I had written quite a long post about some ticket information earlier this afternoon... and, well, the server ate it.
Sure, I know that sounds like a "dog ate my homework" excuse, but it really did. There have been bugs and glitches, as some of you have already found out, but the tech people are working feverishly on them, and I have been assured that they will be kept to a minimum, or better yet, nonexistent, in the future. Also, if you made a comment or left a diary entry anytime today, you should go back and re-post it; pretty much anything posted today was lost.
Anyway, here's what I wrote... as best I can reconstruct it.
Two weeks from today, the Cubs will put single-game tickets on sale.
In 2003, they sold 260,000 tickets on the first day, and last year, that record (which was a record for all teams, not just the Cubs) was nearly doubled to over 500,000, crashing computers and phone systems all over America.
And yes, I have season tickets, but I also like to help my friends out by getting extra tickets for them, so I'll be trying to find some on February 25, along with millions of the rest of you.
It was with that in mind that I went on over to the Giants website today. The Cubs will be traveling there the second weekend of September, and I am making tentative plans to go there, as I like SF, the ballpark, and my dad lives there, so I have a good reason to go there anyway. And today, the Giants promised, if you are a Visa cardholder:
If you're a U2 fan, you're already cringing, since the well-publicized problems with the Vertigo tour presale last month.
But hey, I figured, maybe the Giants will really do what they said in that quote. I should have known better. It turned out not to be totally true. There were very few classes of tickets available for this presale; some of the four dates I was looking at had only "View Reserved" (which is Giant-speak for "Really Shitty Seats With A Great View Of The Bay Bridge") seats, or worse yet, standing room only. I was looking for bleacher tickets, and there wasn't a single one to be found.
That's a far cry from "the entire season inventory of single game Giants tickets". I shall try again tomorrow, when the Giants regular season sale officially begins.
There is other ticket news. If you are heading to spring training, get your tickets now, because as the Arizona Republic reports:
Last year, the Cubs set an attendance record of 189,692, a record not only for them but for any major league team for spring training.
The "temporary bleachers" to which they refer would be set up behind the RF bullpen and would be sold only on game day. I'm trying to picture this; the RF bullpen (the Cubs bullpen at Mesa) is pretty far away from the field, and seats there wouldn't get a very good view at all, but if the demand calls for it, you can bet that the Ho Ho Kams will sell such seats.
This is the price we pay for success. As recently as 1980, I was attending games at Wrigley Field with 1,000 of my closest personal friends, and when I began going to spring training in 1984, you could pretty much walk up to the box office, buy a ticket and sit wherever you wanted (and it cost $3).
WHEN we win it all, it'll all be worth it.