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="Gwreck":1mi0gbu9]Were people buying the $69 (or more) seats? Or were they (like you) telling the Mets to shove it?
I find it quite telling that the Mets have no problem moving their reasonably-priced tickets (most of which were gone as part of season ticket/plans) but there are always plenty of "middle" and "top" price tickets available to each game.[/quote:1mi0gbu9]
In stark contrast to previous years at Shea, where (logically) the best seats went first and the cheapest seats last, because of greater capacity and more reasonable pricing.
Boo.
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 06:08 AM
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| ="Gwreck"]Were people buying the $69 (or more) seats? Or were they (like you) telling the Mets to shove it?
I find it quite telling that the Mets have no problem moving their reasonably-priced tickets (most of which were gone as part of season ticket/plans) but there are always plenty of "middle" and "top" price tickets available to each game. |
more than half looked like they were leaving (or looking for a scalper, who were doing a brisk business and were fewer in number than usual)
if i had taken the train and lived in the city leaving would have been an instant decision on my part, but having driven from staten island (and paid for parking) i wanted to see of the scalpers prices had gone down when the game actually started (a tactic that has led to great success at football games). they were practically nowhere to be found at that point.
| ]In stark contrast to previous years at Shea, where (logically) the best seats went first and the cheapest seats last, because of greater capacity and more reasonable pricing. |
well yeah, the loge section at Shea was tiny in terms of the number of seats, i'd guess it ad 1/3 of what field level had and maybe 1/2 of mezz. i guess now we know what 10,000 fewer seats really means because even though it was a "holiday" it was still a monday night in may, against the nationals, without santana, and a "work/school" night.
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
May 26 2009 07:44 AM
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It's getting to where StubHub/scalper prices for "cheap" seats and avialable seats at the ticket window or online are approaching one another -- if not in actual dollars than in the tick from "affordable" to "I gotta think about this price."
I am trying to get seats for Jr. and Wifey for an upcoming game and finding that 3 seats in the promenade is impossible at the ticket window, and $50+ (for $30-something seats) on stubhub.
Best available at the window are $90 seats, and when you consider the stress of actively victimizing oneself in the bullshittery of the secondary ticket market* it's almost as if $90 is the better deal.
*-The Mets get a cut of every ticket sold on stuhub, so it benefits them to sell seats to ticket brokers and/or fans who become ticket brokers. It's like they sell each seat twice and outsource the labor of selling for free. I don't wish to participate in this skullduggery and you shouldn't either.
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metsguyinmichigan
May 26 2009 07:59 AM
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They charge $10 per ticket just for the pleasure of selling you a ticket?
That's just incredible. Obscene.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 26 2009 08:01 AM
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="metsguyinmichigan":1ltagwui]They charge $10 per ticket just for the pleasure of selling you a ticket?
That's just incredible. Obscene.[/quote:1ltagwui]
Is that true? That doesn't smell right.
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Gwreck
May 26 2009 08:13 AM
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There's a per-seat charge ($4-$7, price goes up as face value of seat goes up);
A per-order charge of $5; and
A $2.50 charge per order additional if you want to print them at home.
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Triple Dee
May 26 2009 08:25 AM
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="Gwreck":2r1m4j0l]
A $2.50 charge per order additional if you want to print them at home.[/quote:2r1m4j0l]
I'm intrigued to know what the rationale for this charge is. Aren't you actually saving them money by using your own ink and paper?
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Benjamin Grimm
May 26 2009 08:31 AM
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Yes. And you're also saving them the labor involved when someone stuffs the tickets into envelopes or staffs the will-call window.
Printing at home is convenient for the buyer, so they figure they can get away with charging that "convenience fee."
And they're right.
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Frayed Knot
May 26 2009 08:34 AM
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'The Hardball Times' did a whole article [url=http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-cost-of-gouging/:33eeiyl1]on this sort of thing[/url:33eeiyl1] a week or so back.
The Mets are one of the worst offenders of this practice - though hardly the only one.
It all seems so stupid to me. I'd just raise the prices and do away with the hidden fees but I guess this "allows" them to advertise prices as being lower than they actually are: 'See, a family of four can come to the park for less than X'.
But saying that some seat is $20 is deceptive if there's no actual way of getting said seat for $20
So 'shipping and handling' charges - or whatever they want to call it - have no basis in reality to what it actually costs to ship or handle (hence the self-print price) it's merely a cost they're adding on simply because they feel they can.
