The Pirates, in the MLB postseason for the first time since '92, on Friday announced that they will increase season-ticket prices next season and have "added a third tier to their pricing model, which puts a premium on some of the team's higher profile home games," according to Michael Sanserino of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. The average ticket price in an 81-game season-ticket package will be $18.32, "up from $17.21 this year" for an increase of 6.4%. The average price for next year "would be the fourth-lowest" in MLB despite the increase. There will be 17 "Gold" games, the "highest-priced tier," 12 "Black" games and 52 "White" games. Pirates President Frank Coonelly last year said that the team "planned to incrementally increase season ticket prices to match other teams" in the NL Central. The Pirates "did not increase season ticket prices" from '02-11 (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 9/28).
STEEL RESOLVE: The PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES' Louis Corsaro writes a cover story under the header, "Long-Term Approach To Rebuilding Pays Off With Pirates." Coonelly said, "From our perspective, there was really only one way to do it, one way that it could work, and that was to invest heavily in the amateur draft and our development system, and invest heavily in Latin America again." Coonelly said the Pirates in his first five years "spent more money in the draft than any other team" in the league. Corsaro notes the Pirates also "opened an academy in the Dominican Republic and began investing in players there." Meanwhile, the Pirates "report being third overall" in MLB this year for regional ratings. Each of the team's 20 highest-rated telecasts on Root Sports Pittsburgh dating back to '94 "are from this season." The team also "has tracked well in merchandising." Coonelly said that sales "are way up at PNC Park, including more than 35 percent for women’s items and more than 30 percent for kids’ T-shirts and jerseys." MLB VP/Business PR Matt Bourne said that through mid-September, sales of Pirates merchandise through MLB.com "was up 55 percent, the fourth-biggest increase among all teams from a year ago" (PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES, 9/27 issue).
WHAT ABOUT BOB? In Pittsburgh, J. Brady McCollough profiled Pirates Owner Bob Nutting under the header, "Nutting Looks At The Big Picture With Pirates." Former Pirates investor Jay Lustig said, "We took over this franchise [in '96], and it was in disarray. You didn't have the depth in the minor-league system or the major-league roster." He added of former Pirates Owner Kevin McClatchy, "I would say the biggest mistake that the McClatchy era might have made is we should have come clean and said, hey, we're going to rebuild and do it right." McCollough wrote McClatchy was "running the business in the opposite way that a Nutting would run it." The Nutting family by '04 had "gobbled up enough shares from buying out limited partners that Bob Nutting was suddenly a voting member of the board of directors." Nutting said, "I give Kevin all the credit in the world for saving the club and building PNC Park. But the path that we were (taking) on the baseball side was not a path that was leading to success." McClatchy: "I was becoming ... the expression might be burnt out." Nutting said, "I try not to do stuff halfway. When I decided I was going to be a pilot, I got my pilot's license, got commercial rating, became a flight instructor, got my airline certification, my glider certificate. If you're going to do something, you want to do it well." McClatchy added, "Bob really believed in that plan they put together, and he deserves a lot of credit for just staying the course." Nutting said of owning the team, "Nothing has been as much fun, just raw satisfaction and fun, as watching this team perform. We've been through a lot to get here, and you can't imagine how much fun it's been to see this ballpark rock and come alive with electricity" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAETTE, 9/29).
