Boston Red Sox to add new seats, reduce foul territory
By Rick McNair
The Boston Red Sox have another expansion that will add pricey seats and reduce foul territory.
The old adage that the only sure things in life are death and taxes also has a similar one that applies to baseball or should I just say the Boston Red Sox. The only sure thing is an increase in seating and (surprise) and an increase in ticket prices at Fenway Park.
The latest expansion, as noted by The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman, is the addition of 124 new seats to bring the listed capacity of Fenway Park to 38,073. Additional seats are certainly not a new concept and the team has constantly squeezed in seats wherever the potential for an open space or existing space to be expanded is spotted.
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Sometimes the team hits a financial home run and that means the vastly overpriced bleacher seats that are labeled “Monster Seats.” My own profile has a picture of me with my daughter enjoying a game from the seats. An experience that many Red Sox and baseball fans are willing to pay a premium price.
Originally the seats were priced – if my memory is correct – for $50 as the top price. Since then the price has escalated exponentially and from my perspective, they are simply not worth the additional cash flow, but my jaundice opinion certainly will not impact any sales. Now comes the new 124 seats.
These are not just any seats, but what is new is dugout seats that will reduce the foul territory by 1,600 square feet, making Fenway number one in all of baseball with the least foul territory. The seats will also be “premium” which means the average fan will need a line of credit or sell a body part to afford them. The prices will range from $225 to $380 a game.
The most expensive seats – $380 – will be on the right field side so that fans can get up close and comfy with the players near the new the Red Sox dugout. A real potential bonding taking place as the foul territory is diminished and that means maybe a few extra swings during a game when previous caught balls are now fouled into the seats. That is nothing new since that area has encroached upon the field before.
The Red Sox will realize close to $3 Million in revenues with the new arrangement – far more than an expansion of the less desirable seats. The Red Sox have certain restrictions since they receive tax breaks for being historical. That little gem stopped a recent bullpen expansion in right field that would have changed 380′ to 360′. This time the Red Sox have received the blessing of the Boston Landmark Commission that oversees any park changes.
The Red Sox will also architecturally tinker with the dugouts themselves. The dugouts will be reconfigured to provide more space – a complaint that many of the millionaires who reside in the dugouts have complained about. Size does matter. How I miss the days when we only had Roger Clemens complaining about doing portage duty for his luggage.
The additional or should I say subtraction may have an impact on the game, but that is still an open question. The assumption would be a few extra foul balls become souvenirs instead of outs. Maybe the rotund Pablo Sandoval will not need an oxygen tank after attempting to track down a foul ball? I am sure that eventually, the metrics geeks will have to devise some type of mathematical logarithms to account for just how their ballpark adjustment figures turn out.
In the meantime, my suggestion is simply caveat venditor or buyer beware when purchasing any seat at Fenway Park. If you purchase a grandstand seat you will have a structural pole somewhere in your line of sight. You may go the fancy route and get a pricey loge seat only to realize certain plays have to be seen on the digital scoreboard. Fenway’s sight lines are notoriously questionable as are the seat sizes as noted in the opening scenes of “Fever Pitch” as Lenny Clarke attempts to squeeze his Panda like body into a seat.
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Despite the prices, the Red Sox have added some quality pitching and the enthusiasm meter will rise this off-season. I expect over 3,000,000 will go into games and won’t give a you know what as long as the Red Sox win.