Sunday Cubs Games Vs. Dodgers And White Sox Both Cancelled
by Al Yellon on Mar 7, 2010 1:57 PM CST
in Chicago Cubs Recaps
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PrintIn the past, when a spring training game was called off, it was considered a cancelled event, and tickets were refunded. This happened to me in 2003 when I sat in the parking lot at Surprise for 45 minutes, with no letup in sight of heavy rain and the game vs. the Royals was cancelled.
I got a refund from Ticketmaster, including the fees.
Not so, apparently, today with the game at Glendale vs. the White Sox. The White Sox press release says you can only exchange the tickets:
The ticket becomes a gift certificate that may be exchanged at any time in the future at the Camelback Ranch Baseball facility or by mail to Camelback Ranch Baseball at 10710 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85037 for an individual ticket of equal or lesser face value for a future spring training game (subject to prior sales). In no instance shall the ticket be exchangeable for a ticket with a face value greater than the face value of the ticket. This policy may be amended anytime without notice.
No cash refund or credit will be issued and gift certificates may not be applied to any account balance.
I feel compelled to point out that the White Sox sell tickets via Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's refund policy for cancelled events states:
Ticketmaster typically only offers refunds and/or exchanges based on the promoter's, team's or venue's instructions. In order to receive a refund or an exchange that may be offered, you will have to comply with the promoter's, team's or venue's instructions or deadlines, which, along with the decision about whether or not to issue a refund or an exchange, may be at the promoter's, team's or venue's discretion.
Thus, apparently, the White Sox are perfectly within their rights to do this. However, I would consider this an ill-advised policy. Many of the fans can't go to another game, and this isn't a postponed game that's going to be rescheduled -- it's a cancelled event. The Cubs have yet to announce a policy here, but in the past, they have refunded tickets for cancelled spring training games.
Looks like another bit of evidence of greed on the part of Jerry Reinsdorf.
UPDATE: This is further confirmed by a phone conversation I had with someone in the HoHoKam Park box office at 2:45 pm CST on Sunday. The gist of it was:
Any tickets purchased through that box office would be refunded if you brought the tickets to the box office, or if you bought them by credit card, your card would be refunded.
Also, anyone who bought tickets for today's game via tickets.com would have their card refunded. The only exception is if you bought tickets through a "third party" (likely referring to StubHub), in which case you have to deal with StubHub.
This is the only sensible way to approach a cancelled event like this. It's not like a postponed game during the regular season that gets rescheduled; it's more like a concert that you have tickets for that gets cancelled for whatever reason.
Shame on you, Jerry Reinsdorf.
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Sounds like a Cubs tax to me!
by The Deputy Mayor of Rush Street on Mar 7, 2010 2:08 PM CST reply actions
Ok I'll play devil's advocate
The White Sox are wrong to force to go to another game you probably can’t make instead of give you refund, but it is OK
for the Cubs to tax White Sox fans to build a new Cubs park?
Just asking before someone else does.
"I am not ashamed to say I love Greg Maddux" - Jim Hendry
Me either Jim
by Doggie Stalker on Mar 7, 2010 2:26 PM CST up reply actions
I think you can clearly see the situations are NOT comparable.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Um I did not say they were actually.
You wrote “exactly my point” re that it was like a Cubs tax, so I figured had to ask about that.
"I am not ashamed to say I love Greg Maddux" - Jim Hendry
Me either Jim
by Doggie Stalker on Mar 7, 2010 2:31 PM CST up reply actions
Well, I was being a bit facetious.
On the one hand, the alleged “tax” is something that would eventually benefit everyone in the Cactus League (regardless of claims to the contrary).
The other is taking money spent for a cancelled event and essentially pocketing it.
That’s a clear difference in my mind.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
You forgot the sarcasm font
"I am not ashamed to say I love Greg Maddux" - Jim Hendry
Me either Jim
by Doggie Stalker on Mar 7, 2010 2:40 PM CST up reply actions
Yeah, I guess.
This is still greedy on the part of Reinsdorf.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Greed all around.
"In time you can turn these obsessions into careers...Hurry Down Doomsday the bugs are taking over." - Elvis Costello
Me, I was thinking along the lines..
that there’s only one team in the Grapefruit league that ‘travels’, and for the 6,000 or so Cub fans that showed up to join the Sox’ 6,000 or so regular fans, there’s probably only one or two more Cubs @ Sox games they would be interested in exchanging the stubs for. And those game are likely sold out by now anyhow.
For the not-insignificant number of Cub fans that bought tickets to a rainout, going to a different Sox game is not of interest to them.
