Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dynamic Ticket Pricing Comes to Dodger Stadium

The Dodgers announced tickets would go on sale March 6, and Kevin Roderick of LA Observed has broken down this year's price changes:

  • Friday & Saturday games will be $2-3 more expensive.
  • The cheapest same-day ticket will be up $4 to $15.
  • "And by dropping $20 off the rear rows on the field level (to $100) and the advance price for the all-you-can-eat seats in right field (by $5 to $30) the Dodgers are able to say the new adjustments only increase the average ticket price by 75 cents. In all, prices went up on about 35% of seats."
  • Tickets to games against the Yankees are only available in packages.

That's okay, no one wants to see the Yankees play anyway. The Giants started dynamic ticket pricing last year, and it must have worked. Expect to hear nary a peep from Dodger fans as three million of them happily pay these new prices.

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6 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

they did that at new Shea as well. They had tickets in categories along the lines of platinum (opening day, Yankees), gold (Dodgers, Phils, Cubs maybe), silver (the rest) and i think pewter (for mid-week Padres games)

drewdez said...

Actual dynamic ticket pricing is not the evil it's made out to be; it can actually lead to more affordable options, especially at the low end of the ticket price spectrum.

However, this sounds like simple tiered pricing with no dynamic element, which will effectively increase the prices of the cheapest seats under the guise of dynamic ticket pricing. Not cool.

Steve Sax said...

For the record, I don't think this is "dynamic" pricing, in that the prices for a given game don't fluctuate by the hour (as the Giants reportedly do for their home games). This is a great increase in variable prices, but it's not dynamic.

Anyway, what drewdez said.

Kyle Baker said...

I will be amongst the countless suckers who shell out whatever price is stated, so I won't even try to pretend I'm outraged and that I will vote with my pocketbook by going to fewer games.

Actually what it probably means is that I will continue to rely on 3rd party sellers more than ever, skipping the Dodgers box office and Ticketmaster.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

What Casey said!

Looks like I will be free-loading more this year than in years past. Previously, I funded my free-loading friends. At least they paid for parking and a beer.

Steve Sax said...

Even at the end of last season, one could get decent tix on stubhub for super-cheap. Season tickets are for suckers who want to pay full price to secure their seats.

Like me, I might add.