Cubs To Institute Dynamic Pricing System In Bleachers

I’m not a Chicago local, so I was looking to go to about 10 games this year (already have two other tickets lined up). The 9-pack was a pretty good fit for me, and allowed me to get a couple “premium” games locked in.

I would have jumped on the 6 or 9 game packs. The shift I have at work doesn’t allow me to do that.

I like this model of pricing. If they’re good, they will be able to make their money. If they stink, they still will because cheap tickets are still better than not selling those tickets at all. I experimented with StubHub a little bit last year and while it was nice, I’d still rather buy straight from the Cubs when the price is right.

Can anyone explain it in greater detail and explain how it will kill some of the secondary market?
I don’t live in the Chicago area but usually make it down for 9 to 12 games a year (unfortunately not going to make nearly that many this year) and for the last couple of years I’ve got the majority of my tickets via the marked up pre-sale because even at the marked up prices they were usually cheaper than the secondary market.
But I’m not going to be able to plan any trips down too far in advance this year so the trip or two that I may make down will likely be last minute and I’m wondering if this dyanmic pricing might work in my favor.

It really does nothing for the below face value market which happened at a large number of games last year. If the Cubs are going to be bad this year, which they probably will, it makes sense to see what the market will bear. You could save half on the ticket.

They had this caption under one of the pictures

With “dynamic pricing,” tickets to less- popular games are cheaper.

Last that I heard is that the dynamic pricing would not go below face value of the tickets.

I thought it was known that the Cubs would have dynamic pricing for the bleachers this year? Or was that just strongly hinted at a season ticket holder luncheon?

And no, I don’t consider that $1-$2 “STH discount” margin to be evidence of swinging below the original price point should demand not be so great.

btw, if it’s only going to be $1 or $2 dollars, I’d be embarrassed to even mention STH discount if I were the Cubs. I realize it adds up over 81 games, but still – $141 is not much of a discount considering what the outlay is.

Does anyone have any insight into how the taxes work on reselling tickets in Chicago?

In the article, it says, "Online resellers are not required to collect and remit the amusement tax." Is that because the tickets are sold online or because they are sold by individuals and not brokers?

I guess I’m trying to understand who must pay the tax and when. It seems like anyone that resells tickets is required to pay. I found this in the Chicago code, "Resellers of tickets collect tax on the face value or markup if they paid tax on the face value when they purchased the tickets."

Seems like anyone that sells tickets and makes a profit owe Chicago 9% of their earnings. Does anyone here actually do that?

If the pricing won’t go down during the season if the team is bad, won’t there still be a sea of empty seats?

This is just a way way for the team to charge more as the season goes on if the team is any good.

Step 1 – Lower ticket prices due to crappy product
Step 2 – Create better team
Step 3 – ???
Step 4 – PROFIT!

All the Cubs did was announce that ticket prices now have a one-way ratchet. Without the ability to go below the “floor” set by the STH price, ticket prices aren’t really set by the market. The thing is, if the Cubs are ever good again, the tickets to the in-demand games will all get snapped up immediately anyways, and then re-sold for a higher price later.

I don’t see how this serves to take-away the secondary market. The only time tickets are being sold for above-face value is when all of the tickets to a particular game are sold out. Based on this, I don’t see how the “dynamic” model will do anything but make fans pay more to the Cubs than they would pay the secondary market. Without a 2-way ratchet, I don’t think the system really works.

…and release them later at dynamic prices, which will probably be 2-3x face.

What a joke. Another reason to never sit in the Bleachers.

that the “gate price” will never go below what season ticket holders pay. The problem is that “gate price” is something almost no one attending the games actually pays. They still do tons of discount codes that knock the prices down way below what season ticket holders are paying (if you are a teacher enter the code TEACHER to save 50% on tickets!) . So it’s accurate that if you walk up to the box office and buy tickets on the day of the game, the price won’t be below the season ticket holder price, they still undercut the season ticket holders constantly. It ticked off season ticket holders so much last year that they had to send out a letter assuring them that they were in fact getting a great deal (based on that “gate price” that no one actually pays). They also basically give away the cheapest seats where there are no season tickets to games that aren’t sold out ($5 tickets are common). Why buy a ticket from a season ticket holder for $50 when you can buy a $5 ticket and sneak down to the good seats (they do a lousy job of checking tickets there too). I hope the Cubs really honor the promise to not drop tickets below the season ticket holder price. While you might get some short term gains from selling a few more hot dogs and beers, in the end you devalue your tickets when people learn to wait for the discount.

sigh…

Clearly everyone here needs spring training as well – how are you ever going to survive a game thread if you can’t even rip on a poor defenseless photo caption? Let’s go, people – time to learn about “Doing Things The BCB Way!”

so they’re going to up the prices on hot games, but they’re not going to drop the prices on games that aren’t selling? This is strange to me.

The Cubs are going to be awful this year, in all likelihood. If they’ve got 4000 unsold tickets to a Wednesday night game, and it’s 3:00 in the afternoon… why not cut prices in half at that point? Making up numbers here… but why would you NOT take $25 for a ticket rather than being stubborn and sitting on a $50 ticket that isn’t selling? Just to avoid pissing off some people who already bought tickets to that game who don’t understand what a free market is? I don’t get it.

just as today those enterprising folks formerly known as scalpers now have the exalted title of “Secondary Ticket Brokers.” The Crain’s reporter helpfully supplies us with these euphemisms as he also points out that dynamic pricing is “a potential boon to city coffers.”

For more than 140 years, selling tickets at fixed prices was part of the unwritten contract between baseball’s patrons and those who run the game. Fans who supported a team in good times or bad could be confident that, with sufficient foresight and planning, they could attend any regular season game without paying a scalper’s extortionate tax.

These days it’s tough to single out for special criticism any single aspect of baseball’s price gouging, but the trend for MLB or individual teams to partner with big-time scalpers and then make “scalper’s rules” official team policy seems especially worthy of condemnation, no matter how well disguised it is as “dynamic pricing.”