Raising ticket prices

By John Franco

On Tuesday, the Pirates confirmed a rumor that has been widely reported for a few weeks – they are raising ticket prices for the 2012 season. The timing could hardly be worse, as the Pirates are in the middle of losing two straight games to the hopeless Astros. Since July 25, when the Pirates were 53-47, they have a record of 9-26. When your winning percentage resembles your loyal fans’ blood alcohol level (.257), your team probably isn’t too marketable, but this has been in the works for a while and the information was given to season ticket holders, so the Pirates had to announce it.

With the Pirates sitting at 11 games below .500 and time running out, the team seems likely to suffer their 19th consecutive losing season this year. I can already see Jay Leno and David Letterman asking how the Pirates can charge more money to watch the worst team in history. I’m equally sure that this hasn’t been Frank Coonelly‘s favorite day ever. I’m guessing there’s already a small group of fans who are outraged over this egregious price increase. And I kind of feel bad for them, because they’re idiots.

At the Pitt Plank, we are normally all about inclusion and promotion. We welcome all readers, we treat them with respect, and we want everyone to tell their friends about the great things they learned here. But today I’m going to tell you a secret and ask that you not share it with the rest of the world. The Pirates ticket prices are way too low. Even after this increase, they’re still going to be way too low. Shhhhhh.

Here are a few points gleaned from the P-G article linked above.

-The biggest increase the Pirates are making is on the expensive seats behind home plate. They’ll go from about $185 to $225. If you’re already paying $185 a ticket, you probably won’t notice that anyway.

-It looks like the Pirates are going to raise the prices of some other seats in the lower bowl about $4 or $5. Those tickets are some of my favorites ($27 for section 119, please) but I’m pretty sure that the equivalent seats at Yankee Stadium cost over $1,000. At some parks, 4 bucks won’t even cover the usher’s tips for those seats.

-The Pirates are actually going to lower the prices of some of the tickets in the upper deck. I’m not sure how they can do that, because I already thought they paid you to take some of those seats.

So, while the Pirates aren’t winning right now, they’re spending a lot of money and building for the future. They spent $17 million on the draft this year (the Yankees spent 6) and they spent $12 million last year. Yes, they’re passing the cost of Josh Bell along to the fans, along with the unfortunate costs of Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick. That’s what businesses do. The Pirates haven’t raised prices since 2002, so that means they did not pass along the costs of Matt Morris.

The Pirates have arguably the best ballpark in America. They have spent a ridiculous amount of money trying to build their team the “right” way. Their ticket prices are roughly equivalent to the Staten Island Yankees. Again, they haven’t raised prices since 2002 – I think I’ve gone through 8 cell phones and 4 Pirate hats since then.

Most importantly, they have shown over the last couple years that they are actually spending their money on the team, and not pocketing their revenue sharing money. Their opening day payroll was $42 million this year – they need to spend more than that to compete in the NL Central. Even though the 2011 season has turned into a disappointment on the field, the Pirates deserve a chance to show that they will spend their new ticket money wisely.