Posted on 05/04/2012 7:49:15 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Tickets given away help keep team's record alive
At 9:35 p.m. Wednesday, in the seventh inning of a game against the Oakland A’s, the Red Sox cut off ticket sales at Fenway Park with an estimated 300 seats unsold, according to a Globe gate-by-gate review and interviews with team executives.
At 10:19 p.m., the Sox announced the game was sold out. Seconds later, they said they had extended their sellout streak to 723 games, the longest in the history of Major League Baseball.
But had Fenway Park really sold out all 37,495 seats?
The answer, it seems, depends on how you define “sellout.’’
In a sequence of events that raised questions about the authenticity of the prized streak, the Sox stopped selling tickets for the game first at the ticket office on Yawkey Way when the game began, then at Gate E an hour later, and finally at Gate A deep into the game, with a sales clerk telling a Globe correspondent at each closing that tickets remained available.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a sellout as “something for which all tickets are sold.’’
The Sox embrace an alternate definition that permits them to declare a game sold out even if hundreds of tickets go unsold but others are distributed for free.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
What about Moneyball, didn’t REd Sox buy into the theory? Did Brad Pitt 9fawning) not save the Red Sox and re-invent the game with that fat Jewish guy? Come on, say it ain’t so Joe!
I do not know the call letters but it is not the one that removed Mike FM (WEEI).
1510 was much better as a national sports entry in the market rather than the pinko outlet it became.
If Carr does change affiliates, I hope he maintains a similar time slot.
Pretty much, figures lie and liars figure. Ohio State for example counts attendance as everyone inside the football stadium. Players, coaches, band, workers, media, and vendors. The sacred 102,000 + attendance figures are inflated. Just like the 0ne's job numbers.
Yes, then we’re talking about The Sports Hub 98.5 whose call letters are WBZ-FM. Both WBZ AM (1030) and FM are owned by CBS and before Sports Hub, the B’s aired on WBZ-AM (pre-empting talk) and the Pats on WBCN (104.1). In 09,
CBS moved “Mix 98.5” to 104.1 and shuttled WBCN off to
HD radio, streamcasts, etc. 98.5 became sports.
Yup on 1510—and btw they run Red Sox games in Spanish
(often at night), pissing off liberal talk fans.
I also hope Howie would keep the same time slot. You could
picture Eagan and Braude, then Doug Meehan or Michael Graham; Smerconish, Howie 3-7, then maybe Graham or Meehan
after Howie (or bump Smerc. to that slot). Doug Meehan
(formerly of Ch 7, Ch 25) is auditioning for Regis Philbin’s TV job so who knows, he could disappear off to NY.
Yes...Sam Kennedy (now there’s a name you associate with
Boston) of the Red Sox front office was on Red Sox flagship station WEEI an hour ago to do a bit of damage control. They claim it does sell out, night of the game, or comes close.
But they do consider it a sellout.
You wouldn’t believe whats passes for sellouts in the NBA.
Sox VP Kennedy on M&M: Sellout streak legit
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/21196911/sox-vp-kennedy-mm-sellout-streak-legit
>>Red Sox executive vice president/chief operating officer Sam Kennedy joined the Mut & Merloni show Friday morning to talk about the Red Sox’ sellout streak. The Red Sox say they have sold out every game since May 15, 2003, a run of 723 consecutive games. However, a Boston Globe story Friday questioned the validity of the streak, noting that seats are being sold or given away well after games start and a Fenway ticket-seller confirmed after a game this week that tickets remained when the final booth was closed.
>>”We’ve been screaming from the mountaintops for the last seven or eight years that we have tickets for sale for every game at Fenway, and they’re available on a day-game purchase at Gate E,” Kennedy said. “It’s kind of ironic, this story this morning is sort of as predictable as the cold and rainy weather in Boston. When the team’s not playing so well, I understand that we’ll come under attack.”
Kennedy explained that the Red Sox look at the total numbers of tickets sold — including standing-room tickets — rather than if every single seat is accounted for.
“The simplest explanation for the sellout definition or the sellout streak is, in its most simple, basic form, the concept is that more fans have tickets for the game than there are seats in the ballpark,” Kennedy said. “It’s always been pegged to seating capacity. … This is a decades-old standard. It goes back to the early 1990s and maybe even before that, certainly long before we were here. It’s a common standard that other Major League Baseball teams use, that other sports teams in the Boston market — the Celtics and the Bruins, for example — use. It’s just one that has been common practice and one that has worked for most teams.
“And I think the confusion lies in the fact that there are tickets available on the day or game for sale. But any time there have been unsold tickets during the streak, the number of standing-room tickets that have been sold always exceeds that number of seats that are still available. So, it is a bit confusing because we don’t just pick a set number. We don’t say, ‘Well, it’s 37,000, and anything above that’s a sellout.’ It’s a very meticulous and ironically precise measurement that the Red Sox organization has used for decades. … That’s the standard and the measure which the club has used for many years and is commonplace throughout sports.”
The team’s relationship with ticket resellers has come under question in the past. Kennedy denied that the Sox sell tickets to companies such as Ace Tickets, which buys advertising from the team.
“We do not sell tickets directly to them for resale,” Kennedy said. “That’s our season ticket-holders and other purchasers that sell tickets and get involved in the secondary market. Our concern is obviously the primary market for tickets. We make no bones about the fact that we want to try to sell as many tickets as humanly possible for every game, because it gives us a great revenue base to work from and it gives us a competitive advantage for the players to play in front of a packed house night in and night out.”
Kennedy noted that the fans are the ones who deserve credit for the streak, not the team.
Said Kennedy: “This is the best baseball market in the country, bar none. ... This is the most passionate baseball market in the country, and it’s been an amazing 10 years of this ownership’s stewardship of the team. And it’s kind of humbling for the front office.”
Love your home page....the Reagan quote is so true and the pics. are awesome - and hilarious!
Scandal! Will they have to change their name now? :)
Thank you. It makes for an easier search when I desire to post certain images. :-)
I suppose it’s a con but I can’t get too upset about it.
Other towns have car dealers and such buy up the last few tickets so the blackout can be lifted and put the game on TV (are home games on TV in Boston?)
The car dealers give the tickets away to potential customers.
Now yes, I suppose “X consecutive sellouts” creates the illusion that the product is better than it is...but at some point, the customer has to decide if it’s any good.
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