FanShot

Cubfreude, or Why Would You Ever Really Meaningfully Reduce Ticket Prices

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My package, which I divide among 15 friends, fell in price to $13,314.56 from $13,315.16. There is an asterisk: I will receive eight more tickets next year, so the average price per ticket dropped about $2, to $58 from $60. Still, my bill fell by 60 cents. Which means my kids can get those gumballs we've been saving for. I emailed the Cubs and asked if team owner Tom Ricketts, or president for baseball operations Theo Epstein, would sit down and explain why I should spend this kind of money for a team that has almost no chance of playing championship baseball in 2013. Instead of Ricketts or Epstein, the Cubs gave me Colin Faulkner, vice president for ticket sales and service. We sat at a back table at Bernie's, across the street from Wrigley. He ordered a Blue Moon and I had a Revolution IPA. Faulkner's first pitch was a soft: toss: He said he'd recently spoken to a fan whose father had died without seeing a World Series. Taking over his father's season-ticket plan, this fan intended to leave a seat empty in honor of his dad when he finally watched the Cubs win it all. I wasn't buying it. The Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908. Why would this guy be any luckier than his father? How big is the waiting list for season tickets? I asked. Answer: 115,000. Imagine owning the second-worst team in baseball. It has a waiting list of 115,000 customers. Would you reduce prices?