Prices rise–and fall?

Posted: 18th November 2008 by Jeff Booth in Active Ex-Rays
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So, the story comes to us that the Rays are increasing most single-game ticket prices, including a new sub-premium "Marquee" price class for eleven Saturday games.  But they are including a steeper discount for season tickets, in hopes of drawing more seat contracts. I am trying to piece together information as I can find it, as the comprehensive list of ticket prices isn't anywhere yet, not even on the official site.  But it looks like the club seats are staying the same, while other seats are increasing anywhere from 5-10%.  The "marquee" price class is for eleven Saturday games, and will include the Summer Concert Series and a series of "premium" giveaways. Currently what I have is that Upper Deck tickets will be $10 for regular, $13 for marquee and $16 for prime.  Lower Infield Box (the brown class on the main website seating chart) will be $55 for regular, $65 for marquee and $75 for prime.  Home Plate Club will be $210 for regular, $240 for marquee and $270 for prime.  Once I get all the info, I will post a table. In other news, the tarps will stay, but Matt Silverman only said the capacity will be "close to" last year's 36,048.  Hopefully it's more like up from 36,048.  Hopefully the day will come when there will be an obstructed-view seat class. Parking for cars with four or more occupants will still be free, but prices for others will go up--$15 for the main parking lots, $10 for the remote lots.  Tailgating and bringing outside food into Tropicana Field will still be permitted. The same-day ticket surcharge introduced last year, charged for tickets bought within five hours of game time (the so-called "Yankee Tax"), will go up from a flat $2 across the board to a range of $3-$5.  So at-the-door prices for prime games will go anywhere from $19 for Upper Deck seats to $275 for the Home Plate Club. There will be 21 prime games: The three series each with the Red Sox (4/30-5/3, 8/4-5, 9/1-3) and Yankees (4/13-15, 7/27-29, 10/2-4) AND our interleague home series against the Phillies (6/23-25).  I guarantee you the Phillies series would not be prime if they weren't in the World Series. The eleven marquee games are, essentially, any Saturday that isn't already a prime game. And they count 49 regular-price home games, so it looks like no Orlando series this year. Matt Silverman was quoted as saying the team tried to peg the base upper deck seat price to the price of a movie ticket. As for season tickets, the discount for those will range up to 35%. There is a good quote here, from the St. Pete Times version of the article.
"Even if they were to raise mine a little bit, I wouldn't have had an issue with it, knowing that they're going to make the investment in the team," said season ticket holder Ryan Lund, 31, a Tampa resident. "As a fan, if I thought they were going to pocket the profit and let the free agents go, I'd have a problem. But knowing they're investing to give us a better product … I'm okay with it."
Hopefully more people see it that way.
  1. Devon Rogers says:

    That is a great example of a TRUE fan speaking out. Great job Rays fan, show your pride. I’m tired of all these bandwagon jumpers that don’t know a thing!!!!!