Surprisingly this package includes one free game. So really you just have to buy 2 more games to see Strasburg. The Nationals must think they make more money from selling tickets to three different games at 2/3 the price then they would not selling those tickets. Since other than tonight the Nationals probably won't sell out a game the rest of the year this isn't a bad bet. Unless fans who would buy tickets to future games decrease the number they would have purchased when the buy the 4 pack of games to see Strasburg tonight.
A lot of teams do this trick where in order to see a marque game they force you to buy less desirable games. I tried to see a Twins game earlier this year and they were sold out unless you bought tickets to many more games as part of a season ticket plan.
Why don't teams just raise their prices for marque games? They are starting too, many teams charge more for better opponents (Yankees, Red Sox) or weekend summer games. There is some negative reaction to this. I think there would be even more if the Nationals raised their prices just for tonight.
In short people hate it when teams or companies increase prices, but don't seem to mind so much when the increase in price is including as part of buying a larger item such as tickets to 4 games.
2 comments:
Perhaps you're forgetting about the (nonmonetary) incentives presented to the franchise? A "sellout" is a selling point for people trying to woo advertisers, and probably makes the team more attractive to potential players, too. How to maximize sellouts? Find a way to get people to buy tickets to less enticing games.
Just my two cents!
Thought you might also throw in something about the Giants and their variable pricing this year... I haven't followed a lot of it, but this article seems to sum it up: http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/2010/02/25/san-francisco-giants-and-variable-pricing-year-two/
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