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 08:36 AM
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="Triple Dee":3cwz40tm]="Gwreck":3cwz40tm]
A $2.50 charge per order additional if you want to print them at home.[/quote:3cwz40tm]
I'm intrigued to know what the rationale for this charge is. Aren't you actually saving them money by using your own ink and paper?[/quote:3cwz40tm]
the "rationale" is that you previously could only pick them up day of game so any new options are an excuse to make more $$$$.
it might be that these tickets are way easier to counterfeit than normal ones and thus cause them more headaches, i'm not knocking the 2.50 fee by itself its just overkill with the 4-7 +5 fees already there.
I've never cared if i had "good" seats or not, its just about getting inside as cheap as i can for me, for a normal non-playoff game my personal threshold is likely about $35 (and i wouldnt go at all at that price if i couldnt bring my own food, kill that policy and my price goes down to $25)
Assuming that the cans of Brooklyn Lager costy the Mets $1 each and the ingredients for a kosher italian sausage and a knish cost another $2, they lost about $20 in food sales from me last night (i eat all that even with the food i bring in, i'm a 6'5 pig with a big appetite) I also bought a deck of Mets playing cards last time. I've been considering a shot glass but decided on another beer instead last time i was there.
I don't begrudge the Mets the opportunity to make what they can, I'm just observing that i think their calculations to maximize profits are a bit off. they probably had 2-3,000 empty seats yesterday in what could have been a sell out crowd, and thats alot of hot dog sales.
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Edgy DC
May 26 2009 08:37 AM
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Doubly deceptive when adding the fee per ticket, rather than per transaction.
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 08:39 AM
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| ]But saying that some seat is $20 is deceptive if there's no actual way of getting said seat for $20 |
i havent felt "deceived" (yet), the $11 and $15 tickets allegedly sold out yesterday before 5:00 but they had them earlier in the day (so said the ticket guy at whom i balked when he said $69 after i asked for "the cheapest seats you got left, sir")
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 08:40 AM
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="Edgy DC":2bcjiidg]Doubly deceptive when adding the fee per ticket, rather than per transaction.[/quote:2bcjiidg]
why do one? the mets do BOTH. not "deceptive" but "annoying" and "costing the mets my money"
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Gwreck
May 26 2009 08:43 AM
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Like it or not, the Mets are hardly alone in this sort of ridiculous fee-adding. Ticketmaster and Tickets.com do the exact same thing.
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Frayed Knot
May 26 2009 08:44 AM
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I think it is deceptive. Maybe not to the extent of illegal-deceptive - although if it isn't it's certainly close.
It's one thing if certain ways of obtaining a $20 ticket involve extra fees, but if EVERY way of getting it involves a fee then it's not really a $20 ticket is it?
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Fman99
May 26 2009 08:47 AM
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="Frayed Knot":1h410dhv]'The Hardball Times' did a whole article [url=http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-cost-of-gouging/:1h410dhv]on this sort of thing[/url:1h410dhv] a week or so back.[/quote:1h410dhv]
Wow, great article. Rarely in my life have I gotten screwed with less enjoyment than this.
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Gwreck
May 26 2009 08:49 AM
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There is no service fee charged on tickets purchased in person at Citi Field.
Hence the problem -- nymr83 went out there to save on these fees and buy his ticket in person, only to find that the affordable tickets had sold out.
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 08:56 AM
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| ]It's one thing if certain ways of obtaining a $20 ticket involve extra fees, but if EVERY way of getting it involves a fee then it's not really a $20 ticket is it |
| ="Gwreck"]There is no service fee charged on tickets purchased in person at Citi Field.
Hence the problem -- nymr83 went out there to save on these fees and buy his ticket in person, only to find that the affordable tickets had sold out. |
yeah, that was pretty much the issue. eliminating the online fees would solve my problem as i could decide before i trek out there if its worth going or not.
one more thing that annoyed me- at Shea there were signs above the ticket windows indicating which categories of tickets were still available that day and how much they cost. these signs were absent at Citi Field and would have saved me from 20+ minutes on line.
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batmagadanleadoff
May 26 2009 09:50 AM
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I wonder if perhaps, those add on and processing fees are treated as separate from ticket sales revenue, and therefore, do not have to be shared with the opposition.
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Edgy DC
May 26 2009 09:58 AM
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Revenue sharing is based on exceeding the preset salary threshhold, isn't it?
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batmagadanleadoff
May 26 2009 10:00 AM
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I'm not sure. That's why I perhapsed my post. But I was posting on the assumption that a certain percentage of the gate automatically went to the visiting team, no matter what.
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Nymr83
May 26 2009 10:01 AM
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="Edgy DC":niwqtenf]Revenue sharing is based on exceeding the preset salary threshhold, isn't it?[/quote:niwqtenf]
I think he's talking about the percentage of ticket sales that goes to the visiting club, which predated the luxury tax and as far as i know continues today.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 26 2009 10:02 AM
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I believe it does.