At least when the Brewers make you buy a dud game to get a Cubs game ticket, they’re being upfront about the deal.
by The Deputy Mayor of Rush Street on Mar 7, 2010 2:45 PM CST up reply actions
Right.
So the Cubs fans who had tickets to today’s game are screwed. Which is likely Reinsdorf’s plan all along.
See below for the Cubs’ policy on the game today in Mesa.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
"In time you can turn these obsessions into careers...Hurry Down Doomsday the bugs are taking over." - Elvis Costello
It's a City where everyone makes a Fortune?
We’re all winners!
"Who ever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to have?" -Frank Chance
"If [Ruth] had [called his shot], I would have knocked him down with the next pitch." -Charlie Root
Really?
His plan was specifically to screw over Cubs fans? Seems like a long shot, but I guess it paid off.
"Now we can just call you Kishi Laptop, Esquire."
No, apparently the plan was to screw over any fan who came to a rained-out game.
I’d feel the same way if it were the Diamondbacks. The White Sox should NOT keep this money.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
My thoughts exactly
And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight.
They should go all out and say the gift certificate expires in 6 months.
“This ticket gift certificate expires August 31, 2010. The fact that remaining ST games may be sold out or, in the case of April-August 2010, not scheduled, is irrelevant. Should have thought of that before you bought a ticket to a game that was never played.”
Wow, White Sox. What a horrible, greedy ticket policy. The only reason for doing this is b/c the Sox are well aware that a large portion of ticketholders are on vacation in AZ, and won’t make it back for a future game. Free gate receipts for a game that we don’t even have to bother to play!
Also, I love that they give themselves the exclusive right to amend their policy in the future just in case they need to take away some ticket-holder right they hadn’t remembered the first time around.
MLBMilestone.com - following the numbers to Cooperstown
by D98 on Mar 7, 2010 2:25 PM CST reply actions 8 recs
rec'd
Sunday Feb 28 at 7 PM CST free webcast of the live taping of The Austin Variety Show www.austinvarietyshow.com/
I just spoke to someone at the HoHoKam Park ticket office on the phone.
She said that any tickets purchased through that box office would be refunded if you brought the tickets to the box office, or if you bought them by credit card, your card would be refunded.
She also said that anyone who bought tickets today via tickets.com would have their card refunded. The only exception is if you bought tickets through a “third party” (likely referring to StubHub), in which case you have to deal with StubHub.
This is the only sensible way to approach a cancelled event like this. I’m also posting this info on the front page.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Further update.
This appears to be a Camelback Ranch policy — see this Camelback Ranch website post about today’s game.
I guess the McCourts have to pay for that divorce somehow.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
19 Mil for the lawyers alone
most expensive in California history, so says the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mccourt-divorce-20100306,0,342624.story
That's staggering
Two words: “Mediator” and “Pre-nup.”
What a waste of money – how many teacher’s salaries would that $19 MM cover?
"Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel, No Doubt About It!"
by scottsdalecubs on Mar 7, 2010 9:19 PM CST up reply actions
how many left fielders would that $19 MM cover?
actually, by paying the millions in attorney’s fees, the McCourt’s are stimulating the economy, as they are sharing their wealth among the population.
by holy mackeral on Mar 7, 2010 10:09 PM CST up reply actions
The population of lawyers.
I’ll let the rest of you decide whether that’s good or bad.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
ONCE AGAIN THE FAN
is taken advantage of . There is no other word but greed for something like this . Of course they know the fan is only in the area for a week in most cases . Go Figure ….
I looked at the back of my tickets for upcoming games at Camelback Ranch.
They basically say the same thing, that you can only exchange them for comparable events. Now, this is on Ticketmaster ticket stock, not from Camelback Ranch, so it could apply to any number of events. The ticket I have for the game vs. the Reds at Goodyear, same thing.
This ticket page on the Goodyear Ballpark site says nothing about cancelled games, so I don’t know what the Reds official policy is.
Don’t these people know the era of sports greed is over? Just wait till the TV contracts that are now feeding the beast come up for renewal. You think Fox is going to pay MLB $1 billion again? No way.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
The way things are going, it could be "MLB on the Home Shopping Network".
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
greedy?
insofar as the decision was made to maximize profit? whoa! and here i thought this was a business.
I'd rather have Rios steal 50 bases than hit 50 home runs. I want production.
and we all know that maximizing profit
is never EVER about greed…
you can’t get much by that #$%@ ballhawk -- LT
Maximize profit?
