UPDATED: Cheese and Whine: Season Ticket Holder Issues

By: NathanHJ | September 25th, 2008

I stole this image from a Flikr stream created by “thisguyprints”. I hope he doesn’t sue me.

A few weeks ago I took out my frustration with the 2008 season on the Galaxy front office, sending a lengthy e-mail to my season ticket rep and laying out my conditions for renewal. I turned that e-mail into this post from September 10th. Basically it came down to a cost-benefit analysis and raising the costs would not increase the benefits, so I would consider bailing.

First, fill out the full contingent of bonus games. I realize these games aren’t guaranteed. That’s the nature of “bonus”. But last year I saw Chelsea (a preseason, undermanned, not in form Chelsea, but Chelsea nonetheless). I saw Pachuca. Twice. Hell I even saw Steve Cronin make like 12 saves in a US Open Cup match. This year I saw… a crap US Open loss.

Second, don’t raise the prices of season tickets for next year. It would be the height of fan abuse to make us sit through two garbage seasons and then raise the ticket price, especially when it is pretty clear the team in making a mint off of jersey sales, touring Asia, and the wretched, wretched Pan-Pacific Championship (can we please just kill that now – it is nothing but excrement masquerading as futbol).

Well, the good news is that I wasn’t the first person to whine about this (or act like “a baby” as Justin put it so pungently in the comments) so the Galaxy is doing two things. First, all unused bonus-game tickets will have their value refunded to the season ticket holder (STH) at the end of the season. (This was also noted by Justin.) Further, if the Galaxy performs a miracle over the last five games and makes the play-offs, then the bonus game tickets function as playoff tickets.

Second, the Galaxy is not raising season ticket prices this year, at least not for renewals. (The website is coy about prices for new season tickets, covering its bases by noting that prices are for the 2008 season.)

So. Problems addressed. I’ll probably renew, unless other factors in my life interfere.

On the other hand, a blog reader who wishes to remain anonymous has noted that the Galaxy front office is having some internal communications problems.

I phoned my ticket rep today, cause I noticed that the Season ticket renewal is up on the website, but I hadn’t received an email. [These went out this week. -ed.] They explained to me what was going on but they were accepting renewal deposits.

Then here’s the kicker, I was asked for a 25% deposit. I asked the ticket office why I had to give them so much money upfront when I could do it on the website for 100 bucks a ticket. Finally, after a debate, they let me put the deposit down for 100 bucks a ticket. The deposit they said they were going to start asking for was well over double the 100 buck deposit.

And it’s true. But it’s actually worse than the reader experienced. If you are buying new season tickets on-line the deposit is $100. If you are a renewing STH and you want to buy ADDITIONAL season tickets, then the deposit is 25%, which in every case is more than $100. So, if you are a first-time buyer you slap down $100. If you are a renewal (which any marketing major will tell you is your source of greatest profits because (1) they keep coming back and (2) you aren’t spending any money on acquiring them as a customer) and you want new seats, you have to give up 25%.

I suspect that this isn’t the end of the world for most people, but it does highlight a glaring inconsistency within the front office in the way it is treating it most loyal (by definition) fan base. With all the changes recently I don’t know if this is something that slipped through the cracks or is a deliberate strategy, but it is certainly annoying and is ruffling some feathers. The front office might want to look into this.

UPDATE: Kenny in the comments notes this,

No price increase? What are you talking about. I got some stupid email that I had some secret Mission Impossible mission to renew my tickets. So I check it out, and sure enough tickets went up by $70! FU AEG.

And he’s right! Almost. My tickets went up $81, not $70, including all fees. Oof. Ticket prices increasing is to be expected on some level, but after this year and the fact that my rep assured me the price was the same makes this a bit of a kick in the teeth.