ALCS Ticket Prices Are Clear Indication Boston Bandwagon Has Slowed to a Crawl

The Boston Red Sox are on their last legs. The Tampa Rays have taken over as "America's Team", the Citgo signs are catching fire, and the BoSox are about to be eliminated, barring another 2004 comeback occurrence.

So it should come as absolutely no surprise that a large number of folks who jumped on board the Beantown bandwagon four years ago are clamoring to get off now. How can I tell? Ticket prices at Fenway are fading faster than Matt Clement's career.

Premium seats that commanded upwards of $2,000 just a year ago are selling for a quarter of that price. A field box ticket that would have set you back $1,800 in the 2004 dream season defeat of the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, and $900 in the same series last year, now goes for $300 - just $25 above face value.

On Tuesday, Ace Ticket actually dropped prices below face value and, for the first time in 29 years, failed to sell out for a postseason game.

"Ticket prices," in the words of chief executive Jim Holzman, "have plummeted."

Boston.com even points out that it should be the economy, but it's not. And so the question has Red Sox "fans" searching for answers. Could it be a lack of angst? Could it be a serenity that exists among this fan base now? Or could it just be that when the team stops winning, all of these diehard, Sawx lifers start to disappear a little bit.

And yeah, we can't take away the two titles. But at least we can all soak in on the vindication of knowing we were right about one of the worst bandwagons of this century.

Awesome Update: As Darren Rovell previously noted ... the Patriots ticket sales are in a free fall too.

BAND. WAGON.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-16-2008 @ 11:04AM

Beth said...

...and?

when teams do well, their ticket sales go up. when they do poorly, their ticket sales go down. why is this a moral issue?

i'd also like to know on what factual, measurable basis you conclude this bandwagon has been one of the worst, or why the falling ticket prices is evidence for that superlative.

i'm also wondering if you intend for your conclusion about the bandwagon to reflect on the sox fan base as a whole? do you allow that there are genuine sox fans? or are we supposed to paint everyone in a sox cap with this bandwagon brush?

10-16-2008 @ 11:28AM

Brinson said...

Fair point (and one I've been discussing with a colleague). No, I do not think that the bandwagon fans are representative of Red Sox nation as a whole.

However for a bandwagon to be so strong and annoying that it makes me pull for the Yankees at some point, well, that says a lot.

10-16-2008 @ 11:20AM

Al said...

For the first time in Rays history, they're getting close to selling out the Trop......that's not a worst bandwagon fan contender? Even when the Rays were in first place all year, there were more fans for the opposing teams filling the seats in that awful venue.

10-16-2008 @ 11:43AM

No bandwagoner said...

I don't know how you can come up with those statisitcs. Fenway Park has been full to capacity for years. Long before 2004. Red Sox Nation is still strong but the state of the economy has put a pinch in everyone's pockets. When heating oil costs over 3 dollars a gallon and a tank of gas is sky high everyone is cutting back right now. No one knows what is going to happen to their homes or their jobs..It is almost as if you think the American people as a whole are very shallow and would rather spend their money on ALCS tickets. I would like to spend my money on those same tickets but I just bought oil and groceries. Smarten up....

10-16-2008 @ 4:22PM

Brad said...

Al,
You are partially correct. But let me explain a few things too.
First we live in Florida and have so many options you could never get 35,000 people to attend any event 80 times a year.
Second we didn't grow up with baseball. Yes we have great little league teams etc and produced a ton of major league ball players, but never had major league teams until recently.
Third Florida is a football state. Top high school football in the country with Texas, 3 or 4 nationally ranked college teams, a slew of national championships and 3 pro teams in the state.
4. Baseball turns a lot of people off here because of the monetary inequitites. New York and Boston have the bucks and baseball refuses to have a salary cap like the other major sports. We have a lot of respect for the Patriots and Giants, they won on a level playing field, but the Yankees and Red Sox do not operate on a level playing field. So yes we enjoy the Rays success, but why get too enamored when the Sox or the Yankees will raid the Rays of their key players somewhere down the road.
And those fans in the seat at the trop are transplants, not natives as we collect people from all over the US to live here. Not many people move from Florida to Boston or New York.
And finally lest you think this is about old people, if you check the demographics you will find the average age in Tampa is 34 and in Boston 32 so not much of an age difference. Tampa is not Miami or Ft Lauderdale where the old people dominate.

10-16-2008 @ 5:33PM

Andrew said...

What does this have to do with real Red Sox fans, Brinson?

Most of us haven't been able to get inside Fenway for years because of the prices.

Not exactly an even-handed takedown of Red Sox Nation.

10-16-2008 @ 7:14PM

anny said...

I have read some ridiculous articles on Fanhouse but this has to take the cake. I almost always agree with Mr. Brinson too. I never understood the contempt for bandwagon fans. Who cares when someone starts liking a team. Maybe they weren't exposed to a team until they started winning and gaining the exposure that comes with it. Are they hurting anyone? Do I have to like a franchise since it's inception to be a true fan? I have been a Sox fan since I was a teenager and I get called a bandwagon fan all the time. As for ticket sales, I would venture to say that a good portion of Boston's fan base are middle class. Spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on tickets isn't feasible right now. It's not an excuse Will, it's a scary fact.