Thursday, May 09, 2013
Washington Post: Red Carpet Rewards Loses Its Luster For Some Nationals Fans
(www.washingtonpost.com)
posted on May 09, 2013 at 06:16 PM by The Yankee Clapper to attendance, economics, tickets, washington nationals
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5 comment(s)
Read More...But with no preseason notice, the Nationals front office for the 2013 season significantly diluted the Red Carpet Rewards program, and the number of points needed to buy extra benefits increased dramatically. For example, a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, May 25, costs 1,000 Red Carpet points for a field MVP or club seat, which is 10 times what it cost last year. The Nationals also shortened the window in which tickets can be redeemed ahead of time to one month; last year ...
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1. Harveys Wallbangersthanks for the hard work
regarding the reds there are parking lots around the stadium that range from $15-$25.
I note in the column that half the teams now include the con. fee in the ticket price when you first check their site. That's nice, but when I first go on and see their prices, I figure it's that price plus the con. fee & all the rest. I'm just so used to seeing it added on that I always figure to add on X-dollars to a ticket price, so if they put that extra price in the ticket they might drive people away because they think prices are more expensive than they are. This already happened to me this year with the WHite Sox.
I might be overthinking ths. After all, I spend more time looking at this than about anyone else.
Thus processing fees and convenience fees.
People must also love gas prices.
I understand that you're annoyed with the tack on fees, but any major league team who bundled all the costs together would cost themselves money.
People make purchases based on the sticker price, and they are bad at understanding secondary surcharges.
For all the ########, people don't change their behavior until gas goes over $4.00 per gallon.
and before that it was 1 dollar. and then it was 2 dollars. once something becomes accepted folks don't grouse.
I don't understand why people are blaming the teams. The teams are acting rationally. People make purchasing decisions based on ticket costs, rather than the final price--as long as the concession/convenience fee doesn't get too crazy.
I guarantee you that if there were two websites, one with the costs all folded in to the initial price, and one with the costs separated out, and these two websites provided absolutely 100% equal service and product, the one with costs separated out would do better. People are bad at math.
Yep. I see this all the time in the hotel business. You get some family that bought their tickets online from Orbitz or some such place and when they get to the hotel they are shocked, shocked I tell you, that they have to pay to park, and the internet isn't free, and breakfast costs $21 each. If a hotel had included that in their room price then they wouldn't have been listed near the top and you wouldn't have chosen them. Instead you would have chosen some other hotel that didn't include its parking fees, internet fees, and so on and so on.
If the consumer wasn't so lazy at the initial stages of buying you'd get a more open system.
I always thought that it was pure gravy for the broker (i.e., Ticketmaster). I think that's the way it was years ago, anyway. Walking up to a window at the ballpark and buying advance tickets: can you even do that anymore?
And yeah, as these things go, it doesn't bother me that much. Is it worth $10 to me to have the ticket emailed to me in a convenient form? Yeah, probably. Someone has to be compensated for that. I suppose it would be nice if the teams handled it themselves, as they would probably do it for less -- wait a minute, would they? -- but it's a service that I want that deserves compensation.
Variable pricing
Yes, and at Turner Field, at least, there is no service charge for doing so. But going to the park during work hours is a hassle for most people.
That's been around other places for a ways now. I think the Brewers, White Sox & Cubs began it - or at the very least they were near the forefront of it. I wanna say they went that direction maybe 7-8 years ago.
Yes, and at Turner Field, at least, there is no service charge for doing so. But going to the park during work hours is a hassle for most people.
Huh. A year or two ago a reader told me the Braves recently instituted a new policy where they'll charge you an extra cost for buying a ticket at the park the day of the game.
The new scourge is the dynamic ticket systems (as opposed to just tiered games), I'm not sure how dynamic the Braves one mentioned above is, but in hockey they're terrible. It would be all well and good if they were actually a market, but for example, when the Caps introduced the system last year they set a price floor, and the floor is at least 10% higher than the flat price from the previous year.
DCN is how I appreviate the Washington DC Nationals. Looking back, I should've realized that my abbreviations don't always align with standard team abbreviations.
