Season Tickets to Professional Team ?

[ColaCock]

Thinking about getting Rays tickets down here for the upcoming season and have been talking with a rep inside the front office lately. Supposed to take a tour on Wednesday (although we went to quite a few games last year).

Anyone else have season tickets to a professional team in MLB or another league (NFL, NHL, NBA, etc)?

My question is...since this is a for-profit business and my GCC membership is quite different (although still a business honestly)- does a potential season ticket holder have the ability to negotiate on the price or perks any?

I know teams are usually desperate to fill the seats and would like to haggle on price or, at the very least, get some freebies out of it while jumping aboard.

[usc90grad]

I've had Carolina Panther tickets since day one of the franchise. We also had Charlotte Hornets tickets before that. We didnt' get freebies with either...but I'm sure that was because we got tickets as soon as the franchises were announced and they were hot tickets.

The thing to consider is will you be able to make all the games? If not, you may want to find a friend that will split them with you. That's what we did with the Hornets...two of my relatives split the tickets 3-ways with us, so we went to 1/3 of the home games, which was plenty.

As far as negotiating with them, it doesn't hurt to try. It depends on how many season tickets they have to sell and how hard up they are. I'm not familiar with the Rays, but assume the ticket prices vary by location, right? So if they're hard up to sell tickets, maybe you can pay the price of one location, but get bumped up to a better location. And you're paying for the tickets only right? No seat fees, etc? If they are charging that, you can always ask for that free or discounted.

To be honest, I doubt they'll do much though. But maybe you can get field passes for before a game, etc.

[CarolinaBand]

Originally Posted by ColaCock

Thinking about getting Rays tickets down here for the upcoming season and have been talking with a rep inside the front office lately. Supposed to take a tour on Wednesday (although we went to quite a few games last year).

Anyone else have season tickets to a professional team in MLB or another league (NFL, NHL, NBA, etc)?

My question is...since this is a for-profit business and my GCC membership is quite different (although still a business honestly)- does a potential season ticket holder have the ability to negotiate on the price or perks any?

I know teams are usually desperate to fill the seats and would like to haggle on price or, at the very least, get some freebies out of it while jumping aboard.

I sold season tickets for MiLB teams for the past four seasons so I can only speak from that experience. For the three teams I worked for the price was never negotiable but the perks definitely were.

I would often use parking passes, food coupons, and merch to sweeten my deals if I had someone on the hook.

I would think a team that struggles with filling seats like the Rays would be more likely to work with you.

[MillerTime843]

I'm sure Business rates would apply. I know my Uncle has Celtic tickets for business use and he negotiated a good deal for them. He would sell all the crap game tickets and take people to Lakers, Hawks, Heat etc.

[ColaCock]

Originally Posted by usc90grad

I've had Carolina Panther tickets since day one of the franchise. We also had Charlotte Hornets tickets before that. We didnt' get freebies with either...but I'm sure that was because we got tickets as soon as the franchises were announced and they were hot tickets.

The thing to consider is will you be able to make all the games? If not, you may want to find a friend that will split them with you. That's what we did with the Hornets...two of my relatives split the tickets 3-ways with us, so we went to 1/3 of the home games, which was plenty.

I should have noted that we are doing a partial season ticket package...basically, it is every Sunday game plus about 10 or so weekday games. So only around 30 games or so.

I don't think the price is that bad and first row seats in the upper deck are available (at our budget price). However, I figured we should be able to get some free jerseys, discounted parking, or free merchandise as well?

The thing about season tickets to me is the parking. Also a large reason, in my opinion, why the Rays suffer on attendance...there is no mass transit system in the Bay area. Everyone drives everywhere. Anyhow, parking for just the 1/3 of games we will attend will cost $350...basically equivalent to one partial season ticket. In New York, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Boston, Philly, DC, etc...a LOT of people use public transportation.

Anyhow, I am getting off topic...but just wondered if the ball is in my court and if I should play hard to get on our tour before we sign up. They offer a payment plan, which is really convenient and a big reason we are going to buy in.

[usc90grad]

^ Didn't think about free parking. I'd go for that...but I guess it depends on who owns the parking lot.

[markymark550]

Originally Posted by ColaCock

I should have noted that we are doing a partial season ticket package...basically, it is every Sunday game plus about 10 or so weekday games. So only around 30 games or so.

I don't think the price is that bad and first row seats in the upper deck are available (at our budget price). However, I figured we should be able to get some free jerseys, discounted parking, or free merchandise as well?

The thing about season tickets to me is the parking. Also a large reason, in my opinion, why the Rays suffer on attendance...there is no mass transit system in the Bay area. Everyone drives everywhere. Anyhow, parking for just the 1/3 of games we will attend will cost $350...basically equivalent to one partial season ticket. In New York, Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Boston, Philly, DC, etc...a LOT of people use public transportation.

Anyhow, I am getting off topic...but just wondered if the ball is in my court and if I should play hard to get on our tour before we sign up. They offer a payment plan, which is really convenient and a big reason we are going to buy in.

Definitely try to wrangle free parking out of them. Like someone else said, with as hard up as the Rays are for selling tickets, I'm sure they could offer that as a perk. Hem and haw a little bit and see what they do offer.

As for the Bay area...wife and I were in St. Pete for a wedding and we drove around the area. Anyway, I wanted to see where the Trop was, so we drove to it, but it just seemed awfully hard to get to. Makes me think a lot of people just wouldn't want to put the effort into going to the games.

[ColaCock]

Originally Posted by markymark550

Definitely try to wrangle free parking out of them. Like someone else said, with as hard up as the Rays are for selling tickets, I'm sure they could offer that as a perk. Hem and haw a little bit and see what they do offer.

As for the Bay area...wife and I were in St. Pete for a wedding and we drove around the area. Anyway, I wanted to see where the Trop was, so we drove to it, but it just seemed awfully hard to get to. Makes me think a lot of people just wouldn't want to put the effort into going to the games.

Issue is that over half of the 30 mile radius around the stadium isn't populated...it is water! Just wasn't a very strategic location to include those on the other side of the bay and even the Plant City/Lakeland/Kissimmee/Orlando populations.

I live right across the bridge and it can still take me an hour to get to the stadium and park during a weekday game with traffic. Public transportation is severely lacking here.

There are multiple reasons for the low attendance, but the stadium itself (to me) isn't one of them. Watching a baseball game in the air conditioning is actually VERY nice, although not what I initially think of for a baseball game. You can also bring in food. Stadium location, public transportation, and transient population are probably the top 3 reasons why attendance is low. Trust me, the Yankees and Boston games are packed out...and it isn't just because the Yankees are usually good- a lot of their fans are here.

The St. Pete government (especially the mayor) is just whining over sour grapes and won't stop until MLB comes in and forces a move.