Big League Stew lists the lowest priced season ticket plans available. Although it's not a season ticket plan, I love the $95 book of vouchers for the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Waiting For Next Year notes the Indians are leading the way in ticket price analysis to keep fans in the stands.

The Phillies tickets are selling well, another reason why winning is important in this recession.

Buy Phillies opening night tickets.

There are Red Sox tickets available for April and May games. Maybe the sell out streak is in jeopardy.

Looks like a number of Angels season ticket holders aren't returning. On top of that, Red Sox single game tickets are about to go on sale on the internet (10 AM EST). I don't remember getting emailed about that before, only lotteries to get a chance to get in line to buy tickets.

In light of the earlier post on season tickets vs. single game tickets, this cartoon seems appropriate. Thanks to my lovely wife for the link.

Rev Halofan at Halos Heaven is wondering if he should give up his season tickets to the Angels games:

If we make 24 games this season and spend $100 on two tickets each time, we will probably get great seats for every game. Make that 20 games and throw in a visit to the Diamond Club. Mix and match - the buying options have never been easier and the glut of good seats available at reasonable one-game prices has arrived.

2009 will be the season that more tickets are available for less than ever before. I have to give Robert Alvarado $2,400 by January 9, or it will be the first time since the 1998 season that I do not have some sort of ticket package.

I always thought the advantage of season tickets was the ability to buy post-season seats. If that's not important, then fewer games with better seats seems like a very good option.

The Giants are lowering prices on a large number of tickets:

The Giants announced Monday they are dropping prices on a significant portion of their seats for 2009, an act that would have been unthinkable even two years ago and a sure sign they fear this economic downturn could take a significant toll on revenues.

They no longer have the draw of winning nor the draw of Barry Bonds. They need to do something to bring out the fans.

Via The Hardball Times, The Giants take a small step toward dynamic pricing of tickets:

The club is trying something new with ticket sales in a few tough-to-sell upper-deck outfield sections of its waterfront ballpark for 2009: cost based on demand.

The walk-up sales price for up to about 2,000 seats could even go up or down on game day. The change would be minimal, say somewhere between 25 cents and $2.

Team president Larry Baer calls it "dynamic pricing" and figures it might just become the way of the future for professional sports franchises. The Giants have partnered with a software company that will make it possible to quickly change the ticket prices based on the popularity of a given game -- not to mention weather, a possible milestone or a player from a visiting team who brings extra interest.

"We're going to experiment with this a little bit in a few sections of the park," Baer said. "What this really is, is the ticket business is changing dramatically and quickly. There's a chance we might wake up 10 years from now and tickets will be priced according to demand, like the airlines."

I'm glad to see MLB teams continue to move in this direction. The embrace of a ticket broker last year was the biggest move in this direction, but this type of dynamic pricing should lead to more fans in the seats, and more fans means more concession money. I wrote about this at Baseball Prospectus in 2007 (subscription required).

The Red Sox announced that they will not raise ticket prices for 2009:

"We have been listening to fans, friends, and family about the challenges they are facing in light of the current adverse economic conditions," said Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino in a press release. "We are also grateful for the unwavering faith and support our fans have shown us year after year and we hope our ownership's decision to hold prices for the upcoming season will in some way help ease the burden on Red Sox Nation."

The last time the Red Sox held ticket prices across the board was 1995 -- the season following the damaging strike that led to the cancellation of the '94 World Series.

I wonder how much getting a cut of ticket reselling plays into this? The Red Sox probably could drop prices, and still make out well as long as fans are willing to buy on one of the approved secondary markets. So the Red Sox get to look like good guys for keeping prices stable in a recession, while still making money due to the high demand for their product.

This looks like a move toward a market based approach to ticket selling, which I believe will benefit baseball in the long run.

The Orioles are trying to break their Sunday losing streak with a promotion:

I don't know if it will work, but the team is instituting a "We win, you win" promotion. If the Orioles win this coming Sunday against Texas, fans will be offered limited free tickets to a future game.

If nothing else, it should put a few more fannies in the seats.

Jeremy Stoll sends a link for free Twins tickets. It requires a teenage safe driver agreement, and just to let you know, the page starts up with video and sound.

Big League Stew notes that the most visible seats in the Nationals new stadium and always empty. My suggestion is to lower the price to $70, although I like the idea of awarding the empty seats to lucky fans at the game.

