The Nationals lost last night, Chad Cordero gave up a 9th inning homer to the Pirates’ Jason Bay to drop to 24-36 for the season. That’s right, .400 ball. Granted, it’s probably better than we expected at the beginning of the season, and Dmitri Young is proving to be a firecracker in the offensive side.
But that doesn’t justify the insanity prices for next year’s tickets. Currently, I pay $23 a seat for my two seats in Section 426 at RFK. We have 20 games there, and I’ve come to even like RFK’s upper deck. But, this season will be my last as a Nationals Season Ticket holder. Come next season, I’ll be looking at $55 (an increase of 158%, I might add.) a seat for my upper deck tickets. I’ve been corrected, that was the club level that is $55, my seats would be $20. I’m slightly less irate now.
This part still stands, though, even if you’re just taking club seats into contention: What is this, the NBA? I’m not going to pay $55 a seat to sit all the way in the upper deck to watch the Nationals play anything less than .600 ball and win the goddamn division. Besides, it’s not like the team is having to pay for the construction of the Stadium. That was done on the backs of the taxpayers of the city of DC. Now you’re planning to hit us at the turnstiles, too? You’re insane. No one in their right mind is going to pay $55 to sit in the upper deck and watch the Nationals lose more than half their games. No one in their right mind is going to pay $60 to sit behind the dugout and watch the Nationals Pitching staff flounder and struggle game after game.
I’m sorry, Uncle Stan, the only way you get to charge that much money is if you win the World Series next season, not sit at the bottom of the cellar like you are now. I know the Lerner family spent a boatload on the team, and they want to make a profit back, but this is unacceptable. You’re now competing with Fenway and Yankee Stadium for the most expensive baseball experience around. That’s going to keep all the people in my section right now out of the ballpark entirely. You can’t afford to do that.
Here’s the real problem. The Nationals have 16,000 season ticket holders. That’s it. Doubling ticket prices isn’t going to fix that. Get a clue, Lerner Family, you can’t charge this kind of money for shit baseball.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