Gate sharing has been around forever and is distinct from revenue sharing, which was introduced more recently as part of a collective bargaining agreement.
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Edgy DC
May 26 2009 10:04 AM
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That's a good question, then. But owners kcertainly now enough not to let themselves get swindled by each other, no?
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Frayed Knot
May 26 2009 10:32 AM
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| ="Edgy DC"]Revenue sharing is based on exceeding the preset salary threshhold, isn't it? |
Two separate things.
Luxury tax is based on exceeding salary thresholds.
Revenue sharing is based on various income lines and, yes, this all could be about that in the same way that's what luxury suites are all about. They're treated as rent rather than ticket sales and therefore aren't subject to the same cut of the gate as one Joe Sixpack buys.
| ]But owners kcertainly now enough not to let themselves get swindled by each other, no? |
Not necessarily. In the NFL - where ticket and broadcast money is all split nearly evenly - they were the first to rush into the luxury suite business (and demanding stadiums that accommodated them) and did so for the sole purpose of getting revenue they didn't have to share. Ditto PSLs.
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
May 26 2009 10:52 AM
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| ="Gwreck"]There is no service fee charged on tickets purchased in person at Citi Field.
Hence the problem -- nymr83 went out there to save on these fees and buy his ticket in person, only to find that the affordable tickets had sold out. |
Funny thing-- as I've said a few times on here, the fiancee, a friend of mine and I cobbled together our "package" this year from Ebay-- with a little from Stubhub-- before single-gamers went on sale. With twenty minutes to kill until a lunch meeting, I just did the math.
As it turns out, paying face-value or slightly above on Ebay-- where a good number of sellers offer free or discounted shipping-- has actually been about 41 dollars cheaper* than buying directly from the Mets would have been. (And that includes the Mother's Day game against the Pirates, for which I paid about 10 dollars over face per ticket.)
*$451.00 versus $492.50 over 9 pairs of seats-- or just over 2 dollars cheaper per ticket.
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G-Fafif
May 26 2009 12:30 PM
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Yesterday was the first of six consecutive dates that had a Flushing Flash discount component available (first come/first served, buy in advance), indicating they had more inventory than planned for the Nats and Fish. If you subscribe to the Mets' e-newsletter, you could get the $69 seats for $47; same for tonight and tomorrow, all "value" dates. The $69 seats of Monday-Wednesday which become $92 on Friday for "bronze" seating are discounted to $64. Come Sunday, a "silver" date, they are reduced from $115 to $80. Some other seating areas have this "deal" as well.
For a single baseball game.
I'm not sure how the screw-you-over fees play into it. I do know they announced their highest attendance since Opening Night last night, though the place didn't seem particularly jammed.
Details [url=http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ticketing/specials_flash.jsp?partnerId=ed-2547885-83278208&source=ed-2547885-83278208:3aujeem1]here[/url:3aujeem1].
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Frayed Knot
May 26 2009 12:31 PM
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| ]*$451.00 versus $492.50 over 9 pairs of seats-- or just over 2 dollars cheaper per ticket. |
Is it possible to know what the face value is for all those seats.
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
May 26 2009 01:31 PM
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="Frayed Knot"]| ]*$451.00 versus $492.50 over 9 pairs of seats-- or just over 2 dollars cheaper per ticket. |
Is it possible to know what the face value is for all those seats. |
All Promenade Infield-- a mix of value (2 @ $15), bronze (2 @ $20) and silver (5 @ $30).
Also, forgot to carry ones-- ah, the perils of quickie math-- so add 100 to both sides (551, 592).
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Frayed Knot
May 26 2009 02:00 PM
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="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]="Frayed Knot"]| ]*$451.00 versus $492.50 over 9 pairs of seats-- or just over 2 dollars cheaper per ticket. |
Is it possible to know what the face value is for all those seats. |
All Promenade Infield-- a mix of value (2 @ $15), bronze (2 @ $20) and silver (5 @ $30).
Also, forgot to carry ones-- ah, the perils of quickie math-- so add 100 to both sides (551, 592). |
So - if I have this straight - that's 2 pairs of seats at $15/per seat = $60 total
plus 2 pairs @ $20/per = 80
plus 5 pairs @ $30/per = 300
= total face $440 which would have cost $592 (an approx 34% increase!?!) to buy from the Mets but were instead bought over the secondary market for $551
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metirish
May 26 2009 02:08 PM
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Good work guys. That's one hell of a mark up , of course they would call it something else , price gouging seems about right.
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