kennadog
Dog On It!
Bite your tongue!
Preseason ticket prices..... A JOKE
- Thread starter reid1boys
- Start date
TheFifthMookie
Bench
I vehemently disagree with this statement, as I'm one of those 1000's who has strayed precisely because the ticket prices are higher than is acceptable for the product that I'm going to be seeing. I don't feel that paying $45 a ticket plus parking plus fees if I get them online is a fair trade for a pre-season game in the upper deck seats. I -want- to be there, I -want- to cheer for my team and I -can- afford tickets, but feeling gouged before I even get in the car to drive there is a real turn off. Lower upper deck prices would bring me and whoever I bring with me back.
keflanag
Bench
So, what you are saying is that you are a fair-weather fan? You are willing to pay higher prices when the team is better, but when they are struggling and rebuilding, you want charity. They already lowered ticket prices 10% on average, and 1/3 of all the seats in the arena are $25 or less.
Anyone complaining about ticket prices, is ALWAYS going to complain until the team is good. I think you've just emphasized my point ... the problem is not ticket prices, it's the product on the floor. I think it's absurd to expect an NBA team to lower prices because they are not playing well. Players' slaries have not gone down, cost of operating an arena have not gone down. I'm sure if lowering ticket prices would bring in more NET money than the team would do it. But why would they care if the stands are full if it just means losing more money?
Section 101
All-Star
Dam you paid alot. I it usually costs me about $800 (1 person) for the trip. (last time was the Cowboys/Patriots 2 years ago) I got enough miles for a free ticket now, but no time this year so far.
Okay, this is NOT gonna turn into a "who's a better fan" type thread. There are some very legitimate points being made and I think the whole issue is one that needs to be addressed - and where better than here on KF?
Ticket prices may not be part of the problem for YOU, but it is a real consideration for a lot of people. When you're trying to rebuild community enthusiasm for a young team, I personally think lowering ticket prices for the pre-season Arco games would be a terrific marketing tool. They had 10,000+ at the Portland game. IF the tickets had been more reasonably priced, they might well have sold out Arco. And there's nothing like good ol' Arco Thunder to motivate the players AND the fans.
So, just a reminder...the discussion is going quite nicely. Any further "fair weather fan" type stuff is gonna be deleted. It's not germane to the topic at hand and it NEVER adds to a good debate, ever.
John Galt
Starter
I don't see what is so absurd about it. They sure as heck do this in reverse and jack the prices up as much as the market will bear when the team is good. What is the difference?
Section 101
All-Star
They should lower ticket prices when they go from having $70 million in salaries to $50 million.
kennadog
Dog On It!
The Kings actually lost $25-$30 million last year and had to borrow from the league. Lowering prices is a two-edged sword. If they don't make enough money, they can't afford better players. Why do you think its so much easier for big market teams?
People talk about how cheap seats were back before the Maloofs. Before the Maloofs came in, the team was on the verge of bankruptcy. That's why the city loaned the Kings old ownership group $70 million.They were really struggling and that's why the Maloofs were able to buy a majority share of the team. Basically that $70 million subsidized those cheap tickets. And the team pretty much stunk. Even the Maloofs were in the red for a number of years.
Why did ticket prices go so high? Due largely to the fact that the Kings had the third highest salary in 02/03, with no corporate base in the Sacramento region to help pay for it. Once that team collapsed, we were stuck with a lot of big contracts. We still had to pay them, until they were gone.
So how do you improve while cutting salary? It can't be easy to improve while trying to cut salary year after year. It took time to get under the luxury cap and more time to try and create room under the salary cap. So we paid a high price for the glory years in terms of the ticket prices we paid.
Maybe it could have be done faster by just going to the bottom as fast as possible. We have no way of knowing. And even though the team had to borrow millions from the league last year, they still lowered ticket prices and have offered numerous possible packages. I can't say they aren't trying.
People talk about how cheap seats were back before the Maloofs. Before the Maloofs came in, the team was on the verge of bankruptcy. That's why the city loaned the Kings old ownership group $70 million.They were really struggling and that's why the Maloofs were able to buy a majority share of the team. Basically that $70 million subsidized those cheap tickets. And the team pretty much stunk. Even the Maloofs were in the red for a number of years.
Why did ticket prices go so high? Due largely to the fact that the Kings had the third highest salary in 02/03, with no corporate base in the Sacramento region to help pay for it. Once that team collapsed, we were stuck with a lot of big contracts. We still had to pay them, until they were gone.
So how do you improve while cutting salary? It can't be easy to improve while trying to cut salary year after year. It took time to get under the luxury cap and more time to try and create room under the salary cap. So we paid a high price for the glory years in terms of the ticket prices we paid.
Maybe it could have be done faster by just going to the bottom as fast as possible. We have no way of knowing. And even though the team had to borrow millions from the league last year, they still lowered ticket prices and have offered numerous possible packages. I can't say they aren't trying.
kennadog
Dog On It!
And they still lost millions last year.
I think the thread starting out being about pre-season ticket prices, not the overall tickets. And I have to agree that spending premium money for a pre-season game doesn't make much sense. Especially when you don't always see the star players of any of the teams playing major minutes...
kennadog
Dog On It!
I can understand about the pre-season tickets, too. But I don't hold out much hope unless a few pro teams decide to go that route.
