Various web reports indicate that the Cubs are pushing hard to secure season ticket sales. The team wants and needs those ticket package deposits as revenue dries up during the off-season. It is projected that the Cubs have burned through approximately 50,000 fans on their waiting list to try to secure new season ticket purchasers. Some fans now believe there really is no "waiting list" for tickets, but merely the Cubs data mining old lists to fish for returning fans.
It is going to be a hard sell. Though the Chicago Tribune called the 2014 ticket prices "stable," the Cubs are still a very expensive ticket.
With the 12% amusement tax, a season ticket costs per seat:
Infield Club Box: $7,958.72
Outfield Club Box: $6,596.80
Infield Field Box: $6,5322.80
Outfield Field Box: $5,136.32
Infield Terrace Box: $4,795.84
Outfield Terrace Box: $3,841.60
Infield Terrace Reserved: $2,898.56
Outfield Terrace Reserved: $2,432.64
Upper Deck Infield Box: $4,744.32
Upper Deck Outfield Box: $3,393.60
Upper Deck Infield Reserved: $1,836.80
Upper Deck Outfield Reserved: $1,625.12
Bleachers: $3,068.80
Now, for most you would have to double the cost because who goes to a ball game alone. There are some fans who still buy as groups and divide the tickets among several families. But the trend is pulling back from those arrangements.
A good deal of former season ticket holders bought season packages as an investment. The sell-outs and popular team made an active secondary market for their tickets, which could be sold at a profit. Ticket brokers used to have a near monopoly on this secondary market, but the internet allowed individual fans to undercut the trade. It got worse when the Cubs created their own ticket broker to try to collect on the premium above ticket price for marquee games.
But in the last three seasons, the Cubs secondary ticket market has collapsed. People could not even give away tickets for games last season. StubHub game of day tickets fell to less than a dollar. So a segment of the "investor" season ticket market is now gone.
Some of the former season ticket holders have written that instead of buying season ticket packages, they took the $5,000 they would have spent and invested it in the stock market and mutual funds. Some report that they have nearly doubled their money, having $10,000 in the bank. They can still get their Cub fix by watching games on TV, or buying cheap tickets on the web. And this is the real concern for the Cubs business operations: former season ticket fans have now found a better use for their season ticket budgets.
Given the fact that the Cubs may not be competitive until 2016, a former season ticket holder can save in three seasons $15,000 in ticket expenditures. He could take that money and invest it and have $17,250 in the bank by the time the 2016 season ticket pitch begins. He could hold onto the money and use the profits to buy expensive playoff tickets from those die hards who are taking the long term approach to recoup their ticket outlays.
The Cubs are also fighting an upstream battle for those saving dollars. The Chicago metro economy has not recovered from the financial crisis. Real estate prices continue to fall. More employers are leaving the state due to high taxes. State and local pension debt loads are ballooning, which will cost taxpayers more and more each year. Inflation for basic goods like groceries and gasoline continue to rise. There is less and less disposable income for families. The first thing that would be cut in a family budget is entertainment like season ticket purchases for any sports team.
But the Cubs do not seem too concerned about the fate of their fan base. There was no gesture to lower ticket prices for their fans. In fact, the Cubs plan is to try to extract more money from fans through their real estate projects, more club bars, and a street fare to hawk Cubs merchandise. The Cubs internally project that they get $70 per fan per game in revenue. For every 100,000 less tickets sold, the Cubs lose $7 million in top line revenue. That is why the Cubs are so adamant on pushing a ton of new advertising signage in and outside Wrigley Field to off-set the fan defections. If the current attendance slide continues, the Cubs will need to pepper Clark and Addison like it is Times Square.
So the Cubs have a fan base which:
1. Is not happy with the losing seasons and the product on the field.
2. Is not happy with the direction of the team.
3. Is not happy with the cost of attending games.
4. Is not happy that there is no secondary market for unused tickets.
5. Can find better uses for their savings than buying season tickets from the Cubs.
