Projo Sports Blog

By Paul Hagan
The Philadelphia Daily News

PHILADELPHIA - Seventeen new ballparks have sprouted up since Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992. The Yankees and Mets will add to that number next year. The Twins' playpen is under construction. The Marlins, Rays and Athletics are working hard to join the parade.

By now, we all know the drill. We "ooh" and "ahh" over the wide concourses and modern conveniences of the new place. We reminisce about our pleasant memories of the old. And life goes on.

What sometimes gets lost in the gee-whiz factor here is that the price of tickets and concessions in these modern facilities, almost all supported at least in part by taxpayer dollars, invariably rises sharply.

The New York Post recently reported on a man who has been a Mets season-ticketholder since 1964, the year the team moved out of the Polo Grounds and into Shea Stadium.
As recently as 1993, he said, his annual tab was $5,837. Five years later, it was $11,836. By last season it was $23,702. This year it's around $33,000.

And when he got a letter informing him that comparable seats at Citi Field next year would set him back about $60,000, he decided he'd had enough and informed the club that he won't be re-upping next year.

It wasn't that long ago that a family of four could go to a ballgame for roughly what it would cost to go to a movie. Baseball proudly billed itself as affordable family entertainment.

Commissioner Bud Selig, speaking at the All-Star Game on Tuesday, sort of shrugged when asked about the escalating cost of seeing your favorite team in person. He pointed out that more than 80 million tickets are projected to be sold this year, suggesting that this means families still must be coming out. He stressed that each team must be sensitive to the demands of its own market.

Still, you have to wonder if this, like starting crown-jewel events so late that most kids can only watch a couple innings, is a chicken that will eventually come home to roost.

And if that Mets fan might decide to transfer his loyalty to the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.

 Tags  Major League Baseball

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