River Ave. Blues presents Yankees ticket prices adjusted for inflation:

A funny thing happens on the way to 2008. It now appears as though ticket prices for the Yankees remained steady, in 2008 dollars, for nearly thirty seasons. In 1967, it cost $3.50 to purchase a Yankee field box seat. That's $22.18 in 2008 dollars. Twenty four years later, in 1994, it cost $17 to purchase the same ticket or $24.28 in 2008 dollars. In 1994, $3.50 from 1967 would get you $15.53. Ticket prices, in other words, were tracking inflation.

The spike -- and we seem to still be in the middle of it -- occurred following the 1994 season when ticket prices went through the roof. All of a sudden, the Yankees were good, the Yankees were popular, and the Yankees were very, very expensive. In 14 years, Yankee ticket prices have increased by a factor of 10 from a 2008 value of $24.28 in 1994 to $250 in 2008. That's crazy.

There was also a lot of wealth created in the New York area during that time. As long as the place keeps selling out, expect the prices to keep rising.

The Phillies are allowing fans to add money to their tickets that can be used for consessions at the park. It's just one way the bar codes on tickets are being used to better serve the fans at games:

That technology, he adds, also gives the team insight into some of their basic customer-service practices. By fans having their bar code swiped as they enter the ballpark, "we know what time these tickets come into the ballpark and we know what gate they come to, so we know how to staff the parking lots," Buck says. "We know how early to open Ashburn Alley, because we know that 2,400 people on an average weekday will be in the gates before 5:30."

I hope dynamic pricing for consessions isn't far behind.

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yOOnew.com just introduced World Series ticket futures on their site. They were nice enough to call and give me the grand tour. The whole idea, for example, is that you can buy a contract for Minnesota Twins World Series tickets cheaply now, and if they surprise fans and make it, you get to go to the game at a reduced cost. Since they are futures contracts, you can also trade them. So if you buy the Pirates now and they get off to a great start, you might be able to sell the contract for a profit at the end of April.

Right now, you can bid at three levels. Tickets are available for each of the first four games of the series, split out by AL and NL. You can buy ticket futures for AL game one, for example. No matter who makes it from the American League, you get to go to the first game at their park. Or, if you want to see a specific team, you can buy a contract for that team making it. Or, if you want to see a specific matchup, you could buy a future on the Cubs playing the Indians. It's pretty neat, and serves all kinds of interests. For me, I'm trying to buy Tampa Bay futures, since they're cheap right now (no one has put in an ask yet). If the Rays should catch fire, I'll get to be at the first World Series game in Tampa for airfare! Traders get a chance to make a profit, and ticket resellers get to hedge their portfolios.

I can't wait for yOOnew to expand to regular season tickets for baseball. This is something the clubs should be doing, and now yOOnew provided them with a market.

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The Tigers tickets are selling so well, they're adding seats to Comerica Park.

The battle between fans of the Mets and Phillies to take over each other's ballpark heats up as Metsblog.com posts a link that allows you to buy Phillies single game tickets online before they are available to the general public.

Fans picked up the pace of buying Blue Jays tickets this season. One reason is the schedule:

Elster gives most of the credit to an improved schedule. Last year, fans grumbled that key rivals in New York and Boston didn't play a single weekend game in Toronto.

This year, the Red Sox visit during the home opening weekend April 4-6. The Yankees will arrive for a July series just ahead of the all-star game. The Jays will also host the Chicago Cubs and 1992 World Series opponents, the Atlanta Braves.

In the 1980s, I had a weekend pass to Fenway Park. With fourteen teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule, every opponent had one weekend at Fenway. Fans with that package no longer get to see every AL team.

The Marlins are raising ticket and parking prices. The more I read about this team, the more I'm convinced the other 29 clubs should remove Loria from the club.

And if you look like you're going to win, they will come:

"We are having conversations about having to cut off our season ticket sales," Dombrowski said. "Because we're in a position where you get into the postseason you have to be able to give a certain number of seats away. So we're closely approaching that number."

Dombrowski said the Tigers sold the equivalent of 19,500 season tickets last season and since acquiring Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis from Florida last month, fans bought 4,500 season tickets.

Assuming most fans renew their season tickets by mid-February, the Tigers will have the equivalent of about 24,000 season tickets sold and would be fewer than 6,000 away from selling out season-ticket packages.

WasWatching breaks down the new Yankees ticket resale rules.

