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Season Tickets: Teams taking fresh approaches to solve ongoing dilemma

A rare sight in Detroit, which had just 19,634 fans per game.getty images

One night this summer in Detroit, Tigers season-ticket holders will be invited to take part in a night out at the Detroit Zoo, which the team will rent out from 5-9 p.m. The event will include Tigers alumni and raffles for prizes. It’s the latest initiative from the club, which joins its 29 brethren in trying to solve the most challenging puzzle in sales: season tickets.

While the consensus among ticketing executives across MLB is that group sales were the slowest to come back after the pandemic, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince fans to shell out for an expensive ticket package when cheaper options are available on the secondary market at a fraction of the commitment.

“I certainly think season-ticket sales are going to be the consistently trickiest challenge for not just us, but for all sports,” said Cale Vennum, Chicago Cubs senior vice president of ticketing. “With secondary marketplaces really ubiquitous and tickets very easily exchangeable, I think it’s incumbent on the clubs to show their fans why there’s value in being a season-ticket holder instead of them just going out and buying the one or two games they want to go to in a given season.”

Value comes in many shapes and forms. For example, after stagnant season-ticket prices over the past five seasons, the Cubs this year lowered them by an average of 5%, a gesture “we thought was important to add some value back to the investment that they make, both with their money and their time with the club,” Vennum said.

The Mets, meanwhile, are giving season-ticket members a new 10% discount on all food and beverage this season. Menu boards at Citi Field, all of which are digital, will feature the discounted member price next to an item’s normal price. A season-ticket holder just needs to scan his membership card at the point of sale for the discount to be applied.

“We’ll do some creative things to measure the accumulation of that so we can really tell a nice story around how much value that’s driving back to the member,” said Jake Bye, Mets senior vice president of ticketing and premium experience.

The Tigers are raising their value proposition to season-ticket members by increasing the amount of flexibility they have with their tickets through a complimentary ticket exchange program. Now in its third year, the initiative for the first time this season will allow members to exchange future tickets; during the past two seasons, members could only exchange unused past tickets for future games. “Now if you know you’re out of town for a week, you can swap those games out for others ahead of time,” said Joe Schiavi, Tigers vice president of ticket sales and service. “That’s by far and away our biggest benefit for season-ticket members, is the ability to exchange tickets.”

And if season-ticket holders want to sell their tickets, MLB’s new partnership with SeatGeek raises the value proposition for all 30 of its clubs because of enhanced integration the ticketing platform has with the MLB Ballpark App.

“One really valuable aspect we get out of the partnership is direct access to the season-ticket holders, who through a very easy one-click-style integration can list their tickets on the SeatGeek marketplace,” SeatGeek co-founder Russell D’Souza said. “Major League Baseball has a really robust season-ticket base. And no matter how much of an avid fan you are, obviously 81 games is a tall task. So many of them will use our platform to resell the tickets for games they can’t attend, and that was a huge driver of our excitement around Major League Baseball.”

Some outreach programs are surefire hits. Each summer the Cubs hold an annual family day at Wrigley Field that lets both half-season and full-season holders bring multiple guests to play catch in front of the inconic outfield wall ivy and run the bases while the team is on the road. And in addition to their zoo trip, the Tigers in years past have invited season-ticket holders and their families to Comerica Park for Christmas photos each year; Paws, the team’s mascot, dresses up as Santa Claus.

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