Ticket prices that hide the truth.

They could have started years ago with their own season ticket holders. They know very well that a large number of season ticket holders especially those in the most expensive seats are brokers. One year the Cubs mistakenly sent me someone else tickets , which consisted of over 20 seats broken up in 6 parts of the Club and field boxes in groups of 2 and 4. They went to an individual not to a company. Who exactly would be using 20 seats per season in the most expensive sections ? I was probably one of the last season ticket holders to sell any of my extras for more than face value despite the fact that I don’t live in Chicago and end up using no more then 15 or so games myself. I did it mostly because the Cubs made it harder and harder to sell them at face value ( if you resell on stubhub or through the Cubs old system you HAVE to mark up roughly 30% just to get back what you paid). I still sell most of my extras to friends, BCB folks and people I meet. After the Cubs “premium tickets” scam was exposed I said screw it and sold 10-15 big games at a mark up to cover my airfare. In any event that ship has sailed. With MLB endorsing scalping via Stubhub the Cubs can’t stop it if they wanted to. One thing they COULD to though which other teams have done is set up a small area outside of Wrigley where people withe extra tickets could sell them at FACE VALUE to fans who want to buy them. This has to be set up like the day of game returns where the buyer must immediately enter the park but it is not that hard to arrange. This way people selling tickets at face value don’t have to choose between being arrested and selling them to broker who can scalp them legally.

In any event the “hidden” tax still sucks and makes the Cubs unique among entertainment companies in a way that not exactly
fan friendly.

…. and I can’t find it now, that said ticket prices would be “rounded”. I assume this would mean for single-game buyers, so that the people at the ticket windows don’t have to handle pennies.

I’m with you, ballhawk. It’s not a scam. In fact, it may be a ‘screw you’ to the city because the Cubs want everyone to know how much the tax is.

For anyone who thinks this tax is new, they are incorrect. Amusement tax has been charged for decades in Chicago. It may have been increased slightly, but this is nothing new.

but if you are just a fan and see the price of a ticket at $52 that used to be $60 you think oh price went down. Why is it that no other entity in the entire COUNTRY counts the tax separately when pricing a ticket ? Why break it down at all ? If the cost of the ticket is 63,55 instead of $52 ( and that is not exact t math) just list it that way. Tell you what if when the tickets go on sale to the public the online price and price posted at the box office lists the EXACT price with the tax then I will take it all back but I am not holding my breath. Basically when people buy a ticket to a movie, play, sporting event etc directly from the owner or their rep, the
tax has ALWAYS been included, the only reason to list it separately is to make it appear like you are paying less.

meant to ballhawk above

… clearly, they did NOT hide the fact that they increased the number of platinum games. You’re right, that’s the real increase.

Since you have a partial plan, the way you calculate the increase is different from the way those of us who have full-season plans calculate it.

My total price comes to about 5% more than last year. Some people’s increase — like yours — is higher. Personally, if I were Tom Ricketts, I wouldn’t have done this, because as you say, it does SEEM deceptive.

They broke out the tax and put it right there in front of you. Yes. it’s different (the breaking out the tax part) but how is it deceptive when it’s in plain sight?

Did anyone from the Cubs say they lowered ticket prices? Was there something in your packet that said “Last year your platinum games were $45 but this year, we lowered the price to $42!” Now that would be deceptive.

The closest they came to deception was the timing of this announcement, but anyone who’s spent any time in Chicago knows that issuing “bad news” press releases on a late Friday afternoon is a time-honored tradition here in the Windy City. That’s just the way things are done around here.

… the first two Dodger dates (5/25 and 5/26) are platinum dates, the third (5/27, a day game) is a gold date.