Not that long ago, ticket prices for baseball was simple and straightforward. A given seat cost the same for every game, be it a Wednesday afternoon contest against an obscure cross-country outfit, or a Saturday night special against your most hated rival. Then came the ‘Premium’ games, in which an additional charge was levied for games seen as causing a higher demand. And now, the San Francisco Giants have taken this to a level that can only be described as berserk, with their new dynamic pricing system, a fractional snippet of which is seen below.
I Have Seen The Future Of Baseball Ticket Pricing. And It Is... Complex
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↵If I’m reading the chart correctly - and I may not be, given it’s Byzantine depth - the same centre-field bleacher seat which costs you $5.50 on April 4th, will cost you $38.00 for the very next home game. It’s a model apparently based on the airline system, where prices change based on supply and demand. In the case of Giants games, this includes the “weather, starting pitcher, opponent, number of seats already sold, if it’s a promotion or giveaway day, performance of star players and the team, likelihood of making playoffs, day of week and time of day.”
↵One imagine the Giants got fed up of seeing the profits go to the ticket scalpers and decided they might as well get in on the action and start pimping their own tickets. If it’s a success, expect to see the same kind of thing come to a ballpark near you in future seasons. For the local fans’ take on the scheme, see McCovey Chronicles.
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