Miller: Twins Ticket Sales "Muted"

[Willihammer]

Personally wont spend any $$ to the Twins for tickets (have to on concessions) as i will buy tix off the streets(as will many) so they wont make additional income off of that

This thought will cost Twins hundreds of thousands in tix sales from disgruntled fans who want to see a better attempt from mgt

You better hope those tix aren't sold before you buy them. A guy can sell his tickets for download to someone on stubhub, then take the physical tix to the corner, and sell those too.

[drjim]

Two years to Correia.

 

One year to Marcum.

 

One year to Saunders.

 

These aren't complaints about "pet signings". There were over a dozen guys on the market better than Correia. The Twins didn't get a single one of them and then gave Correia an extra year.

 

Trust me on one thing - you don't have to convince me the Correia contract was a bad one or that the Twins had better options they could have signed.

 

Our fundamental disagreement stems from my position that if instead of Correia the Twins signed one of the other guys advocated for on this board (ie Saunders and/or Marcum) it would only be a marginal upgrade (1-2 wins, maybe 3 if everything breaks right). This is not nothing but hardly a reason for the weeping and gnashing of teeth that has overtaken this board.

 

Also, as it pertains to this article/thread specifically - even if Terry Ryan did everything you advocated it would have done very little (if anything) to reverse the trend on ticket sales for reasons I have already laid out.

[edavis0308]

Trust me on one thing - you don't have to convince me the Correia contract was a bad one or that the Twins had better options they could have signed.

 

Our fundamental disagreement stems from my position that if instead of Correia the Twins signed one of the other guys advocated for on this board (ie Saunders and/or Marcum) it would only be a marginal upgrade (1-2 wins, maybe 3 if everything breaks right). This is not nothing but hardly a reason for the weeping and gnashing of teeth that has overtaken this board.

 

Also, as it pertains to this article/thread specifically - even if Terry Ryan did everything you advocated it would have done very little (if anything) to reverse the trend on ticket sales for reasons I have already laid out.

 

I think I posted the question elsewhere but, how many wins do we need to improve by before the improvements are worth doing? 5? 8? 10? 15?

[twinsnorth49]

There's this

 

Fair point, but I am still skeptical that the moves that have been talked about would be clearly better pitchers. I know people disagree with this. It would have been nice to bring in another representative arm that could start the year in the rotation but for a variety of reasons the Twins failed to do so.

 

but there is also this

 

They did bring in three new starters and a couple of bullpen arms. I think they are trying to get better while also balancing against avoiding bad contracts and not blocking young players.

 

I understand people don't like the Correia signing - I don't either! But to take a decrease in season tickets sales and to suggest the reason is because of some pet signing they didn't do is absurd.

 

I'm not really sure where you stand and I still don't get the blocking issue, blocking who?

[twinsnorth49]

You better hope those tix aren't sold before you buy them. A guy can sell his tickets for download to someone on stubhub, then take the physical tix to the corner, and sell those too.

 

This is a bit of needless fear mongering, while there may be an outlying instance of this happening, it's exceedingly rare. In any case, if that's a concern just buy them on StubHub, they'll be cheap there as well and god knows once you're in you'll be able to sit pretty much wherever you want.

[drjim]

I'm not really sure where you stand and I still don't get the blocking issue, blocking who?

 

I admit this is a little unclear as I tried to limit the length of my responses. I am talking about blocking position players moreso than starting pitchers. I would generally subscribe to the theory that you can never have enough starting pitching.

 

I think the following position players should have significant playing time this year - Parmelee, Dozier, Plouffe, Hicks, Benson, and then Arcia and perhaps Herrmann and Santana later in the year. I do not think the Twins should have signed a free agent at any position except for possibly SS and maybe the right CF on a one year deal. With these limitations there were few (if any) position players that would have made sense to sign. So what I was trying to say, that as the Twins were looking to make improvements this offseason, it was limited what could happen on the position player side to avoid blocking any of the young players listed. There were some MIs that were suggested, but I'm not sure they were any better than Carroll at this point. Brignac would have been a nice guy to take a flier on but I wouldn't have given anything of much value for him.