I am approaching this from a ownership perspective. Being in advertising, I see many companies lowering prices to build brand loyalty. Sometimes it's just good business. In this case I don't think you can look at the preseason as a money making opportunity, so it makes perfect sense to use the opportunity to build brand (fan base/fan loyalty).
For every NEW fan you get to attend a preseason game, you create an opportunity for long term return. Lowering prices for a few under attended preseason games isn't going to put a big dent in the bottom line when all is said and done and the upside potential is too big to ignore. Since they have the empty seats, it just makes good business sense to try something.
For every NEW fan you get to attend a preseason game, you create an opportunity for long term return. Lowering prices for a few under attended preseason games isn't going to put a big dent in the bottom line when all is said and done and the upside potential is too big to ignore. Since they have the empty seats, it just makes good business sense to try something.
John Galt
Starter
I know a guy from San Diego who was not even a big basketball fan and went to a game on a lark in 1998. I don't think it was free, but it was when tickets were cheap. He had such a good time at his first exposure to NBA ball that he bought a 7 game package the next day, which included playoff rights. Over the next nine years he spent in the $30-$40K neighborhood on season tickets.
If that first game had been free or nearly free, how good an investment would that have been in luring a fresh meat fan into the arena?
If that first game had been free or nearly free, how good an investment would that have been in luring a fresh meat fan into the arena?
you spent 8 hundred for 1 person. In my case it was me, my wife and my oldest daughter. so 800 x3 is 2400, so I was not bad.
I dont know if it was exactly that much, but I know each ticket was close to 300, plus air, plus car, hotel and food and it was close.
The people that have season tickets are stuck, and those people have their tickets. But how many people that dont have season tickets do you get to show up at arco and pay 50 or more dollars for a lackluster pre season game? Not many, that is for sure.
My point was simple, get people in the seats, some how. I live about 80 miles from Sacramento down near Modesto. I watch close to every Kings gme from the comfort of my 61 inch HD tv. I have to think long and hard of I want to spend ........... oh, lets say 150 bucks to drive up to Sac to watch a game live when the team is not anywhere near contention. Lets face it, it is only so fun watching a team that has no chance of really competing. And while I will continue to watch the games on TV and enjoy the young players developing, it is not worth it to me, to spend some big dollars to go see a weak team live.
Am I fair weather fan? If I were, Id be a Laker fan right now and drop the Kings. I am a Kings fan, but it is just not worth it to me to pay those type of prices for the live experience of a weak a.. team.
And dont ask me to be penalized for dumb decisions the kings management made in paying weak players high salaries.
Ill stay at home and watch for free.
My point was simple, get people in the seats, some how. I live about 80 miles from Sacramento down near Modesto. I watch close to every Kings gme from the comfort of my 61 inch HD tv. I have to think long and hard of I want to spend ........... oh, lets say 150 bucks to drive up to Sac to watch a game live when the team is not anywhere near contention. Lets face it, it is only so fun watching a team that has no chance of really competing. And while I will continue to watch the games on TV and enjoy the young players developing, it is not worth it to me, to spend some big dollars to go see a weak team live.
Am I fair weather fan? If I were, Id be a Laker fan right now and drop the Kings. I am a Kings fan, but it is just not worth it to me to pay those type of prices for the live experience of a weak a.. team.
And dont ask me to be penalized for dumb decisions the kings management made in paying weak players high salaries.
Ill stay at home and watch for free.
TheFifthMookie
Bench
You calling me a 'fairweather fan' is comedy, and unrelated to our discussion on pricing. You do realize we are arguing on a Kingsfans internet forum on the OFFSEASON. Nobody on this forum right now is likely a 'fairweather fan'. I'll leave it there.
Seems to me that most people are willing to pay higher prices for higher quality entertainment. We'd pay more to professional ballerinas over high school ballerinas, more for the Athletics than the Rivercats, more The Rolling Stones than for the local cover band, and so on.
When the team's great, in the playoffs and competing for a title, great, charge what you can. When the team's bad, worst in the league, has an offense that moves like molasses and has disgruntled coaches and players who don't want to be there, charge less - find the pricing point that nearly fills the arena, then start raising prices again from there.
Basketball tickets could or even should be treated as a commodity, and sold at prices that the market can/will pay for them. They get treated that way when tickets are valuable and hard to get (super bowl for instance), so it seems to me that it would work going the other way too.
I can get a much better view on my giant TV at home than I get up there, I'm paying for the experience of being there and being a fan, being part of the chanting crowd, erupting with boos at bad ref calls, cheering epic dunks or great blocks or crisp passes. When I went last year, the crowd was thin, some idiot kept shouting "You suck Napier" all night long, the audience seemed angry, I wasn't a part of something bigger than myself, and the experience (what I'm paying for) was not worth the cost.
Here's what Mark Cuban says about ticket pricing for the Mavs (from Aileen Voison interview)
Mark Cuban said:
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Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
$2 seats = a real; good idea by Cuban. I mean the whole $2, $5, $10 thing, and started while his team is still doing well. No matter how terrible the seats, get the kids in just to experience the atmosphere while you are winning, and they may come back in a few years to buy real seats when they actually have money in their pockets.
Also gives big $$ seat ticket hlders a way to retreat during bad times without entirely losing the tradiatio of goig to the game.
Also gives big $$ seat ticket hlders a way to retreat during bad times without entirely losing the tradiatio of goig to the game.
