Some fans upset at Sox price increase

Fans hit Sox for hiking Fenway’s ticket prices
By Thomas Grillo | Tuesday, November 17, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

Recession-weary Red Sox [team stats] fans came out swinging against the team’s increase in ticket prices for certain seats at Fenway Park [map].

“It’s extremely greedy of the Red Sox,” Dermot Doyne, owner of Penguin Pizza in Boston, said of the nearly 4 percent average increase. “If anything, the team should be giving families a break. They have lost touch with the fans. It’s like only corporations can afford to attend a game.”

Under the 2010 ticket price plan announced yesterday, seats in about half of the ballpark, including lower bleacher, infield grandstand and right-field box seats rose $2, while loge, field box and Green Monster seats jumped $5.

“I think they’re overpriced to begin with,” said Michael Tierney of Scituate. “For two people, it’s a $300 ordeal when you consider parking and refreshments. You can’t afford to take the family.”

Sox brass tried to put a positive spin on the news, noting that next year 63 percent of tickets will cost $52 or less, and the lowest price - for upper bleacher seats - remains at $12.

Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said the “modest” average increase of 3.8 percent represents “the second lowest average percentage price increase over the past 15 seasons with the exception of last season, when we implemented a price freeze across the board for all categories.”

The Red Sox said the priciest “non-premium” seat at Fenway next year will be a single-game ticket for the Green Monster section, for $165. The highest-priced premium seats - the dugout box section - are $328, up $2.

Only the Yankees charge more than the Sox, on average, yet the Hub franchise’s record ballpark-sellout streak stood at 550 games at the end of last season, stretching back to May 15, 2003.

Anne McGhee, a Boston artist who was painting Fenway on Yawkey Way yesterday, took the price hike in stride.

“If they doubled the cost of bleacher seats, that would be a lot,” she said. “I’m actually surprised ticket prices are not higher.”
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