This whole Oakland A’s ownership tries to burn down the roster while simultaneously demanding a billion dollars in public money thing just keeps going worse and worse. In the latest twist, team execs are floating trading off their best young players like Matt Olson and Matt Chapman while also hiking ticket prices:
Though three decades as a season ticket holder, the A’s leanest years far outweighed the franchise’s triumphs. A move to southern California to take care of her ailing mother limited her baseball watching time, too. But her fandom never wavered: Kahn always made sure to renew her season tickets.
But doubled season ticket prices for 2022 without any explanation from A’s management was the final straw for Kahn, 70, who called her longtime ticket representative at the A’s and said she would not renew.
Wait, hold on, what was that?
But doubled season ticket prices for 2022
That’s right, doubled! As in second-deck seats behind home plate jumped from $30 apiece to $60 apiece. This after the team finished second to last in MLB attendance in 2021, at a stadium that team officials have publicly decried as a dump. There seems to be no possible way this could get any more shameful.
Adding salt to the wound, the Sept. 22 email asked fans to renew by Oct. 1 — one week later — for a chance to watch a game in a complimentary suite and a free Matt Olson jersey.
“Matt Olson jersey? Are you kidding? Matt Olson might not even be with the team in April,” she said.
I stand corrected.
The question I asked last time still stands: Given that this is crunch time for A’s owner John Fisher to woo local elected officials to back his $855 million–or-maybe–$1 billion stadium infrastructure subsidy plan, what the hell is he thinking, raising ticket prices while gutting his roster of its best and most popular players? Sure, he may not have to win a public vote — oh yeah, turns out that the city spokesperson who told Hyphenated Republic that some of the A’s infrastructure bond would require a two-thirds public vote now says it would just require a council vote, still not sure what to make of that — but still one would think he would want A’s fans calling their elected reps to beg them to keep the team in town, not to run it out of town on a rail.
It’s almost like Fisher is re-enacting the plot of Major League and trying to get everyone to hate the team so much that he can move it to Miami, except that there’s already a team in Miami now, and while he could move the team to Las Vegas, Las Vegas is a lot smaller than Miami, and he loses leverage if he burns his bridges in Oakland before negotiating with Las Vegas, and for that matter the only team that finished with worse attendance than Oakland this year was — you guessed it — Miami, so maybe the movie-fictional grass isn’t always greener? As for Las Vegas, it’s a desert, it doesn’t even have grass. (Or many people. Or maybe, soon, any water or summer days under 105º.)
Maybe the most important lesson here is that billionaires may have all the advantages that come with lots of money and lobbyists, but that doesn’t necessarily make them smart. Unless maybe his apparent lack of guile is a sign that he’s really the smartest one of all … no wait, that’s a different movie.
Interesting approach those A’s have. At least Bud Selig did it the right way when he owned the Brewers. He let County Stadium crumble, had a bare bones roster, cut every corner to the point at one game I attended they ran out of soda dispensers and had to get liter bottles of soda which they poured into to Dixie cups. He was the master of the new stadium con but at least ticket prices were fair.
Here is mayor Goodman’s last comment on getting the A’s. “Wherever the Oakland A’s end up, they need a new ballpark as RingCentral Coliseum opened its doors all the way back in 1966. We’ve had good meetings with the team, and we wish them the best of luck in their pursuit of a new ballpark wherever it may be located.”
Did you notice the last sentence Neil? Does that sound like Las Vegas is all that interested? Wouldn’t you say “Las Vegas is the solution” or something like that not “Best of Luck”
I think you’re maybe overparsing her specific phrasing a bit. More important evidence is that neither Goodman nor anyone else has even hinted at where a stadium would go or how it would be paid for — hell, Nashville has stadium renderings, and it doesn’t even have a team interested in playing there. Either Goodman is playing things very close to the vest, which is not normally her style, or she’s waiting to see what happens with Howard Terminal before taking any move seriously.
Did you also notice MG that Mayor Goodman is the mayor of Las Vegas PROPER; not unincorporated Clark County, where (Save for maybe Summerlin?) the top ballpark sites are located for the A’s. So I wouldn’t put too much stock in what Goodman has to say about the A’s at this point.
So Neil, nearly (or perhaps more than) $1 BILLION in potential public financing for this HT boondoggle…AND NO PUBLIC VOTE WHATSOEVER?! From either Oakland or AlCo voters/citizens?! Heads would be flying off bodies if this were occurring down here in $an Jo$e/Santa Clara County! Amazing what happens when you cross the Alameda County line.
It’s state law regarding limited obligation bonds, nothing to do with the county it takes place in.
I will say that Fisher (or maybe Schaaf) is being smart about coming up with ways to spend public money that don’t require a public vote, which is tough in California. Whether the bonds will actually provide enough revenue to pay for everything is another story, but I guess it’ll be too late by then, right?
Tough in California is right! That’s why I’m saying this would never fly here in SCCo/$J, even if bonds didn’t technically require a public vote. I’m surprised there’s no outcry coming from residents in Oakland/AlCo; but then again, perhaps the media isn’t covering that aspect of this fiasco. HT isn’t happening anyway, so perhaps this is all a moot point that makes for good discussion,
“It’s almost like Fisher is re-enacting the plot of Major League”
I humbly suggest you might have included a superfluous “almost” in there, Neil. That’s exactly what he’s doing, bar the destination (and attractive owner). Maybe that’s why Melvin had to go, so James Gammon can – oh, wait…
It’s the sports cartel member’s version of constructive dismissal.