These two policies, as a combination, concerned me a bit. So, I contacted a high ranking party in the Yankees Ticket Operations department and asked them:

If a Yankee season ticket holder were to sell their tickets on StubHub and then the person who buys them sells them "within one thousand five hundred feet from the physical structure of the Stadium," would the season ticket holder then lose their license? Or, would the Yankees work with StubHub to verify that the tickets were sold by the season ticket holder and then they (the season holder) would be relieved of what happens with the ticket after the sale?

And, this was their answer to me:

The Licensee is absolutely responsible for any violation of the License and should safeguard the Ticket(s) so that the License is not violated.

Thanks to Anton for the link, who asks for my opinion. Scalping should be legal, plain and simple, and teams should take advantage of the possible run up in prices for big games.

Craig at FishStripes questions the assertion that ticket sales are up for every team. It's tough to believe more people are buying tickets for Marlins games this season. Maybe fans didn't like Cabrera and Willis? That's tough to believe. Maybe advance sales were so slow last year, they had no place to go but up? Maybe Mets fans, faced with a huge price increase, find it cheaper to fly to Miami, buy a front row seat, and fly back to watch the Mets.

I will be very surprised if the Marlins attendance is up over last season.

Halos Heaven welcomes the ticket price increases in Anaheim.

Good news from New York, scalping is now legal. Let's hope other stats follow suit.

(Hat tip, Knowledge Problem.)

The Baseball Zealot notes that mobile phone tickets are now a reality.

Tom Elia notices an unusual promotional event in Milwaukee.

Update: I'm surprised no one complained it's unfair to women!

Reselling tickets may get easier for Orioles and Ravens fans:

Scoring last-minute tickets to an Orioles or Ravens game would be as easy as a stroll downtown under a bill introduced in the City Council yesterday that would lift a prohibition against reselling tickets within a mile of the Camden Yards sports complex.

Supporters said they hope the measure would boost the Orioles' lagging attendance by making it easier for ticket holders to unload their extra tickets among the throngs of fans outside the park, rather than throwing them out and leaving seats empty.

...

The proposal only allows sales at or below the face value of tickets - keeping the scalping of tickets in the area illegal.

They should lift the ban on scalping, too. If tickets are available at the box office, few will pay a premium to a scalper. If they're not available, ticket holders should be allowed to obtain fair value for the seats. Still, this is a move in the right direction.

People are snapping up Diamondbacks tickets:

When the official word got out late last season that the Diamondbacks would be parting ways with popular left fielder Luis Gonzalez - and shortstop Craig Counsell, too - the organization was hit with a steady stream of negative feedback in the form of phone calls, e-mails and handwritten letters.

The fans had spoken, and many of them threatened to not renew their season tickets.

Some of them didn't, but Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall revealed Monday that ticket sales are soaring, and the club's season-ticket renewal rate has been at a solid 87 percent.

Sales of individual tickets are doing much better as well. Should we factor this in to prediction systems for a team's winning percentage? In general, fans like to see winners. If advance sales are way up, does that mean Diamondbacks fans think this is going to be a pretty good team? It's would make an interesting study to compare changes in advance ticket sales to actual season outcomes.

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The Giants are trying to bring Athletics fans over to the dark and orange side:

A reporter apprised Zito of a recently announced promotion the Giants will be staging Saturday at AT&T Park as they kick off sales of individual game tickets. Fans who turn in their old green-and-gold Zito garb at the stadium event, be they jerseys or just T-shirts, will receive two free tickets to the Giants-A's exhibition game in San Francisco.

Zito seemed taken aback by the news of it.

"I don't know why they should have to turn it in," Zito said. "I think it's cool they're going to have (the promotion). But what are they going to do with the other ones, shred'em?"

When he was informed there may some sort of subsequent plan whereby the pitcher would sign the old A's gear and it would be donated to charity, he seemed to feel a bit better about it.

It would be nice, too, to get a voucher for a new Zito T-Shirt.

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The Rockies are charging extra for tickets when the Yankees come to town this season:

But those games at Coors Field June 19-21 carry a cachet unlike any others on the Rockies' schedule and, as a result, stand alone when it comes to ticket prices.

Single-game tickets for the series - outside the Coors Clubhouse and corporate suite tickets and the $4 Rockpile seats - range from $15 to $75.

