Business of Baseball: Post-Season Style

Now free couches?!

2007-10-29T18:39:00.000-05:00

First off, Congrats to the Red Sox. Amazing. With Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon, they'll be contenders for years to come.

And with that World Series win, free furniture for all! Free tacos, free furniture...what's next? I wouldn't mind a new car...

This just goes back to how Taco Bell could definitely have afforded to give away free tacos for each stolen base. But I won't debate that one.

Granted, Jordan's Furniture ran this promotion in March and April. Whoever thought of the idea, genius. And with insurance policies, they won't even have to pay the however many millions they sold in that time.

Free red couch anyone?

Only 155 days until Opening Day... In the meantime, there's tons of business to get ready for next season!

Mmmm Free Tacos

2007-10-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

If you somehow missed it, the MLB World Series is presented to you by Taco Bell. How you missed it, I'm not sure. You're obviously not watching the games that are plastered with gimmicky little "advertisements."

Anyways, Taco Bell set up a promotion that if someone steals a base in the World Series, everyone in America will receive a free taco.

Well, on Thursday evening, Boston's rookie Jacoby Ellsbury stole second base and won the hearts of taco lovers all across America.

(Photo courtesy of ABCNews)

Great promotion. Who doesn't love a free taco? However, the Red Sox and Rockies are not particularly speedy teams who are likely to steal a lot of bases. Tacos don't cost all that much. Why not a free taco for every stolen base in the Series? As of right now, 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, there have been a total of 3, yes 3, stolent bases in the 2007 World Series. For a taco that costs about 90 cents, this is not even $3.00. People are not going to just "buy" those tacos. They'll get a soda, some nachoes, maybe some cinnamon twists which Taco Bell will make a profit off of. And seriously, how many people will actually redeem this promotion?

Get your taco, this Tuesday at one of 5,800 participating locations from 2 pm to 5 pm local time.

I'm used to celebrating Taco Tuesday's at home at the now defunct Millersville House, but this week I might just have to hit up T-Bell.

Play ball!

Online Ticket Sales Part III

2007-10-28T12:40:00.000-05:00

I will finally address the ending of this online ticket sales saga. First though, Sox 3, Rox 0. Ugh. Come on boys, win at least one!

Okay, so apparently putting World Series ticket online only presents a problem. I've gone through the "What-ifs?" Now to what happened.

Apparently what-if 3 & 4 happened. An "external malicious attack." Ha. "High demand fueled system crash." Well, no duh. World Series = high demand. World Series for team who's never made it that far = higher demand.

As someone who wants to work in this career field (and possibly work for Jay Alves someday? Or take over for him at some point?) this is a dangerous situation to put an organization into. Especially at the "promised land" at the end of the season. I personally cannot say what I would do in this type of situation. I now realize that putting tickets online, over the phone and in person screws over the person relying on the Internet in situations such as these. But again, I would definitely push for selling tickets over the phone and in person. It's a toughie.

I still don't understand why they didn't have these tickets available for sale prior to last Monday. I believe that it is crucial to have these sales in line before the opportunity. You can always refund ticket sales. But it will always stick in the minds of the fans how the Rockies system crashed. Skeptical fans will always go back to this situation when debating buying tickets on sale.

The California-based company who "fueled" the mistake says it's not the Rockies fault whatsoever. I believe that full-heartedly. But the Rockies could have made some better decisions to prevent the "attack."

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In regards to post-season ticket sales in general....I agree with Rockies fan Mark Pierce....."Fan Mark Pierce, 49, said selling tickets online to everyone rather than setting some aside for Colorado fans was wrong. He said this summer he got to see the Rockies beat the New York Yankees for $4 in the Rockpile."

I could get into a rather lengthy post (book?) about how I feel about this particular subject. Treat the real fans with this opportunity. Don't fuel the ticket-brokers and fair-weather fans. Not all of us can afford season tickets. We're not all bazillionaires who can show off to "friends" and colleagues by going to the "big event."

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More posts later in the day. Stay tuned. You don't want to miss the commercials.

The "What-ifs" of Online Ticket Sales

2007-10-25T19:54:00.001-05:00

To continue from yesterday's blog, which is a little dated (I swear, one of these days I will catch up to CURRENT news!) I will talk about the "What-ifs" that the Rockies might not have exactly thought about before putting all World Series tickets online.