It was just that I was scanning through looking for W and never found it, then the MYM really threw me.
That's correct, gameday seats are a couple dollars more. If you buy tickets for future games at the box office, there is no extra fee; you pay only the face value.
I found some of the team abbreviations to be "creative". I've seen WAS, WSH, and WSN. Their road jerseys say DC so there's that.
Nobody who resides in D.C. for more than 5 minutes calls it Washington, it's usually the District. "If you're inbound on 66 this afternoon, the traffic is awful getting into the District."
They should just use this as a permanent part of every traffic broadcast and save wear and tear on the announcer. It's definitely a "water continues to be wet" type statement.
Now, eight bucks for a beer that should cost no more than four, THAT I consider price gouging. I'm truly amazed that anyone is willing to pay that, but obviously enough people are, or the price would go down.
if you are stating that buyers don't factor bag fees into the equation i disagree. there is data showing not only awareness but purchasing decisions as it relates to bag fees. when they first came out then yes, the buyers did not adjust. now they have adjusted.
bag fees have garnered so much attention only the most casual flyer lacks awareness. southwest has made it a central part of their marketing effort.
as to ticket fees there i do agree because again, only the hard core entertainment user has a deep understanding of said ticket fees.
I've had pretty good luck just up and going to the ballpark at the spur of the moment. Sometimes I'll buy from people who appear to be legitimate sellers of excess tickets, or just walk up to the window and pay face value, so I shortcut the convenience fees that way. It's worked out pretty well for me. I have yet to visit the Marlins' new park so I don't know if they pull any of that big team same-day nonsense, maybe I'll go one of these days.
Now this is a much better example of price gouging--especially since you're not allowed to bring in beer.
Bag fees have become such a hot button issue and like you said a major airline carrier is using it as part of their marketing campaign that it is no longer a "hidden fee". Everybody on the planet knows to look into baggage fees before they buy a ticket. But hidden fees still work. They just have to change what it is they are charging for.
The Pope is glad to hear that you are not abusing yourself.
And they were cheaper on StubHub. I saved about $5 a ticket.
I've been going to a game about once every two weeks thanks to stubhub and even when the stubhub fees I'm saving at least half on my purchases.
I disagree. Anecdotally, I never saw any kind of willingness to pay a higher fare in exchange for free bags. So many people have credit cards that give them free bags anyways, it rarely makes a difference to the consumer.
That and Memorial Day Weekend were the only times I've ordered tickets online this season. We've found we save a few bucks getting walk up tickets.
Scratch that, my memory is bad. They were the same price, we just happened to stumble onto some deals that were cheaper than Stub Hub.
I really don't know what this means in regards to this conversation or how it is a disagree stance. I've never brought up a willingness to pay a higher fare in exchange for free bags nor is what you are quoting about that at all.
The fees work out to be the same in the end, probably because they raised the online fee rates since then. The $10 Monday tickets are $10 when you walk up. I went to the 15-13 game against the Phillies, which was a "F" game on the flex chart for the same price the Colorado "F" games are in September.
It can be even cheaper than that. The parking lot under Fountain Square is $5 after 6pm and, I think, all weekend. That's a 5 minute walk from the stadium. I believe the Banks, which is right next door to the stadium, has parking for $8.
As for the parking at Reds games the smart move is the $2 garage at Newport on the Levee followed by a beautiful walk over the bridge.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm fairly certain that eBay pricing has been studied and conclusively shows that when the end price is the same, people almost always "prefer" the lower, shipping-not-included price over the shipping-included price.
Eliminating the "business expense" deduction would also mean far fewer advance sellouts, thus freeing up more tickets for actual game day sales. You'd still have to buy tickets in advance for some of the truly big games, but the supply would be a lot more plentiful and the prices would have to come down.
The only downside I can see would be that with fewer season tickets out there, there would be fewer last minute StubHub bargains. But the overall effect would definitely be positive.
Fat chance of this ever happening as long as corporations have a stranglehold on both parties, but that's another story.
That's great to know, since MLBAM is a limited partnership of the club owners themselves.
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