 

For pitching, they did fill three slots and could have easily filled a fourth, perhaps they should have. As has been pointed out, this is especially true because most of the pitchers are coming off surgeries in the past year and Gibson has an innings limitation. However, if all the new pitchers stay healthy through spring training and are ready to go (and that is a big if right now), and if the Twins had signed a fourth new starter (say Saunders or Marcum), both Gibson and Hendriks would have started in the minors, so in essence they would have been blocked. This would have been fine, but I am also of the opinion that Gibson should probably just start the season in the rotation so I'm not especially devastated by the fact that the Twins didn't sign another pitcher.

 

I hope this would also answer the question from edavis. I would sign anyone that improves the win total so long as the signing falls within the following parameters. The signing would have to not block a younger player and it would have to not be a contract that could be a potential hindrance in 2015. That would leave the following possibilities for the Twins as currently constructed:

1. Another starter on a 1-2 year deal or Greinke (which wasn't going to happen). The Twins failed at this but we don't have all the information. Quite frankly the only three guys that I felt got away were McCarthy, Marcum and Saunders. McCarthy seemed to want to stay west, it was reported that Saunders pretty much didn't want to come to Minnesota, and the Marcum situation is a mystery that has been speculated on to death.

2. A one year deal for a stopgap CF - I don't know if this type of player was really on the market

3. A SS - same as the CF, didn't really exist on the market

4. Another RP - this would have been fine with me, but I wouldn't go more than a year and I generally think the bullpen is currently in acceptable condition

[StormJH1]

Gonna try to keep this post about ticket sales, rather than Twins personnel decisions...

 

I go to an average of about a game per month, so something like 5-10 games per year. Despite my wife not being a particularly huge sports fan, she enjoys live baseball and the ballpark experience. Through her company, we had put in for raffles for outfield seats and paid face value for them the first 3 years of the team. So, probably about $200 - $300 for the whole year (not to mention the absurd beer and food prices and parking), but even in retrospect, I feel that was good value for a great experience at the ballpark. I don't hunt or fish, and we aren't cabin people. While everyone and their grandpa uses summer weekends to get as far away from the Cities as possible, we view that as the time we want to be in the city going to a ballgame, eating/drinking outside, etc.

 

But this year we finally wised up and did not get tickets in advance. (Well, except for the opener, which is cool to see any year). First, our seats were in the OF and were a lot of day games, and summer day games in LF can be fairly brutal, as hard as that is to conceptualize in mid-February. But given that this is probably about a 70-win team again, I'd really just like to try doing the same-day StubHub thing and seeing how cheap we can get in the park. It'd be more interesting to sit in different parts of the park anyway, and we can just walk around and get beer.

 

Long story short - I'll still be there even if the team remains bad because I like the experience. But I'm done paying face value for those tickets. They make enough money off concessions as it is.

[twinsnorth49]

Long story short - I'll still be there even if the team remains bad because I like the experience. But I'm done paying face value for those tickets. They make enough money off concessions as it is.

 

At the end of the day these are my sentiments exactly, well stated.

[TheLeviathan]

At the end of the day these are my sentiments exactly, well stated.

 

Yup, after being one of those people selling on Stub Hub the last season and a half, time for me to get some cheap tickets. I love the experience and love the team, but I'm going to take the same approach to my ticket buying that the team did with payroll.

 

I just worry about the future payrolls when it matters.

[Highabove]

Breaking News

 

The Twins will not allow a Ticket on Stub Hub to be listed under $3.00

 

The Twins must be protecting their Season Ticket Holders.

