Neobhagwan posted this in comments, I thought it warranted higher visibility. Yesterday I wrote how I feel like a fool with my $35 Face tickets for Saturday when the Mets are giving all the Joardany Come Latelies 4 for $48. Nobody made my buy advance tickets but I feel like a fool that I did.
I think there are a lot of us in the same boat. We’re dumb(?) enough to buy plans in advance and then find that the team uses “dynamic” pricing later to get people in the stands. Admittedly, the dynamically priced seats are not necessarily where I would want to sit for a game. However, the price is a lot more attractive.
My own plan is on the “Excelsior” level, which sounds incredibly pompous and is almost embarrassing to admit. For the first 3 years at Citi, we parked upstairs under the overhang – I’m not big on sun or rain, so we had the last row in section 518. Eventually, the missus’ knee problems let us to lower climates and I’m fortunate to be able to swing the cost of seats in the 300’s. These are easier to get to, in the shade, and have access to some nice areas. These also do not appear to be influenced by the dynamic pricing activities, so maybe I can’t complain. However, I still will.
My seats for the last weekend we attended were $61 each. These prices are slightly cheaper (I’m guessing about 10%) than what you can buy them for on-line. Of course, I’m not counting my fellow plan holders dumping the tickets cheaper on Stub Hub. If I do try to dump my own tickets, I need to sell at the range of the other seats. After Stub Hub fees, you end up losing money. The Mets will let you trade your tickets for similar seats to other games, but my 20 ticket plan is more than enough (especially for this team). I cant stand more games.
The net is that we’re getting jacked. There really is no reason to buy in advance — there’s no incentive. You can get the same good seats later on the secondary market for less money. The Mets offer no real advantage to buying a plan — very few perqs, only a small discount, etc. I think I only still buy because I feel some loyalty or feel that I’m in a special club and don’t want to give up my “seniority” – a seniority, by the way, that gets me absolutely nothing.
As a side note about seniority… I think I still feel burned by the time I dropped my R.E.M. fan club membership when I was in college. I found out that other people in the dorm offices used to steal my fan club packages and got tired of paying for stuff that would get “lost” in the mail. When I came back in, I never seemed to get the same cool things my other friends who never dropped their membership got — special tickets to show tapings (Unplugged, Story Tellers), better pre-sale tickets at concerts, etc. So, maybe I can blame R.E.M. for me sticking it out with the Mets.
Anyway… the net is that the Mets need to make these plans worth purchasing in advance. OK, I did get one pair of comp tickets this season with Delta Club access. That was pretty cool, but it’s not enough. We need more events, a bigger discount on tickets, a bigger discount on merchandise, discounts on food, what else? Get creative, Mets ticket office. Otherwise, I’ll be one of the others that drop my plan and simply buy tickets (and certainly fewer of them) when I find it convenient.
