Ticket sales increase for Strasburg’s starts Phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg’s scheduled return to Nationals Park on Tuesday could translate to millions of dollars in additional revenue for the Washington Nationals in just the final month of the season.
Ticket sales are hopping, and already prices for this week’s series against the Los Angeles Dodgers have jumped on the secondary ticket market according to SeatGeek.com, a search engine for tickets to sporting events and concerts.
Last year nearly 40,000 fans on average filled Nationals Park to see the 2009 No. 1 overall draft pick’s seven home starts before he was placed on the disabled list. For a team that was averaging 21,560 fans per game in the pre-Strasburg era, the financial boost to ticket sales alone is more than a half-million a start.
But that’s just the beginning.
“His impact isn’t just ticket sales, it’s everything,” said John Maroon, president of Maroon PR. “It’s TV ratings that translates to ad sales; it’s Strasburg T-shirts and bobbleheads; it’s concessions. The incremental dollars earned by his starts can’t be underestimated.”
The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is partially owned by the Nationals, sold out ads for Tuesday’s broadcast as of last week, according to spokesman John McGuinness. MASN has created a Strasburg package for his next four scheduled starts and is selling ads at three times the normal rate.
That’s because MASN expects television ratings, currently averaging a 1.5 share among area households, to triple for Strasburg games.
“Chances are [it’ll] be higher,” McGuinness said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime pitcher.”
