EARL CHANGE: New MLB App allows fans to “upgrade” seats during game–for a price
By Earl Nash
OPINION…
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and his Capitalist Cronies have come up with a new way to squeeze more money out of the fans for tickets. They offer you the opportunity to “upgrade” your seat location during a game with a new phone app, Mobile Seat Upgrade.
Here is the party line:
“This is designed to give fans a little more during the game,” Steve Fanelli, Oakland A’s executive director of ticket sales and operations, said of the upgrade app. “We’re just trying to completely engage the consumer, from the purchase process and throughout, through their mobile. If we have inventory, we want to give them something new to try.”
Bollocks!
It is designed to make fans pay extra [$5-$55, avg. $16] and fill the empty seats at a game. With all the vacant seats in his Oakland Coliseum, Steve Fanelli has a lot of gall to spin it as giving “fans a little more.”
If MLB teams and Selig were not so attached to the bottom line, maximizing profit by wringing every last dime out of their fans, they would allow fans to relocate to any empty seats after the Third inning. This would allow fans, especially kids, to see the game from the more expensive seats; so, maybe when they grow up and have the money, they might be willing to pay the price for them.
“Should MLB succeed with the ticketing-upgrade feature, other leagues, and just about any ticketed event for that matter, will likely follow suit with their own features or apps.” [http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/MLB-puts-squeeze-on-sneaky-fans-with-app-4360795.php]
Anyone who has ever played “Dodge The Usher” at a game knows the thrill of “upgrading” and we would bring binoculars to games, so we could spot the empty seats downstairs from our lofty perch on the second or third deck. Or, we waited near the main exit for well-dressed departing fans and asked for their ticket stubs.
This is another example of how Major league baseball has become another business owned by corporations to turn a maximum profit and why Minor league attendance his breaking records.