Well the Strike is not Going To Happen

[Anonymous]

I must say I'm almost ashamed to be a baseball fan, but really I should say Sports fan. All the sports in the US go through this as it is HUGE business here. I'm annoyed that in all the negotiations, they never once discussed, "Hey how can we lower the ticket prices? It's getting tough on our fans to be able to try and afford going to even one game a year." I mean, if I choose just regular tickets (for the Red Sox) that'd be $32 each, 2 waters are $4.50 each, hot dogs are $4.50 each, a program is $5, parking is $20. So already we're talking $107 for 2 people, and that assumes that during a 3.5 hour game you're only going to want 1 water, 1 hot dog each. WHAT!!! Hey I have no problem with players making $5 mil, and owners making $15 mil a year. I have a problem with players making $15 mil, and owners $30 mil and lawyers $3 mil and us paying $107 to go to a game and support that!
Now get this, there are 32,000+ fans at each Red Sox home game (they sell out every game, and get 33,000+ when they get standing room only), and the average ticket price is approximately $35. The average person spends about $20 at a game (we're not including parking). So that's $55 a person, and there are 81 home games. So the Red Sox, with one of the SMALLEST parks in baseball are pulling a revenue (JUST FROM HOME GAMES, not including Corporate seating and not including product sales) of:
$142,560,000
Yeah, 142 million. Now, their salary for players is $109 million, but remember this does not include TV deal, product sales NOR the corporate seats, which are apparently about $100,000 each (I think they sell 50 of these?). Regardless, they're pulling BIG money. Now, lower the fan's cost from $35 ticket average to $28 ticket average and they still pull in:
$72,576,000
So now, they do need to lower salaries (a little), but what's wrong with that? Hey, that saves me and my friend a total of $14 a game!! That's huge for us, and small for them. And remember that baseball said that they DID NOT make the majority of their money from games.

[Thomas Paul]

I haven't been to a baseball game since the last strike in 1994. Fans are suckers. As long as they pay then the owners/players will suck them dry. You want things to change? Stop going.

[Corey McGlone]

I go with Thomas on this one. However, the players aren't the only one's getting paid when you go to the park. Who did you buy the hot dog from? How about that water? Who threw away the wrapper for that hot dog after you threw it in the garbage (you did throw it in the garbage, right)? There are a lot more people eating up that money from your tickets than just the players. Granted, I doubt the hot dog vendor makes 5 million a year, but there are a lot more hot dog vendors at the park than first basemen.
Of course, like you said, ball clubs don't make all of their money from ticket sales - a lot of that is spent on staff (besides the players).
However, it's just a simple case of supply and demand. If you're charging $35 per ticket and the stadium sells out, it's safe to say that demand is outweighing supply. That's called a shortage, my friend. In such a situation, prices will increase (not decrease), causing less people to want to go to the game. When supply equals demand, the market will settle down.
You want prices to come down, you need to cut off the supply. Once there is a surplus (not a shortage), the owners will have to cut ticket prices to lure more fans into the stadium. Again, once supply equals demand, the market will balance.
You want ticket prices to fall, stop going to the park (and convince the other 30,000 people a game not to go). You want to go to a cheap game, move to Montreal.

[Anonymous]

I understand this for fans of most teams, but you have to understand, the Red Sox in boston are different. It is not so easy. The Red Sox are a part of everyone's life in a way I have NEVER seen in ANY other US city for any sport. Not even St. Louis, nor Baltimore from past years. You can be on the street and pretty much anyone knows how the Sox did last night, of all ages and almost all economic backgrounds. I even had a homeless man ask me how the Sox did last night (I promptly told him and gave him a $20 bill). Harvard professors discuss the Red Sox, the governor is concerned about the Red Sox - it is more than just a game here. Read Doris Kearns Goodwin's piece on meeting Carlton Fisk and you'll understand. She'd met LBJ (the president) and numerous other world leaders, but it was only when she met Fisk that she became speechless, nervous and completely in awe (and what's funny is he was a fan of her biographies of the president and others). Peter Gammons, the Globe writer, said that his father's last words ON HIS DEATHBED were, "The Red Sox will win the World Series in your lifetime." I'm telling you, it reaches different proportions in this town. I traveled to China and Japan and I met two other people during my stay there from Massachusetts. This was during the presidential elections (Clinton finally won that) and all anyone wanted to know was if the Sox had made any good trades yet. The Red Sox are NOT a Sports team, they're what makes Boston tick, what gives it its culture, its emotion. They are the best of the Greek tragedies, deeply rooted, emotional but not a simple game.

