Cardinals Season Ticket Holders Should Hold No Grudge on Single Gamers
By Scott Allen
I was scouring the sports section of the Arizona Republic today and I came across a Phoenix Suns ticket holder that sent a complaint to the editor about being a season ticket holder who misses out on discounts and promotions just for people who buy single-game tickets. I immediately had a couple of thoughts. First, would an Arizona Cardinals fan complain too and, secondly, what’s he complaining about? He has season tickets and us single gamers don’t. I think he should take a long hard look at the reasons why he is complaining.
Sure, I understand to a point what he is trying to get across. It’s like that promo your credit card company runs for new customers only. You’re an existing customer and don’t get all the incentives that a new one might get. However, child please. Don’t you understand that in order for a business to be successful, its needs existing customers and needs to keep bringing in new customers?
Every team in this market and in every sports market has its season ticket holder base. Unless you live in a place like Green Bay where the season ticket waitlist is a longer number than the national debt, the fact is, teams don’t sell out their seats to season ticket holders, especially in this economy, and especially in a saturated sports market like Phoenix. These teams rely on single-ticket fans too. Now, with the Cards there aren’t as many as there might be with other teams, however you get the point.
In order to team marketers to do their job, they must bring in new business. If that means for a game or two instead of an entire season, fine? They get you for one or two, then they move on to the next guy to get one or two games. Sometimes that means discounting tickets or having promotions to get you to by those tickets. It’s called an enticement. Look it up.
When you book a hotel, a rental car, a flight, does everyone get the same rate? No. They only sell so many spots at a particular price and then move on. I’ve been to games where I paid one price and the guy next to me may have paid double. Happens to me all the time at Arizona Diamondbacks games. It has happened to me at Cards games too. One Cards game a couple of years ago I paid $40 on stubhub for two upper level seats valued at $80 for the pair. The guy next to me on one side bought his tickets at face value and another in front of me paid twice what I paid. That’s life. Is it fair? Maybe, maybe not, but it will all balance out in the end.
I’ve been the guy who has paid more and I’ve been the guy who has paid less. So, this Suns fan that says he won’t renew his season tickets because he didn’t get the same discount a single-game fan got, I question his loyalties. So, the guy clearly wants to go to 41 games (33 this season), but says he would rather only go to the few great games to get the discounts. Does he not realize as a season ticket holder, the average cost of his ticket is actually lower than the average single game ticket costs? No. All he see’s is what he wants to see. He sees the one time discount and immediately is raged that the face value of the ticket for that one game is more than what that single ticket guy just played. Child please.
If your complaint is that of not getting a one game discount because you have season tickets, then please question why you got season tickets in the first place. Stop wasting your money and my time. Save us all the trouble and go spend the money at the casino cause clearly you felt you wasted your money, so why not do it while giving a little back to the State of Arizona and the local Indian tribes? Child please.