I guess, if you consider taking money for an event that didn’t occur and won’t be rescheduled and not refunding it, the right thing to do.
Me, I consider it stealing.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
you're upset because it's a cubs game.
i don’t agree with your comparison to a concert. this is a spring training game. the policy is in place for all the games. and is actually used, what, once every five years? spring training games are essentially fungible. if you think that a special policy should be in place for cubs games, well, i’d expect that. i’d simply suggest calling the ticket office because they’ll refund your money if you tell them you’re not going to be around for any more games.
Quit BS'ing
If you held a ticket to this game, your flight out was tomorrow, and you couldn’t get a refund, you’d be crying foul as loudly as the next guy, no matter what your rooting interests.
Unless you’re wealthy enough to not care, in which case, please accept my apology, Mr. Reinsdorf.
"Who ever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to have?" -Frank Chance
"If [Ruth] had [called his shot], I would have knocked him down with the next pitch." -Charlie Root
To larry....
… who I know is one of the admins at South Side Sox, with all due respect, you’re wrong.
It’s exactly like a cancelled concert. It is a scheduled event that did not happen and will not be rescheduled. According to both Ticketmaster and the Camelback Ranch website, they will not refund your money, even if you tell them what you suggest.
That’s just plain wrong. Has nothing to do with it being a Cubs game. It’s wrong no matter who the White Sox (or Dodgers) are playing.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
al, somehow i doubt you're the type of guy who reads a policy and just accepts it.
while there apparently is some belief here that jerry reinsdorf is an evil all-knowing, all-powerful deity who personally crafted the spring training refund policy and then created a rainstorm so that he could use that policy to screw cubs fans, the white sox are a pretty accommodating organization. if you call and explain, you’ll be fine.
Really?
That’s not what it says in the official rainout policy. It says:
No cash refund or credit will be issued and gift certificates may not be applied to any account balance.
Now, parse that any way you want, but it screws over ANY fan who has a ticket for a rained-out game. You are assuming that this is some sort of Cubs/White Sox rivalry thing, which it is not. I’d be upset about this policy if it were the White Sox playing ANYONE in a rained-out spring game.
They should refund the tickets if asked. Now, maybe they will, but that’s not what the policy says.
For the record, I am in Chicago and did not have a ticket to this game. I’m not out any money personally. I’m upset for the people who are.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
I have a friend who came here from out of town
to attend that game at Camelback Ranch yesterday. When the game was cancelled, he called the box office and told them he was from out of town and was leaving today and would not be able to use the gift certificate and they issued him a refund with no fanfare.
Fair enough.
If that’s the case, why do they have that as their posted policy, when other teams specifically say you can get a refund for spring training games?
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
You'd think, though...
… that someone would think ahead of time, “Gee, this is a spring training game, it’s not rescheduled, other teams refund the money if it’s rained out, maybe we should do the same.”
Instead, they set out a clear policy that they’re keeping the money. I’m glad to hear you can get refunds. There’s no reason to not simply say so.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Well, the Cubs have a clearly printed policy that allows refunds, for example.
And, as I wrote in the original post, in 2003 the Royals refunded my money without me even having to ask — including all the TM fees.
The Camelback Ranch policy as posted is fan-unfriendly. That’s all I’d ask them to change.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
new place. someone wrote a new policy. that someone was probably a part-time intern from glendale who didn't actually think about the logical consequences of it because he's from glendale, is an intern and isn't paid to think.
or it was jerry reinsdorf’s plan all along.
I'm not sure
that placing this at Jerry Reinsdorf’s doorstep is appropriate. The Dodgers operate under the same policy, as they also play at Camelback Ranch. Hopefully, when there will be some fallout from this and a policy change will result. Camelback Ranch appears to be the only park that does the gift certificate thing.
Look.
I doubt they let interns write ticket policies. If the Cubs had such a policy for spring training games, I’d have come down just as hard on them.
The policy is wrongheaded. No other spring park has this policy. It’s a Camelback Ranch policy — applies to Dodgers home games, too.
Either way, it’s wrong.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
of course it's a silly policy.
and if you don’t think some numbnut wrote the policy, you haven’t paid much attention to the types of people who work at spring training facilities. you don’t exactly get a high quality and deep staff for something that’s open a month every year. you get a college intern. and the never used rainout policy is just the thing you assign to them.
On the other hand
when you write a policy that is completely different than everyone else’s, that implies that not only did they put thought into it, but there was intent, as well. The easiest thing would have been to duplicate the policies that everyone else uses.