"It's like every team in major league baseball has a personal rivalry with the Yankees," said Becky Wallace, executive editor of Chicago-based Team Marketing Report, "and they show that by raising their ticket prices. And I think the reason why is, so many fans react because the Yankees are the team with the legacy, the team with the dynasty. They're the team everyone wants to beat, whether or not they're the previous World Series winner."

The Yankees have visited Coors one other time, in 2002, and the two- night, one-day series (same as this year) drew a Rockies franchise- record 146,530.

Good for the Rockies. Teams should do more of this pricing to try to match prices to the demand for particular games, even lowering prices when opponents don't draw.

The Dodgers are offering "All You can Eat" Tickets in 2007. That would be very dangerous for someone like me. My family bought four tickets in the Fenway Budweiser roof seats last year, and included in the four tickets was $100 worth of food. I thought it was well worth it.

Why have scalping laws if they are not going to be enforced?

The state's antiscalping law, which dates to 1924, doesn't prohibit ticket purchases above face value, but it requires anyone in the business of reselling tickets in Massachusetts to obtain a license from Public Safety and limits markups to $2 above face value plus certain service charges.

Nantel has said Public Safety has never disciplined or audited the books of any of the ticket resellers it licenses.

It seems to me it's time to take the scalping laws off the books.

The Red Sox came up with an innovative way to pay for Matsuzaka's salary.

The Red Sox are keeping 2006 prices on most of their tickets:

The Red Sox, after a season in which they failed to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2002, announced yesterday that ticket prices will remain unchanged in 2007 for 81.5 percent of the seats at Fenway Park.

With the industry awash in money -- Major League Baseball announced it expects a record $5.2 billion in revenues in 2006 and has struck new TV deals with Fox, ESPN, and TBS -- and labor peace maintained with an accord this week on a new collective bargaining agreement, the Sox said they made a conscious effort to hold the line on ticket prices.

A total of 30,155 tickets per game will be priced the same as 2006. The range includes pavilion box, loge box, right field roof box, right field roof seats, infield grandstand, outfield grandstand, bleachers, upper bleachers, and general standing room.

Of course, this just makes the tickets harder to get, since demand was still very high in 2006. Given the that the Red Sox did very well in the draft for the second year in a row, that demand is not likely to fade soon.

While the Red Sox are slowing the rise in ticket prices, the Arizona Diamondbacks are actually lowering some prices:

Eighty-six percent of the tickets to the Diamondbacks games this season will remain the same price or be reduced, Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall said Tuesday.

"Over 70 percent of the tickets will be $20 or less," Hall said at a luncheon in Chandler. "For a single game, we've created a more affordable ticket, and a number of (upper-level) seats will be just $5."

Arizona appears to be a team on the rise as well. The teams is going to offer good baseball at a reasonable price. You can't beat that.

The New York Yankees are revoking season ticket rights of holders who resell on the internet.

The Yankees are revoking the season tickets of fans who have sold their unused tickets on StubHub.com and other Web sites and are looking to start their own entity to sell tickets in the lucrative secondary market.

"Why pick on me?" said Orlando Bautista, a doctor in Smithtown, N.Y., who was told by the team in August that his upper-deck and bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium would be revoked after the season.

He added: "I'm a good fan. I don't drink. I don't curse."

Another fan whose tickets were revoked, and who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to imperil any chance he had of reclaiming his seats, said: "I'm contemplating being a Mets fan. I'm really hurt. You feel like you're trying to fight City Hall, but this is worse."

I've never understood anti-scalping laws. In fact, in this age of computer information, I don't understand fixed price tickets at all. Tickets are essentially game futures. Teams could then make markets in their tickets and set the price at an attractive level that would insure good attendance.

But revoking season ticket rights? Who are these people hurting? It's very counter productive. They're just going to drive away their best fans.

The Toronto Blue Jays are offering free tickets at their web site for filling out a questionaire. Thanks to Jeremy Stoll for the heads up.

Via U.S.S. Mariner, Derek Zumsteg complains about the favorable ruling the Cubs received in their ticket scalping case.

The Illinois Ticket Scalping Act says that if you put on a sporting event (or a Cubs game), you can't sell those tickets for more than their face value. The Cubs set up a sham firm, Wrigley Field Premium Tickets, which was owned by the same people who owned the Cubs, run by a Cubs VP, and even had the Cubs do their accounting. The Cubs would then funnel them face-value tickets before they were available to anyone else, which the sham company would scalp. I've followed this story since 2002, when two Cubs fans took the whole rotten system to court, and I have no idea how this can be ruled legal.

