Demand For Red Sox Playoff Tickets Down At Fenway Park

Red Sox Playoff Tix Re-Selling For Much Lower Values In '08

Tickets for Red Sox playoff games at Fenway Park "are selling barely above face value, and sometimes less," according to a front-page piece by the BOSTON GLOBE's Michael Levenson, who writes under the header, "Suddenly, Sox No Longer The Hot Ticket: '04 And '07 Series Wins Leave Some Fans Blase." Premium seats at the ballpark that "commanded upwards of $2,000 just a year ago are selling for a quarter of that price." Meanwhile, a field box ticket, which "would have set you back $1,800" for the '04 ALCS against the Yankees and $900 in last year's ALCS against the Indians, "now goes for $300 -- just $25 above face value." Also, on Tuesday for Game Four of the Rays-Red Sox ALCS, Ace Ticket, the Red Sox' official offline ticket resale agency, "actually dropped prices below face value and, for the first time in 29 years, failed to sell out for a postseason game." Levenson writes around Boston yesterday "attitudes had clearly changed," as a team "that once seemed to carry the city's fortunes on its back is now seen more often as a mere baseball team." Red Sox Exec VP and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Sam Kennedy: "The passion is there, but I do feel a difference. Each year has its own personality and feel to it, and this year is absolutely more businesslike, more of a professional attitude." Levenson adds, "The mood is now nonchalant. Even tired of winning." Red Sox fan Tim Little: "We're getting a little bit complacent, I think, between the Celtics and the Patriots and the Red Sox. Maybe we need a break at this point" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/16). In DC, Dave Sheinin writes under the header, "Suddenly, The Red Sox Are Old News." Sheinin: "Increasingly, in the post-steroids and post-amphetamines era, baseball is a young man's game, and the Red Sox, as other dynasties and mini-dynasties before them, are being betrayed by their age" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/16).