Star Pitchers in a Duel? Tickets Will Cost More
New York Times (06/27/10) Brustein, Joshua
A growing number of baseball, basketball, and hockey teams are analyzing their ticketing data and data from the secondary market for sports tickets via sophisticated computer programs, and using the conclusions they draw to adjust ticket prices accordingly. Factors that they weigh when adjusting prices can include days of the week, the climate, the performance of the teams playing, pitching matchups, and other variables that can affect how many people want to attend. For example, the San Francisco Giants raised ticket prices last year for a Memorial Day game in which two star pitchers were scheduled to face off, based on a sudden burst in ticket sales. Even with the price hike, the team sold 10,000 tickets in the weekend leading to the game. This year all the Giants' single-game tickets are dynamically priced, and the system has supported a roughly 6 percent revenue gain, according to team executive Russ Stanley. The National Basketball Association's Chris Granger says that teams' increasing comfort with these analytical tools is pushing them toward dynamic pricing, and one-third of teams in the NBA will employ some form of dynamic pricing for the upcoming season. Officials from Major League Baseball and the NBA expect dynamic pricing to become the industry standard. Similar initiatives in other industries have been coldly greeted by consumers, but with sports, the fast expansion of the secondary market has helped fans become used to the concept of paying different prices for tickets depending on when they purchase them.
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