The best part about this saga has been the amazing lies of the Cubs that this scheme is good for fans.

"Fans have more choices [to] buy tickets," Cubs vice president Mark McGuire said in 2003. "Brokers should be very disappointed today. Fans who buy tickets through those sources will have more choices, good seats, at better prices, than what they would have if freedom did not exist."

Because those other ticket brokers, like terrorists, hate our freedom.

Yes, Derek, less choice is always better. McGuire here is certainly spinning badly, but his underlieing argument is correct. The Cubs are just another ticket broker in this case. The more brokers offering me tickets, the better price I'm going to get.

I do argee with Derek on this:

This allows a team to make more money off their tickets by scalping them -- and they avoid paying other teams revenue-sharing money from that income. I'm surprised the highest-revenue teams haven't pooled their resources to build a time machine so they could start doing this through baseball's history. (Kill Hitler while you're in the '30s, as long as you're back there. It's worth a shot.)

The big teams, like the Yankees and Red Sox, who have rabid fan bases and see an active market for scalping their tickets, would love something like this. Instead of pricing a seat at $50 a game and seeing a ridiculous third taken away through revenue sharing to fund the infant-like flailing of the Royals, they can instead sell that ticket to their side business for $20, scalp it for $400, and then use the profits on whatever they want: starting pitchers, three platinum Escalades for each executive (one for them, one for their honeys, one for their money), a personal hair stylist for Manny Ramirez, whatever.

But this is easily remedied by Bud Selig acting as supreme dictator and forcing teams to share revenue if they own the broker. In fact, I don't understand why teams put face value on tickets anymore. They all should be sold by auction. A ticket, after all, is nothing more than a futures contract. Teams, for example, could sell lots of tickets to brokers in January to cover their cost for the year. That puts the risk on the broker. Teams could hold back tickets, in case they have a better year than expected, and reap the additional profit as demand increases. My guess is that attendance would be decent for poor teams because people could pick up tickets for $1 the day of the game. And teams will likely still make money because the fanny in the seats is worth a lot in concessions.

And all though it's meant as satire by Derek, I really like this idea, at least the part about the length of the line:

Food and drink are priced up based on the length of the line, and then individually marked up further based on the presence of screaming kids and the recommendation of a facial recognition software that determines how much hunger pain a potential customer is in.

I don't like missing the action. I'd pay extra to be able to get a hot dog and back to my seat between innings without missing a pitch. Real time price information on an electronic display in the food court, including wait times, would be great. Let the markets work!

Sox1Fan owns a pair of tickets to a Red Sox game he can't use. He's having a contest at his blog to award them to a lucky fan.

The Birdwatch wonders if the Cardinals priced their tickets too low:

It seems to me there's something wrong when tickets sell that quickly. Don't misunderstand me; as a fan, I like to go to games and, as a little cog in corporate America, I like to keep my money in the stock market. But I think the Cardinals underpriced their tickets for 2006. I suppose there's a PR-angle to consider -- the Cardinals don't want Bernie Miklasz kvetching about ticket prices and then re-hashing payroll promises and urinal sales again -- and there are long-term relationships to maintain. My amateur opinion is still that prior to St. Patrick's Day a baseball team shouldn't be a virtual sellout for the entire season.

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Individual ticket prices are on the rise in for the Rangers games.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays re-organized their group sales effort:

Group ticket sales historically have accounted for about 10 percent of ticket sales, but the Rays are looking to build on that number, said Matt Silverman, the team's president. The Rays define groups as 20 fans or more. Most groups that attend games are in the 20-50 range, he said.

The seven group sales districts are St. Petersburg, South Tampa, North Tampa, Clearwater, Manatee/Sarasota, Brandon/Lakeland and Orlando, Silverman said. "We're reaching out to the diverse geography," he said. "We are very cognizant of the large region we serve. We have assigned representatives to cover this large area."

The Rays are also expanding group ticket options. The team is offering four categories of ticket prices, splitting the 81-game home schedule into A, B, C and half-price games.

Basically, they're giving groups more choices, and trying to expand their coverage of the area. Winning will help sales more, but it's good to see the new ownership continue to find new ways to promote the ballclub.

The Brewers report tickets sales are up 40% over last year's first weekend of sales. Fans want to see a winner.

