There doesn’t seem to be much happening today at all with the Orioles, but Fan Fest is taking place this weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center. As always it should be interesting to see what comes of the event, the various personalities and seeing a crowd ready for baseball — for better or worse with this team — in the Spring.
Over the weekend, the Orioles announced that they were raising the price of tickets bought on ‘game-day’, plus those of ‘prime games’ — mainly those against the Yankees and Red Sox. Considering how bad the team has been over the past decade-plus, a lot of fans would not be happy about the price increases at all.
During the past week, there’s been a considerable amount of anger online on the various blogs and sites. Drew Forrester of WNST has been pretty vocal about his displeasure of the new ticket policies, but this morning, Kevin Cowherd of the Sun had his say about it and it’s safe to say he’s not pleased.
Really, a lot fans are upset at the new policies not so much because an increase in ticket prices, but because of the performance of the Orioles on the field. As sad it is to say, there are kids around my brother’s age — he’s 16 — who will have almost zero recollection of a winning organization in Baltimore.
Are most people seemingly upset about shelling out a couple of more bucks – no. The issue in a nutshell is that the Baltimore Orioles have sucked for years and why should fans feel compelled to pay for a lackluster product? For most people, I’d assume that they’d be willing to spend more if there was a marquee player signed this offseason on the roster such as a Matt Holiiday or a John Lackey.
I don’t want to disrespect anyone on the Orioles, but there isn’t one.
Two winters ago (if I’m correct), the Ravens raised prices on their tickets all across the board when the economy had started to completely suffer. While there were still a few people who grumbled at the price increase, most – if not all – fans paid for the priviledge to watch their team on gameday at M&T Bank Stadium.
The comparison between the Ravens and the Orioles are simple. Simply, the football team has won in the past few years. The baseball team has not.
Personally, I’m not bothered by the policy as I tend to just call my ticket representative and order them ahead of time; however, I can see where the vast majority of people are coming from with their anger.
