Although the weather is not cooperating, summer is supposedly just around the corner meaning it's baseball season in town. Now fans of the A ball Vancouver Canadians may want to know about some surprising changes and not just the much ballyhooed mascot.
Seems there are no longer general admission tickets. The whole ballpark is reserved seating now. So the cheapest (and let me remind you this is A ball not AAA ball) is now $11.
Here's a quick market comparison with the other teams in the Northwest League as far as cheap seats go:
Boise US$6
Eugene US$5.50 (US$4.50 for kids and seniors)
Everett US$7
Salem-Keizer US$7
Spokane US$6
Tri-City US$5 ((US$4 for kids and seniors)
Yakima US$5.50 (US$4.50 for kids and seniors)
Vancouver C$11
All these teams have their discounted game tickets and this year again Safeway offers that at $7.99 each for the C's, too, but (like last year) these are only vouchers. You have to physically go to the ballpark to exchange these for tickets. This means getting there early to avoid lineups or making a trip to the "used to be the centre of town in the 1920s, but now is located nowhere near anyone works or lives" of Main and 29th Ave. during office hours to the ballpark to snag your ducats through the stadium box office. Not that opening up a visible office downtown would be a good idea, but what do I know? I'm a guy who sees no need to have a Useless Soccer League Whitecaps stadium downtown but would love to spend summers at a downtown ballpark and maybe getting AAA ball back here because of it.
So, despite a claimed 70 percent increase in ticket sales last season, the C's have seen fit to raise the price of their cheapest seat by about the same 70 percent (i.e., last season general admission seats, I believe, were $6.50 at least through Safeway they were).
How Vancouver can they get? Way to go, C's!
Check out the C's site for a look and, oh yeah, try to find any info on Safeway selling vouchers.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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2 comments:
Couldn't agree more. What the what is with nothaving child's tix at half-price? Sorry, but $44 for a family of four for A ball is out.
I've been to exactly one C's game in decades, so it's not likely the price will be a deterrent either way. For what it is, $11 probably doesn't sound too bad for people who just happen to be visiting QE Park's gardens, tourists and the like.
What sounds dumb is the reserved seating thing, though. I hope they don't enforce that too rigidly if there's a lot of seating to be had.
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