No, I think it is clear, as Al says, because of the rather unique financial situation in Glendale/Camelback Ranch, that there was intent to squeeze every possible dollar out of the fans who attend Spring Training games there. I hope they are called on it and have to revise the policy.
A good example of this was the ridiculously expensive seats they had last year at Camelback Ranch in the sections right behind home plate. People complained and this year they reduced the cost of those seats dramatically.
Agreed.
I think that larry, who is one of the admins at South Side Sox, came here assuming I was posting an anti-White Sox diatribe. Now, maybe my comment about Reinsdorf was a bit over-the-top — this was clearly a policy agreed to by BOTH the White Sox and Dodgers — but nevertheless, it’s a wrongheaded policy and had the Cubs done this with their rainout tickets from Sunday, I’d have said the same thing about them.
Fortunately, it does seem as if the Camelback Ranch people are doing the right thing.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
no. i've just been poking fun at you and everyone else who posted the word "reinsdorf" in relation to this.
i know that i’m not the only white sox fan who reads this site who is amused at what actions get ascribed to him. it’s certainly telling that he gets more mentions here than on a white sox blog.
"In time you can turn these obsessions into careers...Hurry Down Doomsday the bugs are taking over." - Elvis Costello
LOL
I did say above that my comments about Reinsdorf may have been over-the-top.
Whoever came up with the no-refunds policy should be fired, though.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
I LOVE YOU MAN
and your sense of humor!
Enjoy the season!
"In time you can turn these obsessions into careers...Hurry Down Doomsday the bugs are taking over." - Elvis Costello
I'm not saying
this is the norm. It just happened my friend was here on business from Atlanta, decided to stay the weekend and take in a game. I had breakfast with him before he flew back out on Monday and he told me this story.
My guess is that they adhere to the policy unless pushed about the fact that the gift certificate is useless to someone who is from out of town.
I agree with the general thrust that the policy is goofy and not very well thought out. I hope the powers that be at Camelback Ranch gets some heat and change the policy to something more “fan friendly”. So far as I can tell, they are the only park in the Cactus League that does the gift certificate thing, Goodyear definitely issues refunds.
I went to one game at the "Cell Block".
never again.
Forget all that other stuff. I gotta believe.
by drewishdrewid on Mar 7, 2010 8:44 PM CST up reply actions
we will have to wait
to see the shark’s spring debut. a lot is riding on the investment that has been made in samardzija…
Until recently,
he was the best available internal option. Anymore, not so much. Fifteen months ago, we made an unpopular trade because we had little pitching depth. Now, we have quite a bit more. Shark is going to have players to outperform. Last year, our options were limited. ’This year, Cariman and Wells have passed him. Now, Atkins, Coleman, Cashner, and others are (or should be) given the option to do so as well.
He will have to earn his Wrigley innings this year.
Esdailad Cariman?
"Who ever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to have?" -Frank Chance
"If [Ruth] had [called his shot], I would have knocked him down with the next pitch." -Charlie Root
Maybe he meant this guy
I'm singing, "GO CUBS GO! GO CUBS GO!" -- DrCrawdad on Jun 12, 2009 7:23 AM CDT
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -- Homer J. Simpson
by Shanghai Badger on Mar 7, 2010 8:07 PM CST up reply actions
the only thing that may taint a fair competition
is the millions in guaranteed money shark has had invested in him…
Reinsdorf prefers that the fan be out of luck for the rainout, not him
if it was up to Reinsdorf, it would have been a sunny 80 degree day. So he’s probably thinking “hey, dont punish me for the bad weather, it isnt my fault. I’ve done nothing wrong.” Buyer Beware
Found at cubs.com
Anyone who purchased a ticket to Sunday’s game in Mesa via www.cubs.com or by phone via 1-800-905-3315 will be automatically refunded to his or her credit card.
Tickets purchased through the HoHoKam box office may be returned for a refund by April 15 in person at the stadium box office or through the mail by sending the tickets to:
P.O. Box 261
Mesa, AZ 85211
That applies to both season tickets or tickets purchased by an individual.
For more information, call the HoHoKam box office at 480-964-4467 or send an e-mail to info2010@mesahohokams.com.
"A waist is a terrible thing to mind." - Terry 'Fat Tub of Goo' Forster
@Twitter as @brommmietze
Is there ANY way we can listen, watch or find out what is happening in today's (mon) game????
I cant find the gameday link….it still says Cubs/D’Backs
I'll have the correct Gameday link in my game preview post.
Which will go up at noon CST.
"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra
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