Opening Day

[stewbacca]

As a teacher on spring break, I was thinking of going to opening day. I live in Roseville near Sacramento and was looking into heading to Oakland for the A’s game. I talked my dad and sister into going with me and we are going to park at a BART station which will take us right to the ball park. So as we were looking into getting tickets, we found that the seats we want for opening day are $56. Game 2 is the first night game and they are charging $33 but every other game those same seats sell for $25. Wow, over 120% price increase for opening day. Is this normal? This is a last place team with a triple A lineup(JK). So my sister decided to order the tickets on the phone. They wanted a $35 processing fee for the 3 tickets. Really? Online was the same thing. Do other teams and other sports price gouge like this? I get that playoff and championship tickets go for extremely high amounts, but should opening day also carry a hefty price tag? To be honest, I don’t expect this game to be a sellout. Am I off and this is the norm? Maybe too many Sac. Rivercats and Stockton Ports games have put my expections at a different level. Anyways, we are going to head down anyways and purchase the tickets at the park. We may not get seats in the same area, but saving the $35 should allow us to get a few hot dogs and sodas. Thanks for reading my rant.

Paul

[lloydchristmas]

O’s tickets are priced similarly, but I don’t recall the crazy fees.

[commishbob]

Astros began bumping their OD prices a few years ago. This year they are ridiculous (which I understand given that they will be showing off the trophy, rings, etc.) What is unfortunate for me this year is the Orioles are the opening homestand opponent after years of coming into Houston right around Memorial Day. I've never missed an Orioles game in Houston but I won't make it for the opener this year. Love my Birds but not $325x2 worth. That's all I've seen available after the season ticket holder gobbled them up on a presale.

Ticketmaster/mlb.com fees are very high. I usually get tickets at the Astros box office walkup windows on off days and avoid the fees.

Semi off-topic.....I think the first team I was aware of to have tickets for the same seats priced according to the opponent was the Mets in the mid-60s. Tickets for Dodger and Giants games carried a premium over all others. That hacked off my best friend's dad who always took us to see the Giants at Shea.

[pokerplyr80]

I looked into Dodgers tickets for opening day and the cheapest seats were over 100 bucks. In the bleachers. Well over double what a normal game would cost. I don't really care that it's opening day either, just a convenient day to go while family is in town. I'd much rather pay 50 bucks later for a decent seat.

[darwinbulldog]

I can get Marlins Opening Day tickets for about $30. Thank you, supply and demand.

[pokerplyr80]

Bit the bullet and got Dodgers tickets for tomorrow. Should be fun. At least now I'll be able to say I was there for an opening day.

[bnorth]

I also notice prices changing for the same exact seats for the Rockies depending on opponent.

[packs]

I know its nice to order tickets ahead of time but seriously if you go to the Coliseum day of you'll get some pretty cheap tickets guaranteed. I used to live in SF and thought the same thing: why are these so expensive? But if you buy in person you don't pay the fee obviously but also the prices get way cheaper as it gets closer to game time. And you can comfortably bet the game won't sell out.

[53Browns]

I live in Cincinnati and it's not the ticket prices that keep me away from Opening Day, it's the always guaranteed crappy weather (either rain or snow).

[z28jd]

I used to go to Orioles games vs the Yankees with my family and about ten years ago they started premium game pricing, which included Yankees and Red Sox. Mets and Phillies started around the same time. A few years later the Pirates started doing the same thing and at that time they were one of the last teams to join in the premium pricing.

So yes, it's standard, and fees increased every year with the Orioles tickets. We paid a little bit more for the same seats every year for about five years before we stopped going.