Giants plan to play with pricing
By: John Upton
December 3, 2008
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| Take me out of the ballgame: The Giants’ “dynamic pricing” scheme is a first for Major League Baseball, and could make any Tim Lincecum start an expensive ticket. (Getty Images) |
SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Giants fans have lived with the uncertainty of whether tickets would be available for games at AT&T Park. Next season, that anxiety could include how much the tickets will cost.
In an experiment the team says may forever change the way its fans buy their tickets, some ticket prices will be jacked up next season on the day of a blockbuster game, and dropped in the lead-up to a lackluster game.
The franchise plans to introduce “dynamic pricing” next season, which would have ticket prices on 500 bleacher seats and 1,500 view-reserve seats fluctuate between $8 and $40, depending on a game’s expected popularity, according to Giants Ticket Services Vice President Russ Stanley.
The plan involves a computer program that will regularly recalculate ticket prices by analyzing variables that affect demand, such as the day the game is played, the weather, the starting pitchers, whether bobbleheads will be handed out, the team the Giants are opposing and whether the Giants or their opponent are on winning or losing streaks or in playoff contention, according to Stanley.
Ticket prices would probably move up and down by quarters at a time, and they would likely be recalculated on a daily basis, according to Stanley. “We’re not going to go up in pennies,” he said, and “we don’t want to do it hourly.”
Since 2001, the team has identified “premium games” before each season and charged extra to attend those games, a system known as variable pricing.
“With dynamic pricing, you’re changing daily, whereas with variable pricing, we’re setting the price on variables we know in August or September,” Stanley said.
Those variables can be tough to predict before a season. For example, former Giants slugger Barry Bonds hit his record-breaking 756th home run during a midweek game against the lackluster Washington Nationals, a game in which
variable ticket prices were at their lowest.
With dynamic pricing, tickets that cost less than $15 for that historic game might instead have cost $50, Stanley said.
For the 2009 season, the dynamic-pricing approach could mean fans will have to pay more to see the Giants’ new face of the franchise, 2008 National League Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Since demand would be up on a day the team’s star pitcher takes the mound, prices could go up $2 to $3 for those games.
The Texas-based company that is writing the software for the Giants, qcue, says other teams are planning to implement the system.
“But it looks like the Giants will be the first ones out of the gate,” qcue Chief Executive Barry Kahn said.
The plans have been announced as demand-based pricing proposals and are gaining popularity with San Francisco government officials. Parking meter prices, bridge tolls and proposed downtown driving fees could be adjusted according to momentary demand, under separate proposals recently announced.
If the results of the seasonlong experiment please team officials, the number of seats sold under the novel approach will increase in 2010, according to Stanley.
“We’re taking a baby step here,” Stanley said. “The next step is the whole ballpark.”
Play ball!
A look at AT&T Park ticket prices:
42,000 Seats in ballpark
23,000 Seats sold to season-ticket holders
5,000 Average number of seats sold to group buyers
2,000 Number of bleacher and view-reserve seats to be sold in 2009 under new pricing plan
$13 Cheapest bleacher or view-reserve ticket in 2008
$33 Most expensive bleacher or view-reserve ticket in 2008
$8 Probable minimum price for those tickets with new pricing
$40 Probable maximum price
$50 Price that tickets might have been sold for when Barry Bonds was approaching all-time home run record
$2 to $3 Expected increase when Tim Lincecum is pitching
Source: San Francisco Giants
