Wrigley not Selling Out

[UMFan83]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

[hardcorecubfan]

And no, it's not to 312Sports.com.

 

Must be socializing about the Cubs on :good: facebook

[Guest]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

They'd average a profit of like $1.25 a ticket in that instance, that's not the most worthwhile use of time.

[daske17]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

I think those stupid groups from Iowa are more willing to research tickets ahead of time on stubhub, craigslist and ebay before buying them on gameday. And those prices are closer in line with full retail as opposed to heavily marked up.

[UMFan83]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

They'd average a profit of like $1.25 a ticket in that instance, that's not the most worthwhile use of time.

 

No but big time scalpers sell in high volume and usually sell Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, concerts, etc in addition to Cubs (although Cubs sales probably bring the most income). It would certainly be a down year, but considering the team is actively trying to win, they know its in their best interests to keep buying Cubs tickets to sell. If they get another year like 2008, they hit the jackpot.

[UMFan83]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

I think those stupid groups from Iowa are more willing to research tickets ahead of time on stubhub, craigslist and ebay before buying them on gameday. And those prices are closer in line with full retail as opposed to heavily marked up.

 

Are you trying to tell me they use computers in Iowa now?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

I think those stupid groups from Iowa are more willing to research tickets ahead of time on stubhub, craigslist and ebay before buying them on gameday. And those prices are closer in line with full retail as opposed to heavily marked up.

 

Are you trying to tell me they use computers in Iowa now?

so's your face

[daske17]

Someone is always going to scalp tickets if they are in demand. Even if the secondary market has dried up so far this season, they will definitely be making their money back in the summer preying on ignorant groups of people from Iowa who assume that every Cubs game is sold out and they come prepared to pay the scalper double face value to enter Wrigley. This is especially true on weekends. Just a rough estimate but if they sell 33% of their tickets for 150% of face, and the other 66% they sell for 80% face value, they are close to profit territory.

 

I think those stupid groups from Iowa are more willing to research tickets ahead of time on stubhub, craigslist and ebay before buying them on gameday. And those prices are closer in line with full retail as opposed to heavily marked up.

 

Are you trying to tell me they use computers in Iowa now?

 

I hear they have one computer every 250 square miles now. And paved roads!

[davearm2]

Not to rag on this site, but you can't necessarily gauge interest in the team by the obvious decline in interest here at NSBB.

Why is there such a decline in interest here, but not other sites? Where did everyone go?

This might catch me some flak, but honesty reigns: NSBB can be a very polarizing message board at times.

 

There are, without a shadow of a doubt, many extremely intelligent, humorous and well-spoken people that post on NSBB. There's also a fair amount of elitism and a subtle bullying streak aimed towards specific members and people who aren't as well-versed in "advanced" baseball. Not saying that NSBB is a bad place - quite the contrary. It's just flawed like people in general and everything else on earth.

 

And of course I can't say for certain that people who used to post here regularly did leave due to the above ... but I can say that if I were to leave, it would be a factor.

 

Witnessing the alternatives first-hand, NSBB is the best Cubs board I've found.

 

I couldn't agree more.

Me too.

Me three. And IMO the atmosphere you describe is created by about a half dozen posters.

[davearm2]

FWIW if the Cubs are playing to less than 100% capacity, and the secondary market is drying up, then that's evidence that they're probably pricing tickets pretty close to optimally from a profit-maximizing standpoint.

 

When the scalpers are doing well, that's money the Cubs could have had for themselves if face values were higher.

 

Naturally if they're playing to 50% or even 75% of capacity, then they went too high.

[Wilson A2000]

As for the game threads, I thought the decline had something to do with the game chat being instituted

 

Where is the chat found?

[SpongeWorthy]

Not to rag on this site, but you can't necessarily gauge interest in the team by the obvious decline in interest here at NSBB.

Why is there such a decline in interest here, but not other sites? Where did everyone go?

