Like The Rays, The Reds Have Struggled At Box Office, But Are Coming On Strong
Attendance August 2nd. 2010, 11:30am
Back in June we wondered why the national media has been so critical of the Rays attendance and yet they appeared to be giving the Reds attendance problems a pass. Now comes word, that like the Rays, the second-place Reds are starting to see the team’s success pay off in the form of ticket sales…
“We knew even toward the middle of last week how big this (Atlanta) series was going to be (at the gate),” said John Davis, Reds vice president of ticket sales. “Our walkup numbers have been good, but the last couple of weeks we’re seeing people buying tickets a week, two weeks, a month ahead of time. They’re planning their weekends.”
The Reds are also aggressively trying to take advantage of the team’s success to promote season-ticket sales with a plan we would like to see the Rays try…
A few weeks ago, the Reds began promoting a “Buy a 2011 season ticket, get all of our August and September games for free” as a way to build the base…”That’s incredibly aggressive marketing,” said Maury Brown, president of the Business of Sports Network, which tracks such things. “That’s a win-win for the fans”…The only other major league club that’s doing it is the Padres, who announced their program back in June and already have had 100 people sign up. The Reds, much later in getting on board, have already sold 50.
The Rays have long struggled with season-ticket sales, and it will be interesting to see if they follow the lead of the Padres and Reds and make a similar offer. In the meantime, it is good to see that, even in this economy, baseball fans will pay to go see good baseball.
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I live in Ohio so I’ve seen most of the Reds games, and they are a lot of fun to watch. Jonny is having a solid season, and it’s awesome to see what he is capable of as an everyday player. Miguel Cairo has played really well too whenever he has had a chance.
As far as attendance, the Reds have a really nice ballpark which sure doesn’t hurt.
stunna – actually, the Red ballpark, although relatively new, pretty much stinks – too many obstructed views (can’t see left field corner from box seats behind 3B dugout) – and the stadium has this awful stale feeling….feels like a corporate office park w/ a baseball field thrown in the middle…too freakin hot in the summer – after 3 innings you’ll find the one redeeming feature being the restaurant/bar down the left field line!!!! air-conditioning and $10 beer, way better than watching the game!! i’ll take the Trop any day over Crappy American Ballpark….
I have been to both (although I haven’t been to the Trop in over five years) and I don’t want to compare the parks, but I actually like Great America a lot, I’ve been there several times. Although I will say I personally don’t think the Trop is as bad as everyone makes it out to be.