I was thinking about this when I saw that the cheapest seat for opening day at Dodger Stadium this season is 302.00 for a general admission seat. Well, I looked at the Dodger ticket guide, and that is just a bit exaggerated. It cost 159.00. But the point is, that is way too high for my blood or most any retiree on SSA.
Now the exact same seat is 51.00 for a game against the Giants the following week. Still too rich for my blood. Last season according to Statista, the average price of a ticket at Dodger Stadium was 209 dollars. 23 dollars higher than a seat in Yankee Stadium.
You add in parking, which at Dodger Stadium can be as much as 40 dollars or more, concessions, well, it adds up to about as much as I used to make in a week. By contrast, the average price at a Marlins game was 69 dollars.
The closest ballpark to me is Coors Field in Denver. Average price there, 85 dollars. Now, I have not been in several years. But I know the biggest hassle in Denver is parking close to Coors. There was a lot right across from the main entrance that I used a couple of times. It was 30 dollars to park there. But I have gotten seats as cheap as 15 dollars there. And I believe it still only costs 10 to sit in the rock pile.
Listening to the guys who went to Camelback, it seems the price of spring training games has skyrocketed too. The one time I went, I sat in the third row just to the left of the Dodger dugout and it cost me 29 dollars.
This is why when I do go to Los Angeles to visit family, I would rather make the drive out to Rancho and watch the kids in a box seat that costs less than 20 dollars and park for six.
Granted, any ballpark you go to food and beer are going to be high. The garlic fries at Loan Mart are better than the ones at Dodger Stadium and are two dollars less. I do not drink beer, so I do not have to spend upwards of 10 bucks for a 12 ounce drink.
But the way prices are now, I have a feeling that I won’t see a game in person again. There are no senior citizen discounts and no Veterans discounts that I have seen. Baseball pricing has gotten way out of hand.
Yamamoto looks like a disaster, sorry to say. He is not ready for MLB talent. Dodgers should prepare to replace him until he gets his head together.
Jeff – now this really is Dodger October baseball.
15 runs on 18 hits in 3 innings in one and a half hours.
Plenty of action.
Mookie just won a car with a HR
10-8
Get home and get grounded.
Note to MLB – don’t do this again.
Scott Andes and I had a conversation about Dodger tickets. I’m not sure what the issue is here.
to me, this means the market is working efficiently. Dodger prices are right where they should be. I would argue that ticket prices used to be artificially low. That may not be a bad thing.
Marlin‘s prices are cheaper, because nobody wants them. There’s more supply than demand. not really sure what the problem is.
I have heard it argued that baseball is losing the next generation of fans. That might be true, might not.
but I think that’s more due to video games, social networks, streaming services, un authorized streams of the games.
i’d like going to games. I like keeping score games. But I easily acknowledge the baseball is boring in person.
Got a question for you gambling dudes out there:
What bookie would take bets totaling $4.5 million in debt from someone making what an interpreter would make? Seems to me these are debts that someone making many millions of dollars a year would incur.
Some thoughts so far:
*The pitching obviously sucked last night. We won’t lose many when we score 11. No time to overreact.
*I thought Glasnow looked fine to me. Nasty stuff and I’ll live with 4 walks, early.
*We all know Muncy is adequate, at best, at 3rd. But we will all live with that because we love his bat. To his credit, he’s lost weight and looked more mobile to me when I watched work outs at Camelback Ranch. But this is the best version of him defensively. This is who he is. I thought the ball by 3rd base was foul, but ruled fair. To me it was just a double pulled down the line and Max had no play. The Ole play to Max’s glove side was a ball he failed to pick. Get used to it.
*It took me no time to get a gut full of Eddie Perez. He offers his assumptions and backs them up with bullshit. Lots of Tim McCarver there. He blamed Muncy for not using proper mechanics on the double down the line. Eddie was all over Max speculating he was “on his heels and lacked focus due to the long inning”. I say it was a double.
*Eddie and Ravi also postulated “Yamamoto was unable to control his emotions” and it “got the best of him”. And the teams poor performance could be blamed on “Jet lag” and “Ohtani’s distracting situation”. I was one friggin baseball game. Please don’t piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining.
*I don’t think much of Yamamoto’s rolling, 77 mph curveball. It has a hump out of his hand and just rolls to the hitter with no late break. We called this a “legion roundhouse curve” back in my day. But let’s give the kid a chance before we push the panic button.
*Perhaps 4 pitchers we saw last night won’t be on the 26 man roster especially if Treinen and Graterol are healthy. Grove, Hurt, Feyereisen and Valand will be in the minors and not throwing to the Padres in a counter.
*Had enough of the drum in the background, the emaciated cheerleaders who looked 10 and the ballpark that looked worse then Oakland’s.
*Does MLB really need an enhanced global presence in Korea and Japan? Stay home and play where you don’t need to pay for sleep coaches.
*Yes Bear the prices are outrageous at Camelback Ranch as I mentioned many time this Spring Training. I saved a little with walk-up tickets on game day. But not much. The going rate for advanced tickets to sit on the outfield berm grass was $89.00. Family of 4 to sit out there – $356.00. Tall domestic beers – $18.00 each. Bottled water – $6.00 each. Hot Dogs close to $10. The average family is getting priced out. Remember, it’s exhibition baseball where the starters generally play 5 innings for early games. I saw 12 spring games and plan to watch 2 more Sox games but I’ve moved on to Goodyear Ballpark where prices are still reasonable without the Dodgers.
For those who are interested in the Ohtani-Ippei gambling saga, here’s a link to an analysis by Craig Calcaterra who writes a daily newsletter.
This is far and away the most complete analysis (given the paucity of facts available so far) that I have seen.
Based on the possibilities he lays out, it doesn’t look fantastic for our hero right now.
https://cupofcoffee.beehiiv.com/p/cup-coffee-extra-breaking-shohei-ohtaniippei-mizuhara-story?utm_source=cupofcoffee.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=cup-of-coffee-extra-breaking-down-the-shohei-ohtani-ippei-mizuhara-story
This might explain why Shohei was able to defer so much of his salary.
Top MLB players by endorsement $ 2024:
3) Aaron Judge – 6 mil
2) Bryce Harper – 7 mil
1) Shohei Ohtani – 65 mil
Is anyone besides me having trouble getting on Mark’s site?
JDM to NYM – 1 year, $12.0MM. Got a small raise from 2023. I am a JDM fan, so I hope he does well, except against the Dodgers.
Mark’s site is back, but you never know if the server is going to screw up again.