Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Opening Day tix nearly sold out

VIERA, Fla. -- Single-game tickets went on sale this morning, and unless you were one of the lucky few who called right at the stroke of 10 a.m. (or unless you're part of a season-ticket plan) you were probably left out in the cold for Opening Day seats.

According to the Nationals, by 10:07 a.m. only single seats to the April 5 game against the Phillies were available. The game isn't officially sold out yet, but the only way to get tickets now is by purchasing either a season-ticket plan (full, half or partial), a mini-plan (14, 13 or 10 games) or flex plans (five games for the price of four).

It's possible more single-game tickets for opener will become available if the full allotment of season tickets isn't sold. But for now, fans who want to purchase only for that game are out of luck.

25 comments:

Andrew said...

Mark - Now if you could only give me the magical date of Stephen Strasburg's debut at Nats Park then I will be really impressed!

JayB said...

Mark,

Any guess on what the season ticket base number is down to? In 2008 they did not include Home Opener tickets with partial plans and sold out right away. This year all the ST plan types had home opener tickets included and they still have tickets (singles I know) and they are holding back others to sell with new ST plans......My guess is they are down to well under 10,000 ST sold. Stan never said last year but there were plenty of games where nobody could give away tickets and we had well under 10K in the stands. If this team comes out flat is 5 and 20 in April yet again then we are going to see a ghost town instead of Nats town.

Grandstander said...

<>

That is unless the Phillies are in town. I wonder how many of those tickets sold for Opening Day were sold to Nats fans...

Andrew said...

JayB - The Nats may never disclose their STH base but I always look at the lowest attendence game on a weekday game which is usually a Marlins series as the closest guesstimate to the true STH base number. The Marlins are the lowest draw due to their weak fan base. When was the last time you saw a throng of Marlins fans at Nats Park?

Last year the STH base was probably very close to 10,623 vs. Marlins on June 29th.

TBC said...

Who cares what the season ticket base is anyway? If they sell the seats at the single game price they actually make more money than if they sell them as season tickets. If the team performs well, the seats will be full. If they don't, the park will be emptier. It's as simple as that.

Andrew said...

JayB - I think you will be surprised with overall attendence this year as I think attendence will rise over last year. The won/loss record will determine how much overall the attendence changes.

2 factors on the + side Strasburg and Wang.

1 factor that will be a +/- will be the won/loss record so that will be a wait & see.

1 factor that will be a big - will be no Red Sox this season which is 3 games that will not be sold out.

greg said...

Andrew, I like your STH base theory. I'll put up an even better option for the game to watch:

Wed, Jun 23 Kansas City 4:35 PM

natbiscuit said...

I got behind on my reading, but thoroughly enjoyed catching up this evening. One thing I have not seen in any of the posts yet is an update on Bernadina's health. Is he having any lingering issues with his ankle? Has he regained 100% of his speed? I'm also interested in Dukes conditioning. (And among the position players, who wins the "best shape of his life" competition.)

Mark Zuckerman said...

Natbiscuit: Bernadina is indeed 100 percent healthy and good to go. In fact, I'd probably award him the "best shape of his life" trophy. Several people have noted how good he looks physically this spring.

TBC said...

That KC series in late June would be a great time for Strasburg's first start. Think that might help attendance a bit?

greg said...

good point. how many people would take off early on a weds afternoon in june for that?

JayB said...

I agree if and when the win then fans will come back. I know that my little section of the Park where we all get to know each other, I was the only one of 5 groups that renewed their tickets. Last year was very damaging and that damage will linger until they are in contention....they did not do enough in the off season to change that did they?

Nats needed a defensive SS Proven, RF bat, top closer and another healthy 200 inning 4.25 ERA starter to get to .500.

VladiHondo said...

Your headline is very wrong, it should be "Most of the Very Few of the So-Far-Made Available Single Day Opening Day tickets have been Sold".

I doubt more than 10k have actually been sold (to STH) to date.

VladiHondo said...

Your headline is very wrong, it should be "Most of the Very Few of the So-Far-Made Available Single Day Opening Day tickets have been Sold".

I doubt more than 10k (all STHers) have actually been sold to date. And I very much doubt, the Opening Day game will be sold out (within 2k of stadium capacity).