Or Lorianomics, as previously suggested.
We have a case of shoddy journalism here by the Merc News.
A’s full season tickets in the second level behind home plate are listed on the A’s site at $43/game for the 2022 season, even for the second row of the section. (Front row shows as unavailable.)
So the Merc News’ phrasing is actually a bit odd here:
“Tickets for a single game in her section 217, the second deck behind home plate, Kahn used to re-sell for $30 pre-pandemic. With new pricing, she would have to sell for $60 in 2022.”
Maybe there are some additional fees, either on buying or selling, that would force her to sell at $60 to recoup $43? I’ll see if I can find out from the reporter.
Either way, the issue here is the size of the price hike, not the nominal cost. Anyone know what season tickets for those seats went for in 2021? (Or 2020, if we want to discount the plague year.)
StubHub, which is MLB’s official resale partner (or at least was in 2019; haven’t checked since), charges 15%.
I think the former season ticket holder quoted in the article was straight up exaggerating, and the journo acted as the former STH’s publicist because she wanted a clickbait quote.
I hope the A’s get a new ballpark because it will fix everything like with the Marlins…
Raising the prices only sets up the , “it’s the lack of support excuse”, to justify a move to Las Vegas. The A’s will say they tried hard but the support in Oakland was just not there. Basically, blame the fans for the move.
I still say do the Shea Stadium/Citi Field method for a new stadium in Oakland. Build on the existing parking lot and when compete, demolish the old stadium and use that land for parking or ball park village or luxury condos. The site already has mass transit, the thing that ever other owner cries about when they want a new stadium. If memory serves, it had a pretty nice view from the seats before Mt Davis.
I’d love for them to build in the Coli parking lot too, as highway and BART access makes it so easy for me (as a San Jose resident) to attend games. Thinking about the hassle to go downtown and walk however far from the nearest station is really unpleasant However, the A’s don’t want to build there and MLB doesn’t want them to build there, so it’s just not going to happen.
I wonder if Billy Beane held on to Sandy Alderson’s phone number. As soon as he said he was not interested in the Mets job, Melvin went to San Diego for nothing and the team is doing everything in it’s power to challenge the 1962 Mets record.
Imagine if he pulls off another winning team in Oakland after this. They will raise his value another notch while getting fired because it will put a dent in the plans. A bad Oakland team would be a bargaining wedge to say no support in Oakland and for someone else to pay for the cost of a new ball park where ever they go.
Seems they’re using the same math Miami is. If I sell 1,000 seats for $10, or 100 seats for $100, my gross is the same.
And if people are willing to shell out the hundo, they’re willing to buy more concessions, so I make more. AmIRight?
Actually, if you sell fewer tickets for a higher price, you have to employ fewer concessions workers, ticket takers, etc., so you earn more money. But you also probably sell fewer beers, because people who are 10x as rich don’t drink 10x as much. So not sure how the math actually works.
It’s some kind of weird math at least a few sports teams use.
I’m with you that it doesn’t work, I was being a little sarcastic…but somehow these owners think it will.
Maybe it helps elsewhere on the balance sheet or in taxes or in additional grifting?
I’m thinking about what you wrote. In addition, utilities will be lower because you will not have as many people using the rest rooms. You will not need to keep as many concession stands running, they already close off the upper deck so savings there, as well as less game day people and so on.
The big money saver could be if they shut down Mt Davis completely. Keep it dark with just the field lights illuminating it.
This could be Expos II with the difference, MLB will not be stepping in this time to take over the team. How long before they try remote home games as Montreal did? They could have remote games in Las Vegas, Louisville, Portland. Minor league parks with MLB updates, (i.e. Blue Jays in Buffalo), This will zap even more people away from Oakland and lay the ground work that they have to move and someone is waiting with open arms, (Las Vegas), to fund a ball park for them.
The current trend of high end sports franchises building smaller (in terms of fan capacity) but higher cost facilities over the past couple of decades would suggest that the owners have already figured out the math.
I recall hearing an owner of a non-juggernaut sports franchise say many years ago that “the thing with the last 8,000 seats is that we don’t make much money on them, so why spend an additional $50m – as it then was – to build them?” Why not just build a 35-40k stadium and spend the additional money on new ways to get more revenue out of the wealthier fans.
Pro sports in general have been moving decidedly upmarket over the last three decades. It is no longer the entertainment for the working man/woman who saves their pennies and buys a cheap ticket for three hours on a Sunday.
I find myself wondering if this trend will continue? Will it lead eventually to 10-12,000 seat stadia in which the tickets start at $500 and are available only to pre-screened and/or selected customers? Will games, as Neil has suggested, eventually be played in what amounts to air conditioned HD TV studios?
While the rest of us pay $20-25 to watch each game in our own living rooms on our own TVs. Still trying to figure out how they will make us pay extra for nachos and beer that we buy ourselves and stock in our own kitchens, but I’m sure they’ll come up with something.
Of course the average taxpayer will still have to pay for these right sized facilities that they aren’t allowed to enter) as “you might lose ‘your’ team if you don’t”
Excellent thought JB.