A pricier home of champions

Citing needs on field and at Fenway, Sox raise ticket costs 9%

November 15, 2007|Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff

The Red Sox, who already have the most expensive tickets in baseball, are raising prices again, this time by 9 percent, in an effort to keep up with a familiar target: the Yankees.

A little more than two weeks after the Red Sox won their second World Series in four seasons, the team decided it needed more revenue to fund everything from Fenway Park improvements to free agents to draftees. And the Sox are determined to pass much of the expense on to the fans, some of whom might still be unpacking their bags from Cleveland and Colorado.

"It's pretty disgusting, but I'm not surprised," said Jon Freedman, who has had a pair of season tickets, loge box seats along third base, since 1987. "But you know, if I don't buy them, there are at least 1,000 people who will."

Such is the growth in popularity of Fenway, which has been sold out for 388 consecutive regular-season games despite the cost.

According to Team Marketing Report's 2007 Fan Cost Index, which includes two average adult tickets, two average children's tickets, four small sodas, two small beers, four hot dogs, two programs, parking, and two adult caps, the Red Sox far surpassed the runner-up Yankees, $313.83 to $222.53. But while that may seem high, according to TMR, a Chicago-based sports marketing and research concern, those 2007 numbers are actually less than it would take for a family of four to see a Patriots, Celtics, or Bruins game.

"We need revenue to fuel the vision that we have, and the vision is for a competitive, entertaining, winning team year in and year out - I say winning, I don't necessarily mean winning the World Series - and to preserve, protect, enhance, improve Fenway Park," president/CEO Larry Lucchino said yesterday in a conference call. "In addition, to restock our minor league system is the gasoline that makes the car go in those three directions."

Fenway prices have skyrocketed in recent years, notably in the field boxes, which will incur the greatest increase for next season, jumping from $105 to $125 per game. As recently as 1997, field boxes cost $26. When the Sox won their first World Series in 2004, the cost had gone up to to $75.

"I don't have a problem with it," said Joe O'Donnell, who was part of a local group that tried to purchase the team in 2002 and who owns premium season tickets. "The premium seats could go for more but they've been very careful with the prices of the other seats. With the previous ownership group, it was like the Stone Age. As long as they stay competitive, the market will bear it. Fenway is a unique shrine and they are taking advantage of it."