Anonymous said...

Good news for the Nats that there is evident excitement (and a better team business plan--e.g., putting opening tickets in partial season ticket plans like mine) for Opening Day this year [alas, I'll be in Ireland--it's the tail end of local school district's spring break]. I would caution my colleagues' read of actual STH from filled seats for low-popularity games, with last year as a vivid example. I'm in two different plans, including a syndicate for a full-season package. By early summer, I couldn't even get my daughter to go to games. Often, I was the only one sitting in a 4-seat collection (lots of room to spread out and a chance to deny the visiting team's fans easy prime seats!). By August, I literally couldn't give tickets away--so I missed games, meaning 4 empty, paid-for seats. I thought we heard last year's STH were in the 16K range. And let's also not diminish the potential attraction of a mid-week game against the Royals: they have some quality starting pitching; they were an early surprise last season, and that week is the first full week that many area schools will be done for the year--I get to take my daughter to midweek games without worrying about messing up a school night. Carl in 309.

TBC said...

I would caution my colleagues' read of actual STH from filled seats for low-popularity games, with last year as a vivid example.

They're not taking their estimate of actual STH from filled seats, they're taking it from announced attendance - which is always paid attendance, not turnstile count. MLB teams never release their actual attendance numbers. So since each full season ticket represents a seat that is sold for every single game, the game with the lowest attendance every season is going to have an attendance that is greater than or equal to the number of season tickets sold.

Mark said...

Mark, there are plenty of seats available for Opening Day.

If you go to the Nats site now and request a Full Season Plan, you can get 4 together in the Home Dugout Box section, Row V, seats 9-12. So, they are holding back a whole bunch of tickets.

As for this year's attendance low, don't look for a business man's special in June. That game will do fine. Weather will be great. Kids out of school - early game. They'll do 27K easily.

As for an indicator of the STH Base, I'd look at the early may weeknights against Atlanta (before school is out, and who cares about the Braves) or late April against the Rockies (again, schools in session, and the Rocks are a playoff team, but how well do they travel?) and after that you may have to wait for a September weeknight when schools get back going again.

And as far as winning boosting attendance, oddly enough, studies show there's usually a 1 year lag and that 2010 attendance is more strongly influenced by the 2009 record, than the 2010 record.

Mark said...

Last year's STH base was closer to 12K.

On April 20th, a chilly, wet, Monday night against the Braves, the Nats announced tickets sold in the amount of: 12,464

I doubt that there was much of a walkup and very little advance sales for a Monday night against the Braves. And after rain all afternoon and into the evening, the result was a delay at the start of 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Mark said...

Andrew, the 10,623 attendance figure that you noted, was a Marlins game but it was in Miami. Not DC.

Anonymous said...

Mark.... I wanted to comment about the Roger Bernadina post... Definately gonna be a breakout season for him.. I would find it hard to compare many that did what he did in the off season. He put on the most amount of muscle mass I have ever seen and has been hitting the ball very hard in the first few weeks. He even arrived almost a week before pitchers and catchers arrived. His dedication is well beyond players such as Dukes

BaseballinDC said...

Good to hear that there's such support for the team...hope it keeps up as we move from spring to summer.

Steve M. said...

Mark (not Zuckerman) & Andrew, keep in mind that the paid attendence includes lots of no-shows. If 12,000 was the low paid attendence for the season, then 10,000 to 11,000 is probably closer to the real STH base. Just some guessing on my part.

Anonymous said...

I received a call from the ticket office...this is BS...There is no way they sold out that quickly.
The salesman told me if I was to buy season tickets he would be able to include opening day..
Problem is that last season, most of us with season tickets did not renew...this is the NATS way of getting back ...its not going to work.
It could have a terrible impact, for baseball in DC.
Once again aDC owner killing the fun for people..

Neil said...

If you believe the NATS sold out of Opening Day tickets that fast, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell.
This is a tactic to get people to purchase season tickets, because so many people dropped their plans...

Sildenafil Citrate said...

well I have to say I was not part of a season-ticket plan, and I was one of the few lucky ones who called at the right time to get one ticket, I couldn't believe I got one ticket!

Post a Comment