Reds ticket prices likely changing
Insider: Dynamic pricing is designed to make prices meet demand
6:57 PM, May. 8, 2011


The Enquirer/Gary Landers
The Reds will be going to dynamic pricing – possibly as soon as 2012.

Written by
John Fay
jfay@enquirer.com

To figure out what a ticket costs at Wrigley Field, you need a color-coded schedule.

First you determine if the game you select is bronze, silver, gold, platinum or marquee, then you go to the price list.

That box seat that is $58 for the San Diego game in April is $112 for the Reds in August. The cheap seats range from $8 for bronze games to $27 for marquee.

That’s known as variable pricing.

The Reds do a little bit of it. Tickets for Opening Day and the New York Yankees series are premier priced. The two St. Louis series are select priced. Dugout boxes go from $69.50 to $74.50 to $84.50. The cheapest seats go from $5 to $10 to $15.
It’s an attempt to boost revenue. The Cubs are down in attendance, but with the price structure they’re likely to bring in more revenue.

Viable pricing is a harbinger to something called “dynamic’ pricing.

The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants have gone to it this year. With the Cards, a seat that you paid $75 for June 1 for the San Francisco Giants is $117.50 for the Cubs on June 4. The prices can change day-to-day, team-by-team.

The Reds will be going to dynamic pricing – possibly as soon as 2012.

“I don’t think there’s a baseball team that won’t,” said Karen Forgus, the club’s senior vice-president of business operations.

Dynamic pricing is designed to make prices meet demand. You’ll be able to buy a ticket for a Tuesday in April for significantly less than a Saturday in July. Clubs would even be able to adjust prices on the fly. Say the Milwaukee Brewers and the Reds are fighting it out for the National League Central title, the Reds could bump the price for the Sept. 16-18 series.

“It’s almost like airline pricing,” Forgus said.

In airline pricing, it pays to buy early. So if you bought a ticket for that September game in April, your price is locked in.

The key to doing this is software to measure the demand. Baseball will have a much better idea how it works after looking at what happens with St. Louis and San Francisco this year.

“There are a lot of nuances to it,” Forgus said.

I think dynamic pricing could work for the Reds if they use it wisely.

That would mean dropping the prices for those weekdays games in April and September as well as upping the prices for the summer series for St. Louis and Chicago and whatever good interleague matchups are on the schedule.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110...t|Sports|s