Thursday, March 06, 2008

Thanks to the ProJo's Art Martone, who was kind enough to link on his blog to my story this week on the increasingly tough quest for Sox tickets, I learned that John Henry doesn't detect a problem with this issue.

As Michael Silverman reports today in the Boston Herald:

Even with this year’s Fenway Park [map] renovations expected to increase capacity to 38,888, Fenway will continue to be the smallest stadium in the majors as well as having the most expensive ticket prices on average. Henry said that there has been no public backlash with regard to the average working person getting squeezed out by wealthier patrons.

“No we don’t,” Henry said of hearing such potential complaints. “(Fans) know we are determined to spend the dollars to field the kind of team they want to see on a day-to-day basis. Baseball fans here are 162-gamers. They may only attend a handful of games each year at Fenway, but they know we are doing our best to spend their monies wisely. We are able to field championship teams solely because of our fans.”

Apparently, Henry may not have seen this thread at SOSH (or maybe, since the discussion died out within a few days, it's not considered a big deal).

Anyway, it's fair to say that many people in the Sox organization are very aware of the growing unhappiness among fans on the squeeze on tickets.

Back in 2005, Sox PR impresario Charles Steinberg, now with the Dodgers, told me his biggest concern was whether Sox fans were getting squeezed.

More recently, Sox spokeswoman Goodenow, responding to questions via e-mail, focused on describing how the team strives to ensure “that the maximum number of unique fans receive the ability to purchase tickets and experience baseball at Fenway Park.”

The team, which has added a few thousand seats in recent years, is exploring options for more seats, she says.

Goodenow says the team aggressively enforces ticket-buying limits during online sales. Plus, it offers random drawings for some of its most popular offerings, including games with the Yankees and seats in the Monster and roof-deck sections.