This might catch me some flak, but honesty reigns: NSBB can be a very polarizing message board at times.

 

There are, without a shadow of a doubt, many extremely intelligent, humorous and well-spoken people that post on NSBB. There's also a fair amount of elitism and a subtle bullying streak aimed towards specific members and people who aren't as well-versed in "advanced" baseball. Not saying that NSBB is a bad place - quite the contrary. It's just flawed like people in general and everything else on earth.

 

And of course I can't say for certain that people who used to post here regularly did leave due to the above ... but I can say that if I were to leave, it would be a factor.

 

Witnessing the alternatives first-hand, NSBB is the best Cubs board I've found.

 

I don't know what traffic is like at other sites but my gut is that the closer baseball comes to becoming a solvable equation the less sport specific discussion there will be on non-idiot message boards. I can tell you that I personally don't talk about baseball much on here because I don't have a clue compared to a huge majority of the posters. Even if you want to talk about trades, free agency, etc. you have to know a bunch of transactional rules. I barely understand salary arbitration, the 40 man roster, how the draft works, etc. so I just don't bother.

 

Back in the 60s or whatever guys would argue about who was better between Aaron and Clemente (see City Slickers) and now the whole idea seems quaint.

[Irrelevant Dude]

I was at today's game, which had an announced attendance somewhere around 33,000. With the exception of bad weather and meaningless late September games, it has been years since I've seen Wrigley Field so empty. There were quite a few no-shows on the lower level, and huge sections of open seats in the upper deck. Sure it was a Thursday afternoon game, but I was still surprised to see so many unsold tickets on a nice day against the Dodgers.

[J.R.]

These crowds are the smallest April/May draws since the first months of 2003, when they were routinely drawing less than 30,000.

 

That hasn't happened at Wrigley Field since 27,105 tickets were sold for the September 7, 2006 game.

[fivepercent]

I'd say it has to do with the slow start, the higher prices and the Blackhawks' run.

[Tracer Bullet]

I just checked online an hour ago and could get 2 seats in Section 34, Row 10 for face value. For Cards/Cubs. On a beautiful sunny day. The Friday of Memorial Day weekend.

 

WTF?

[SouthSideRyan]

I just checked online an hour ago and could get 2 seats in Section 34, Row 10 for face value. For Cards/Cubs. On a beautiful sunny day. The Friday of Memorial Day weekend.

 

WTF?

 

You could do this most years. Gameday morning is a nice time to check out the Cubs site and see what tickets have been returned.

[J.R.]

Yep. That would have been prime stock at "Wrigley Premium" or whatever McDonough's scalping arm was called. I sat in the first row for Cubs/Cards a few years ago thanks to just such a gameday deal.

[Tracer Bullet]

wish I'd known that before.

[UMFan83]

wish I'd known that before.

 

That's how I got to goto a playoff game in 2008. So I al most wish I hadn't known that before. Meanwhile, every 5 minutes I'm running ticket searches on Ticketmaster hoping I pull off game 1 Blackhawks tickets hah.

[David]

I got front row seats by 3b for Prior's first MLB start thanks to that trick.

[David]

But anyway, they way to go is to attack the scalpers around the 2nd inning... You can easily get tickets for half off face and lower.

[SouthSideRyan]

I got front row seats by 3b for Prior's first MLB start thanks to that trick.

 

I got lower level a couple days before, but that was just because nobody was going to those games back then.

[SouthSideRyan]

wish I'd known that before.

 

It's not really helpful for out of towners

[Tracer Bullet]

wish I'd known that before.

 

It's not really helpful for out of towners

 

True. Unless you're in college about 2 hours from Wrigley and could check the morning before a 1 or 2 pm start and easily be there for game time.

 

Even this morning, if I hadn't just returned from a week away and had $200 burning a hole in my pocket, I could have easily nabbed those Cards tickets and been at Wrigley with 30 minutes to spare.