For the Sox, the idea is a creative solution to Fenway Park's being sold out for every game and is also designed to appeal to the team's national base of fans. The trips piggyback on the success of spring training travel packages that baseball teams have been selling for several years. Now, regular-season road trips are gaining momentum across Major League Baseball. At least four teams -- San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, and the Angels in California -- have offered or plan to offer such packages.
The trips also tap into the notion that fans will pay a premium for exclusive experiences. Music stars including Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones have already proven that selling fans trips to their concerts can be lucrative. The Stones are advertising a vacation package to a concert in Madrid, which comes with an invitation to a preshow party, a welcome reception, and tickets so close to the stage that fans ''feel like part of the band." The price: $2,274, excluding airfare.
By selling travel packages, the Red Sox can appeal to their most loyal fans and make money, too, said Stephen A. Greyser, a Harvard Business School professor who specializes in sports management. ''It's a brand extension," he said.
So far this season, fans have been able to go on one away-game trip -- last month's opener against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas. Andrew Lipsett of Jamaica Plain decided to take the trip after his father, a season ticket-holder at Fenway, received a mailing from the Red Sox.
In Texas, the two stayed at the Wyndham Arlington hotel, where they were greeted with gift packages at the front desk. Sox first baseman J.T. Snow made an appearance at a reception. Then there was the VIP tour of the Rangers' ballpark.
''I've never seen a ballpark tour that takes you into a team's locker room on a game day," said Lipsett, 27. ''We were in the home dugout. We went out onto the warning track."