[Willihammer]

I know there is some flexibility for teams to do their own thing but are you sure? This says the min. is actually $6

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8732189/major-league-baseball-stubhub-renew-secondary-ticket-market-deal

[TheLeviathan]

All setting a minimum price does is guarantee some people in some markets get nothing for their tickets. At times last September I was happy to get $3.

[Willihammer]

"Under StubHub's new pricing model, customers will pay a $2.25 delivery fee per ticket up to $10. That's compared to a flat $5.40 delivery fee before. The service fee was lowered to $3 for tickets under $50, and is a percentage of the price above that number."

 

I looked it up. I paid $10.45 in fees per transaction last year. Now fees are going to be half that, on tickets under $10 anyway.

 

$3 min. sounds like a net win for everybody actually. $6, not so much.

[TheLeviathan]

I looked it up. I paid $10.45 in fees per transaction last year. Now fees are going to be half that, on tickets under $10 anyway.

 

$3 min. sounds like a net win for everybody actually. $6, not so much.

 

I do like the fees dropping, that was a real irritation last year.

[CDog]

Despite my wife not being a particularly huge sports fan, she enjoys live baseball and the ballpark experience...

 

I'd really just like to try doing the same-day StubHub thing and seeing how cheap we can get in the park. It'd be more interesting to sit in different parts of the park anyway, and we can just walk around and get beer...

 

Long story short - I'll still be there even if the team remains bad because I like the experience.

 

I've been in a fairly similar situation. The one thing I like about getting several games (we do about once a month) set ahead of time is that it avoids the all-too-common situation where you just don't get around to going as much as you'd think. When you have the tickets already, it forces you to go. Especially with a wife that isn't all that tied to the team or the sport, it gets really easy for us (especially in the summer) to have this, that, or the other come up and get in the way of going to games.

 

Having said that, the StubHub route can be a really good way to find something cheaper than it normally would be and get into different areas of the ballpark like you mention. I've managed to sit in nearly every area now, and it's fun to mix it up with a different view and perspective. Best of luck in the endeavor this year. And if the fees on SH are coming down a little bit, even better.

[Willihammer]

OK now stubhub is telling me there is in fact no minimum price.

 

Also there is a new "MLB Transfer fee" of $1.50 per transaction

 

Also saying the deliver fee is $2. Not $2.25

[Kwak]

"Overpay". "Block young players". "Worry about future payrolls". ?????

It makes me wonder if there is some kind of Stockholm Syndrome happening or if there are shills posting as average fans on this site. I have lived in quite a few cities around the nation, interacted with fans of many different (professional) teams and I must say I just don't recall anybody (but a claimed Twins fan) express concern if the owner "overpayed" for a player. Almost always I hear complaints that they have a [disappointing] team and/or their "cheap/dumb (xxx) owner won't spend more to improve their team. Universally all agree atheletes are "paid too much" but aren't at all concerned about the owner's profit margin.

[Gernzy]

I have a 20 game plan that a few co-workers buy some of my games. I'll go to at least 10 of the games. It's still a good deal I don't plan on getting rid of my tickets just because the team is back. Going to Target Field on a beautiful summer day is still a blast.

 

Plus I plan on going to all the All Star events next year.

[Willihammer]

I agree with you Gernzy, and I would question the idea that 1.8 million sold tickets as of last Saturday is very muted at all. I wonder what sales were last year at this time?

[drjim]

"Overpay". "Block young players". "Worry about future payrolls". ?????

It makes me wonder if there is some kind of Stockholm Syndrome happening or if there are shills posting as average fans on this site. I have lived in quite a few cities around the nation, interacted with fans of many different (professional) teams and I

must say I just don't recall anybody (but a claimed Twins fan) express concern if the owner "overpayed" for a player. Almost always I hear complaints that they have a [disappointing] team and/or their "cheap/dumb (xxx) owner won't spend more to improve their team. Universally all agree atheletes are "paid too much" but aren't at all concerned about the owner's profit margin.

 

This is probably why you wouldn't want most fans anywhere near the front office.