[Thomas Paul]

If you are that insane about baseball then you are doomed. The owners and players will suck your wallet dry so you might as well just get used to be abused. And as a Red Sox fan you might as well get used to going through life as a loser.
Tom - Yankee fan

[Shura Balaganov]

Baseball - gone. I was wishing for this strike..maybe now that it cancelled baseball'll hold for a little longer...soccer is coming anyway, give it five years and it'll be in top 4 (with football, basketball and hockey). At a stadium near my house where I go to play soccer, we have 4 full soccer teams on Sundays, with spectators and all. and a game each work day...and these are pick-up games, you can walk in and join. People come and watch for fun. Baseball is not fun. It is dying
Shura
[ September 03, 2002: Message edited by: Shura Balaganov ]

[Jason Menard]

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
And as a Red Sox fan you might as well get used to going through life as a loser.
Tom - Yankee fan

Yankees, only professional sports team to prove that yes indeed, you can buy a championship.
As far as the Red Sox sucking perpetually, well, at least we have the Patriots. Could be worse, we could have the New Jersey Jets or the New Jersey Giants.
We can also always reminisce about the good 'ol days of Bird and the Celtics, and the great Bruins teams of years past. Of course then the conversation always gets around to the Sox and what might have been. I'm sure Bill Buckner is holed up in the woods of upstate New York somewhere, living off the land, never again daring to venture into civilization.

[Thomas Paul]

Didn't the Nets beat the Celtics...
And the Giants have two Super Bowl wins and an appearance in my memory.

[Thomas Paul]

And there is no way on earth that soccer will ever be more popular than baseball in the USA. No matter how boring baseball may get it is still 1000X more exciting than another 1-0 soccer game.

[Jason Menard]

Didn't the Nets beat the Celtics...
So now you're laying claim to another New Jersey Team? How 'bout them Knicks.
And the Giants have two Super Bowl wins and an appearance in my memory.
Yeah life was good before the salary cap went and messed things up, eh? Now all teams are competitive, not just the large market teams. Damn collective bargaining agreement. :roll:
New England is down one appearance compared with Giants, although they got robbed in 1976 by a little man in black and white stripes by the name of Ben Dreith, against the Raiders no less. I guess there is such a thing as karma though.
[ September 03, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

[Cindy Glass]

Originally posted by <Baseball Fan>:
The Red Sox are a part of everyone's life in a way I have NEVER seen in ANY other US city for any sport.

You have obviously never been in Detroit when the Red Wings are working on winning the Stanley Cup in Hockey - yet again :roll: .

[Thomas Paul]

Originally posted by Jason Menard:
[b]New England is down one appearance compared with Giants, although they got robbed in 1976 by a little man in black and white stripes by the name of Ben Dreith, against the Raiders no less. I guess there is such a thing as karma though.

Things do have a way of balancing. New England lost in the playoffs last year and yet thanks to a bad call by a ref still managed to win the Super Bowl.

[Shura Balaganov]

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
And there is no way on earth that soccer will ever be more popular than baseball in the USA. No matter how boring baseball may get it is still 1000X more exciting than another 1-0 soccer game.

Just wanted to elaborate on this "notion" that you see a lot of 1-0 games in soccer. Did you by any chance see any World Cup games? Did you ever watch MLS? How often do you see boring 1-0 games? Probably no more often than boring baseball 1-0 games... At least in soccer you always see 5-10 good combinations from each team, and 90 minutes of ball movement/team play (and that would be 22 players moving the ball, not 4). :roll:
Soccer might not be popular in US because of only one "big" reason: there's no beer breaks every 10 minutes where TV stations can go to commercials for 10-15 minutes. Because the game is always on. Sucks for people who actualy came to see the game, not a freakin' Viagra ad.
Shura
[ September 04, 2002: Message edited by: Shura Balaganov ]

[Jason Menard]

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
Things do have a way of balancing. New England lost in the playoffs last year and yet thanks to a bad call by a ref still managed to win the Super Bowl.

Bad rule maybe, but it was the correct call. According to the rule, as long as the arm has started the forward motion it is a pass. That call was actually made in several other games that year, it just happened to be that one was highlighted. Glad it was the Raiders.