Cubs: Buy Bleacher Season Tickets Now Or You're Off The Waiting List

Wednesday, I learned through an email correspondence that the Cubs appear desperate to sell more bleacher season tickets. Here's an excerpt from an email the Cubs sent out to one fan on the waiting list, whose number was in the 30,000 range last fall, and who at that time turned down an opportunity to buy season tickets:

Our records indicate that you were given the opportunity to purchase seats, but did not follow through with selecting season tickets.

After reviewing our inventory, we have a limited number of season tickets available in the general admission Budweiser Bleachers. As you've already been given the opportunity to purchase season tickets, this is your last chance to purchase with your current waiting list number before being removed from the list.

Translation: "You didn't buy tickets when we offered them. Here's another offer. If you don't take it, you can get back in line... at the end of the line."

The email offers either the full-season bleacher package or the 56-game partial package; the deadline to respond is next Monday, February 18, with payment in full due by March 1. In case you didn't get the "you're off the list if you don't do this" message, the email says:

Since we offered you an opportunity to purchase seats in the seating bowl of Wrigley field this year and you did not purchase, this is your final opportunity to purchase season tickets as a member of the Cubs Season Ticket Waiting List with your current Waiting List number. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, you will be removed from the waiting list. Once your name is removed from the Cubs Season Ticket Waiting List, you still have the option of signing up for the list again and getting back in line for season tickets.

And if you still didn't get it, the email continues:

If you are not interested in this offer, no action is required on your part and your name will be removed from the Cubs Season Ticket Waiting List.

It seems likely, given this offer, that the Cubs didn't sell as many season tickets as they had hoped, and probably haven't sold as many of the six-packs and nine-packs as they had hoped. Single-game sales start March 8; it will be interesting to see how those go, though my first thought is, "They'll sell fewer than they did the first day in 2012."

And I can't imagine too many people faced with what is essentially an ultimatum will buy a bleacher season ticket upon receiving this email. The person who sent me this email isn't.