Is Your MLB Team Ripping You Off?

Very interesting statistics, Matt. One pleasant surprise I had last year was a business trip that sent me to the Bay area in May. I wanted to catch a ballgame and the A's were in town, so I just showed up and bought a ticket at the window. I told the lady in the booth I have $40 to spend on a ticket. She sold me a seat. I went through the dreary industrial-age cement block that they now call McAfee and when I found my seat I couldn't believe how great it was! I was on the first level above ground level (which was really only a difference of about 10 feet), directly behind home plate. I felt like I was right on top of the action. Best seats I've ever had for a game ever. And the A's weren't drawing much of a crowd at the time, so only the few faithful were there. Well, that and they were playing the Royals...snooze, right? It was an exciting game, but after all the "Fat Tires" I drank, I could be making that part up. Anyway, my main point is that even with the highest per capita income rank, you still get a great deal at McAfee. I am pretty sure though that SF raises the numbers for Oakland. Oakland is to Gary, IN as SF is to Chicago. Right?

Thx for mentioning Oakland, cuz it uniquely reflects the value and limitations of some of these numbers.

First, although I'm not convinced Oakland's PCI is lower than PHX city proper, I'm very open to the possibility. I'm more interested in the relative incomes within expanded MSA's, because MSA's better reflect the true customer bases (ie folks from SF take the BART to McAfee and vice versa). I mention this not because you suggested otherwise, but I dont want anyone to think I'm contriving the income list so that PHX comes in last. So, yes "Oakland" includes San Fran, but "Phoenix" also includes Scottsdale - and I think both are "reported" here, in that sense, as they should be.

Second, your $40 non-premier seat at McAfee runs $60 at Chase ($50 in 2007), which is interesting in that Forbes lists Chase as less expensive than McAfee. I'm not privy to Forbes' methodology, but these rankings appear to be based neither on single game prices nor season ticket prices, but some mix of the two. I believe Chase comes in looking cheaper because they boast the lowest upper deck season ticket prices in baseball, packages that few locals actually want.

The big contrivance, or limitation in my numbers is that the PCI here isnt tempered by market size. Ading that, total PHX "income" would vault from 30th to approx 20th, and Oakland would stay around where it is.

Good call.

As a Cardinals fan it's interesting to note that we have one of the highest average ticket prices. I would like to blame the new stadium for that, but more realistically, Cardinal fans don't care that much. Management has consistently been putting winners on the field for a decade now (this year is still a question mark). You don't really hear too many complaints from Redbird fans. What I find even more interesting is that Cubs fans pay even more. They've been selling out every game since Wrigleyville was made over in the 80s and since then, they have fielded more losing teams than most.

So why do they keep paying big bucks to sit in front of 4 foot wide steel pillar that blocks your view? Living in the Chi, I get to quite a few Cub games--against the Cards, yes, but against others too because I love the game over all--and I have noticed that, save for a select few who actually know and care about the Cubs, most of the fans seem to think it's just another excuse to party. This is especially true in the summer, when you can't go two feet without getting beer spilled on you by some 20 year old Sigma Nu pledge who slurs something along the lines of "Heeeeeyyyyy, shhhhut yerrrrr f-f-faaaaace".

Ridiculous.