Remember when candy bars were a nickel?
I do. An area kid in the late 1950s could get a candy bar for a nickel, a soda for a dime, a comic book for another dime, and see the Nats from the Griffith Stadium bleachers for 75 cents.
Well, the cost of a candy bar has risen more than 10 fold, ditto the soda and comic book. But when the local nine returns to RFK this weekend, you can watch ’em play for less than the 2006 equivalent of 75 cents: a mere three bucks.
Along with the “Grand Re-Opening” of the concrete monolith on East Capitol Street, the newly installed Nationals owners are reducing the price of 500 level seats in the outfield to $5 or $3. I’m no economist, but I know a deal when I see one.
When Bob Short bought the Senators in December of 1968, he apparently believed one of the reasons the club drew so poorly is tickets were underpriced. Based on the theory that if something is cheap, people perceive it must not be worthmuch. So, Short took seats that were $1.50 in the 1960s and boosted them to $2.25. By the time he was through, the Senators’ pricing structure was the highest in baseball. By comparison, the Los Angeles Dodgers ticket prices didn’t reach Short’s Washington prices until 1980.
Perhaps he was just ahead of his time. Whatever the case, attendance jumped enormously in 1969 — though the arrival of Ted Williams as manager and the surprisingly competitive nature of the ballclub turned the trick, not the cost of the ticket. The club sold more than 900,000 tickets in 1969, though its financial grosses were far more than the pennant-winning (and million-plus drawing) Orioles up the road, who still had a 75-cent bleacher seat. When the Senators resumed their losing ways in 1970, the fans stayed home.
The Lerner family, local people who remember the good — and bad — old days of Washington baseball, know the product they’ve acquired is long on potential, albeit short on victories for the immediate future. No matter. They want to make sure that as long as they’re stuck at RFK, they’ve got a ticket anyone can afford. Three dollars to see a major league baseball game? Madness. And definitely not something you should get accustomed to.
Cheaper seats, clean floors and restrooms, additional concession stands, more fan- and family-friendly offerings, all bear the mark of Nats’ President Stan Kasten, who turned a moribund franchise in Atlanta into baseball’s current reigning dynasty.
Can the same blueprint work in Washington?
I’ll answer that question with another one: Who’s going to bet against these guys?
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years.