What if....

fans do not have access to the Internet? Yes, I know it's 2007. I know everybody thinks that everyone has Internet access. But, come on, you can't expect for EVERYBODY to have access to the Internet quite yet. I know a bunch of people who don't. Yes, I know that my grandparents and people their age shouldn't count. But even of the people who do have access, I know a ton who are still not comfortable with doing business online (paying bills, buying stuff (including tickets). I could seriously beat this horse to death, which I won't. But the Rockies (and ahem, any other team that is listening for future reference....) shouldn't have assumed that all fans that want to attend the World Series has access to buy tickets online.
there's a power outage? Possible? Yes. Likely? Eh, probably not. But, can you see it now? Parts of Denver have a power outage from some blizzard or thunderstorm or who knows what and do not have Internet access. Yes, I realize that they then would not be able to leave their houses or do anything over the phone, but that's not my point. :-)
hackers get into the systems? Again, possible, but unlikely. Hackers know everything. They can figure things out. And who knows, maybe someone out there really wants to screw with the Rockies.
computers crash? failures? Hmm, imagine that one. Check the next blog for details.

Also, why now? And not earlier? Why would you first "experiment" on this for the WORLD SERIES?! Wouldn't you do this for like, well, the first round games? I understand the Phillies, Padres and Mets were all successful with this plan. However, they're not in the World Series. It worked for earlier playoff games.

Yeah, I know, I'm a pessimist. But really, I love the Rockies and this story is getting somewhere. But you already read that part on Monday and Tuesday when it was plastered all over ESPN. In addition to being a pessimist, I'm also slow. Bear with me.

Rockies lost last night 13-1. I don't want to talk about it. Rockies are currently down 2-1 in Game 2. It's a good thing they're playing the Red Sox or I could be in a really really bad mood right now.

In upcoming blogs.....Online Ticket Sales Part III (aka, the end! Finally!), FREE Tacos!, Media Coverage and more!

Until then, "Let's Play Ball!"

Ticket Sales Online....ONLY?!

2007-10-24T09:58:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it's Wednesday and this is already old news. But I haven't put my two cents in yet, so here we go.

The Rockies announced last week that they would be selling World Series tickets online ONLY.
They were originally planning to do an in-person lottery system. You know, like all the other teams do for this type of situation.

They opted to switch to online sales when previous playoff game online sales reached 500 tickets per minute. "Especially with the weather being as unpredictable as it is in Colorado, this will ensure we can avoid the lines outside the ballpark," MLB spokesman Mike Teevan said.

Yeah, but, isn't that the fun in sports? Fans everywhere wait in freezing temperatures in January and February waiting for that best seat at college basketball games or buying Opening Day tickets. Or, in this case, waiting for World Series tickets. It's those times that make the game even that much sweeter. It's fun to brag that you waited in line for over 12 hours, in the freezing cold and snow/sleet to have the opportunity to attend Opening Day or have that best seat in the house. Those lines are where you meet interesting people, share your life sports stories and just talk with your new "best" friends to beat the elements.

It's like those stories you hear from your grandparents and parents...."I used to walk 10 miles up-hill, in the rain, sleet, snow and whatnot to school everyday..." Are our children going to laugh at us when we tell them the "We used to wait in line for over 12 hours in the cold, rain, sleet, snow, etc. to get the best seats!" stories? They'll be so used to online ticket sales that they'll just laugh at our stories. How sad is that?

Ok, so it's 2007 and that's the way things are run nowadays. But didn't they stop to think and ask the "What ifs?"

That's it for now....the "What ifs?" will come next time.

But until then...."Let's Play Ball!"

Welcome!

2007-10-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my first posting to my Business of Baseball blog!

The intent of my blog is to look behind the business scenes of the 2007 MLB Playoffs. Everyone else focuses on scores, injuries, pitching matchups and the like. I will look at the side of sports that no one usually thinks about and yet, would be lost without. I will look at what teams are trying, what media networks are trying and what does and doesn't work for them.

We started off with eight teams a couple of weeks ago going into the playoffs and are now down to two - the Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox. The World Series officially begins on Wednesday in Boston, but things have been going on behind the scenes since the season began.

"Let's Play Ball!"