.
The NBDL gave away scores of free tickets their first year. It worked so well they haven’t returned to the southeast since. WCW did this tactic, too. Yeah, “sports entertainment,” but the principle is the same: Freebies don’t work.
Yeah, Sacramento is a living, breathing example of why freebies don’t work.
They give away thousands of tickets to every game, and seats still sit unused. Really GOOD seats, 15 rows up from the floor.
What are the OFFICIAL attendance numbers at these games?
Really, for official tax purposes, I think the Feds should require sports teams to publish exactly how many people come to games. I’m not talking about tickets accounted for; I’m talking about butts accounted for.
As long as they keep officially demanding money from taxpayers, I think we should officially demand that they justify their work.
“As long as they keep officially demanding money from taxpayers, I think we should officially demand that they justify their work.”
But that presumes that these things are being subsidized because they’re a worthwhile community expenditure – an old-fashioned notion that teams themselves don’t even emphasize that much anymore. They demand money because we live in a world where this kind of extortion is rewarded. The most you’ll get is a promise to not move the team.
Wow, just wow. The Miami Marlins are such a JOKE. MLB should force Loria & Samson to sell the franchise and move it to another city. The way that they got a new stadium in Miami was based on deception and total lies. Loria & Samson give all their good players away by trades.
You know, Matt, that’s not as far fetched a notion as fans might think.
While Honest Al the used car salesman never met a subsidy he didn’t like, he (and the other owners) have to be going absolutely batshit at what Loria and the halfwit stepson are doing. Even if they don’t have the internal morals to be embarrassed by the Loria/Samson show, at very least the other owners have to be worried that someone so clearly stealing from their own customers will be a shocking example for other cities to point to when their owners (who may or may not have a moral compass themselves) come calling for upgrades or new stadia.
Maybe we’ve all been doing Loria an injustice. Maybe by being so utterly and completely shameless about his raids on the public coffers, Loria is actually trying to publicize and thus end this insane spiral of ever greater subsidy. You know, kind of like attempting to prove bridges are dangerous by throwing other people off of them. It’s a stretch to call it a public service… but….
The total exp of “zero dollars” only holds if the free ticket recipients aren’t actually Miami (Dade county?) residents. If they are, they are already paying plenty for the privilege of having a baseball team no-one wants to watch and an ownership group that makes smallpox carrying axe-murderers seem pleasant by comparison.
If MLB can use its antitrust exemption to regulate the movement of teams, I think it’s perfectly reasonable they could use that exemption to kick out certain owners, too.
Never thought I’d read a post here from Neil that would make me rethink the notion of curbing subsidies. This one did it for me.
Imagine if that dinner for four cost $30 in groceries from the store. And 2500 groups of 4 did that every game. Why, that adds up $75000 every game or $6.15M per season!
And none of this would be possible without the magic that is a billion dollar stadium funded by tax payers.
If Don Draper was writing an ad line for this:
“Marlins baseball! It’s what’s for dinner.”
Never understood comps. You get the merch/food revenue, but really, you’re just pissing off the people who actually bought tickets.
Then again, I guess the theory is you’re already at the bottom….