Padres' Fan Cost Index for 2010 paints an affordable (imaginary) picture

A mean without a standard deviation is like a girl without her purse: pretty much worthless

Great post, and your points are valid. I wonder how the TMR guys would answer them

Where do you stand on Cherry Coke Zero?

by MLB.

Their agenda is to push baseball as an affordable family outing. However, the ticket prices are for the whole season – so it would actually cost you $14094 for 81 games.

And are they expecting you to buy 162 hats?

Let’s get real. You take your kids to about 3 or 4 games a season, otherwise it is you and the person wearing the “I’m with stupid T shirt” – drinking 3 beers each, eating a dog, an overpriced but yummy bbq sandwich, some peanuts (so you can throw the empty shells into the hair of the people in front of you), decent parking, dinner and drinks before and/or after the game.

Either I’ve got a split ticket plan or scalped tickets (actually a printed barcode) from some sketchy dude for $35 a ticket – so I figure I’ll drop $200+ for 2 people…easily. Not bad for an evening here and there – but how many games does it take to add up to a real vacation, new TV or rent or mortgage?

If each team is using the same bad math – the comparison is fine, but it has nothing to do what the average fan spends at the park for a season or an evening – watching the Pad beat down the Dodgers.

Ticket – $14
Beer – $5
Beer – $5
Hot Dog – $4
Seat upgrade – $0
Beer – $5
Premium seat upgrade – $0
Beer – $5
Popcorn – $4
Beer – $5

Total – $47 and I’m drunk and sitting in a premium seat… sounds like a good deal to me.

They also aren’t taking into account the ticket master fee that pretty much tacks on another $10 a ticket. I like the left field lower (comes out to like $70 for two) and the left field bleachers (comes out somewhere in the $40s for two). That’s still pretty pricey to sit in the outfield.

I have no problem with $63 for the premium seats and $50 something for field but there needs to be a more affordable seat besides upper deck outfield. I would really like to see the left field bleachers in the $10 range.

Also, a hat $7 bucks? Yea right? The good ones are close to $40 which are about $10 more expensive then if you go to a sports store to get them.

With all that being said. The Padres are awesome. I am a Laker fan and let me tell you how expensive it is. You have to be in front of the computer the second the tickets go on sale to get the limited $10 seats that are located upper deck behind the basket. If you lose out on those, you’re a dead man. The next cheapest ticket is like $50 bucks and that also includes the opposite upper deck behind the basket seats as well as the corners. Just to get in the lower bowl (second level) will run you about $100, crazy.

I was also going to write a fanpost but one thing I love about these Padres is the access that the management (Garfinkle) is giving the fans. I was in Vegas the week of the Padres fanfest but it sounded like an awesome time. Get to meet players, go on the field, hang out, and mingle with important Padre folk. Compare that to the Laker Fan Jam I went to about a month ago that costed $15 to get in and consisted of an hour line to buy a taco, a 30 min line to buy a beer and a 5 hr line to get an autograph (I was lucky to get Kareem, Mychal Thompson, Jamaal Wilkes, San DIego’s Finest Luke Walton). It was at the LA convention center and it was a zoo. I don’t know about you guys but I love the closeness the Padres have to the community, even if we aren’t really a breakfast town.

Sorry for the rant. All in all, can’t blame the Padres for making a big time effort to attract the fans. I appreciate it.

2 tickets Amtrak Surfliner $120.00
1 Night Hotel in Downtown area $180.00
2 Toyota Terrace tickets $90.00
Food and alcoholic beverages $60.00
Program $5.00
Hat $30.00
Total $485.00
Wow and I do this 5 times a year, I’m actually surprised that my wife is okay with this.

Ticket: $26
Subway: $5
Soda: $5

Don’t really drink like I used too, so save a lot on beer. Usually bring food/candy from outside the park. Ticket is a $26 ticket but part of a 20 game package I think the actual cost is cheaper.

with what Moorad et al are doing to provide value to fans. Even though we don’t expect to do well this year, there seems to be more excitement about baseball in SD since 2006. I think the previous administration believed that fan support was based solely on on-field results, and they neglected the Padres brand and fan experience. I really feel that the new group has conceded their market position in terms of winning and has elected to build excitement and interest in the team through an off-the-field focus.

And parking in the Ace lots around the stadium is only 15 bucks now. Woot.

As a financial analyst, I love me a good numbers post.

$4 parking is defintely going to be a pretty good walk away – I’ve walked to a lot under $10 before, but I’m pretty sure it was just me and one other schmuck making that hike. Realistically most fans wouldn’t walk that far. Having said that, I do prefer to trolley it in – but a ticket for that is something like $5 if memory serves, right?

I thought I’d read recently that one of the new changes was that there WOULD be free programs – or some such with the lineup printed in them. Not the magazine, but something different. I could be hallucinating, and I’m far too lazy to try and cite my work.

My 40 game plan in the Toyota Terrace Level ($37.00 face value per seat) pencils out to $866.00 this year. That includes the Founder’s Club rebate we are getting back spread over the next (4?) seasons. So, I’m effectively paying $21.65 per seat, per game. That’s a huge discount off of face value.