MLB Club With $200 Million Payroll Offering Cheaper Tickets Than Local Minor League Team
The Detroit Tigers really want your butt in a seat at Comerica Park next month.
They really, really do.
In fact, it's gotten to the point where Minor League baseball tickets look like an extravagant purchase compared to Tigers tickets.
The Tigers are offering an August Digital Ballpark Pass to fans for $54.99. The pass gets you a seat (exact seats vary game to game) at every Tigers home game in August. There are 11 home games in all, coming against the Pirates, Dodgers, Twins, and Yankees in that month.
Do the math: That promotion comes out to costing less than $5 per game. Plus, there's a chance to see great players like Clayton Kershaw, Andrew McCutchen and Aaron Judge live.
This legitimately feels too good to be true.
Maybe the Tigers are getting out in front of their suspected fire sale at the trade deadline, which they might figure will cause attendance issues--especially if guys like Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez are no longer sporting the Old English 'D.' Or maybe the club's myriad albatrosses of long-term contracts with aging and already-over-the-hill players have put the Tigers so far in the red that they're desperate for any kind of potential revenue stimulant.
Or maybe it's just a really good deal.
Whatever the case, the fact that you can see the Detroit Tigers all month in August for less than the cost of a Hot-N-Ready per game is absurd. So absurd it makes you ask, "How is this sort of deal even financially possible for a team that has to sustain a $200-plus million payroll"?
Compare this to our local Minor League club to get even more perspective. The Lansing Lugnuts are offering tickets to games in August for anywhere between $8 and $11, meaning the Tigers are actually cheaper to visit in August.
Minor League baseball prides itself on its reasonable pricing and being an affordable option for families to take in a baseball game. The Tigers, for whatever reason, will be undercutting that next month.
You can compare almost any minor league team across America and see the difference. Here are just a few:
You read that right--in August it will be more expensive to see Tim Tebow play high A-level baseball than it will be to see the Detroit Tigers and whoever they have left after the trade deadline.
Maybe this is looking too deep into a great deal or maybe there's something else here. Regardless, if cost was ever a deterrent to seeing Major League Baseball the Tigers are putting that obstruction to attendance to rest in August.