The Florida Marlins spring training ticket sales are up this year:

The Marlins, who have slashed the payroll, will report to spring training without Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca. But the team already has sold 28,247 tickets — through group, mini-plan and season-ticket packages — for games this spring, an increase of nearly 17 percent compared to this time last year, said Rob Rabenecker, general manager of Roger Dean Stadium.

"I was going into the season expecting to see a drop of 20 to 25 percent and it's been just the opposite," he said. "I'm pleasantly surprised."

The White Sox are setting a record for season ticket sales:

Team officials say the season-ticket holder base will exceed 20,000 this year for the first time in franchise history, and although full- and partial-season tickets are still being sold, they will not include the right to buy post-season game seats at U.S. Cellular Field.

Tickets for week two of the NFL playoffs are available at the Baseball Musings Ticket Store. Remember, use promotional code nflplayoff at check out to save 5%.

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The Baseball Musings Ticket Store is offering a special deal this January, a 5% discount on tickets in honor of the NFL Playoffs. Wild Card weekend is fast approaching, and if you want to see the Giants, Patriots, Buccaneers or Bengels host a post-season game, use promotional code nflplayoff and get a great seat at a discount. Check out the other events available, also. The discount is good for any sporting event, concert or show.

The Atlanta Braves saw an increase in attendance in 2005, and want to keep that trend positive. Atlanta is holding ticket prices steady for 2006, and offering two new discount packages:

A limited number of seats in the upper pavilion level in right field, which cost $5 on an individual-game basis, will be sold as full season tickets for $249, which comes to $3 per game. The seats were not previously offered as season tickets; the cheapest full-season-ticket package this past season was $830.

Seats in the terrace reserved and Lexus pavilion levels in the outfield will be sold as full season tickets on a buy-two-, get-two-free basis — four full-season tickets for the price of two.

"Selling more season tickets — that's the goal," Schiller said.

"It's been no secret that our season-ticket base has decreased over the past eight years — with the exception of last season, which was the first time it increased [during that span]."

Three dollars a game sounds like a great deal to me. Back in 1984, when George Parker and I bought our first Red Sox season tickets, we paid $3 a game for bleacher seats. Our package contained 26 weekend games, opening day and Patriots' Day. At that time, there were 13 American League opponents, and each came in for a weekend at Fenway, so we were able to watch all the teams on the plan. It was a perfect package. This Braves offer sounds very good, too.

My dear aunt Frances is celebrating her 83rd birthday today. In her honor, you can use the promotional code elizeus at the Baseball Musings Ticket Store to save 5% on your order. This offer will be good through the weekend. Take this chance to stock up on seats for the pennant races, the NFL season and, once again, hockey!

Baseball Musings is pleased to announce the opening of the Baseball Musings Ticket Store. I hope the ticket store will be the first place you stop when you're trying to buy those hard to find seats or looking for a way into a sold out game. The store offers tickets to all types of events. Looking for Cubs-Cardinals tickets? They're in the store. Football season isn't that far away, and tickets for Giants Stadium are available. Game 6, Heat at Pistons? Don't miss it.

The Baseball Musings Ticket Store carries concerts, Broadway shows, Las Vegas shows and much more. And in apprecation of all the loyal readers of this site, through June 16, 2005 use the offer code bmintro to receive 5% off the listed price of any ticket.

Make the Baseball Musings Ticket Store your place to shop for events. Use the search box in the upper right corner of the page to take you right to the event you desire. You'll get good prices on good seats, and help support this site at the same time.

I you live or near Longmeadow, MA, St. Mary's School is raffling off Red Sox tickets. I believe it's four box seats for the May 21st game vs. the Braves. Tickets are $1 each. They're selling in front of the Big Y today and next Saturday.

The Orioles are auctioning off a suite for opening day. A great idea. Room for sixteen and full catering. Sounds like a fun place for a party.

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MLB Advance Media is acquiring Tickets.com. I wonder if they'll use this to implement the double auction system referred to here?

I live in Massachusetts, but it's unlikely that I can get Red Sox tickets at this point. I'd probably have to pay a ticket agent or scalper through the nose. It may actually be cheaper for me to go to Tampa Bay to see a game. I can fly there from Hartford for $100 round trip, and get a pretty good seat for $25.00. Someone in the Devil Rays organization should work a deal with Southwest to bring in visiting fans on discount fares whenever the Rays are in town, especially from New York and Boston. It's one way of boosting attendance.