Sox Fans Pay for the Privilege

For the second year in a row, the Red Sox have baseball’s highest ticket prices, according to Team Marketing Report. The average Sox ticket now costs $17.69, up from $15.43 in 1996 -- $1.42 more than the second-place Yankees.

The Sox fare a little better in Team Marketing Report’s annual “Fan Cost Index” survey. But Team Marketing Report assumes that its hypothetical family of four not only buys four average-priced tickets, but also parks in a stadium lot and buys two beers, four sodas, four hot dogs, two programs and two caps. Believe it or not, Sox fans, your beer and soft drinks are a relative bargain...but for those who come for baseball alone, Fenway is the majors’ most expensive ticket.

The accompanying table compares the Sox’ 1994-96 ticket prices and attendance to other clubs’. To make the comparison easier, the numbers are presented as a percentage of the major league average: for example, last year Sox attendance was 8% above average despite ticket prices 36% higher than average.

The table reveals which clubs draw well despite high prices (Atlanta, Baltimore, Toronto); which don’t draw despite low prices (Milwaukee, Montreal, Pittsburgh); which keep prices low to attract more fans (Cincinnati, Colorado, Los Angeles); and which sacrifice attendance to keep ticket prices high (the Yankees, who blame their stadium for low attendance, and the White Sox, who blame their fans). The Red Sox appear to fall into this last group, but since Fenway is the majors’ smallest park, cutting ticket prices would do little to increase attendance.

The "Fan Index" (FI) averages the numbers from the six preceding columns to provide an overall rating of local support. Baltimore is the majors' best-supported team, combining all three keys to success at the gate: a big market, a good team and a new stadium. In fact. of the eight teams with the newest stadiums, all but Florida rank among the 10 best-supported clubs. The Red Sox rank 11th over the three-year period, rising to sixth in their divisional-champion season of 1995.

Comparing a team’s FI to the size of its local market shows which teams do the best job of marketing themselves. The clear winner: the Colorado Rockies, with an FI second only to Baltimore despite playing in the majors’ fourth-smallest market. Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Toronto also draw much better than expected, while Anaheim, Detroit and the Mets don’t draw flies. In fact, even after adjusting for the two teams in New York, Denver residents support the Rockies seven times better than New Yorkers support the Mets.

Unfortunately for the Sox, their competition is the Yankees, not the Mets. The Sox’ 11th-place ranking would be second-best in most other divisions, but ranks only fourth in the AL East. More ominously, the three higher-ranked teams have huge cable-TV contracts or new stadiums loaded with luxury boxes. High ticket prices allow the Red Sox to earn as much as possible from Fenway -- but more than ever, a new stadium appears to be the only long-term solution.

 Team  Market Size  1994 Cost  1994 Attendance  1995 Cost  1995 Attendance  1996 Cost  1996 Attendance  Fan Index  FI Rank
 Atlanta  15th  115  142  113  142  115  135  127  5th
 Baltimore  5th  107  142  123  172  116  170  138  1st
 Boston  7th  129  99  127  120  136  108  104  11th
 California  3rd  77  85  76  97  75  85  83  20th
 White Sox  10th  124  95  121  89  125  78  105  10th
 Cubs  10th  126  103  124  106  116  103  113  9th
 Cincinnati  26th  76  106  75  102  70  87  86  18th
 Cleveland  26th  115  112  113  158  128  155  130  4th
 Colorado  25th  76  184  100  188  94  181  137  2nd
 Detroit  8th  106  66  100  66  94  54  81  23rd
 Florida  14th  95  108  91  94  92  81  94  15th
 Houston  13th  85  87  84  76  94  92  86  19th
 Kansas City  27th  98  78  94  68  86  67  82  21st
 Los Angeles  3rd  93  128  91  153  88  149  117  7th
 Milwaukee  28th  91  71  89  60  83  62  76  27th
 Minnesota  21st  90  78  88  59  90  67  82  21st
 Montreal  16th  82  71  84  73  80  75  78  26th
 Mets  1st  105  64  103  71  105  74  87  17th
 Yankees  1st  138  94  141  95  120  105  117  8th
 Oakland  17th  102  70  100  65  100  54  82  22nd
 Philadelphia  6th  93  128  92  113  97  84  101  12th
 Pittsburgh  24th  93  68  91  50  89  62  76  28th
 St. Louis  23rd  94  105  92  97  88  124  100  13th
 San Diego  22nd  88  53  86  58  87  102  79  24th
 San Francisco  17th  101  95  104  69  94  66  88  16th
 Seattle  19th  93  62  91  92  102  127  95  14th
 Texas  9th  116  140  113  110  106  136  120  9th
 Toronto  12th  133  163  125  157  123  119  137  3rd
Notes: Market sizes are 1994 Census Bureau and Canadian estimates, adjusted for two-team cities.

Average ticket price: 1994: $10.45, 1995: $10.65, 1996: $11.32.

Average attendance: 1994: 1,786,034, 1995: 1,802,299, 1996: 2,146,302.

Copyright © 1997 Doug Pappas. All rights reserved.
Originally published in the June 1997 issue of Boston Baseball.

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