The Tigers can "expect to pocket" more than $1M in new "single-game ticket sales revenue because of a switch to dynamic pricing" for the '14 season, according to Bill Shea of CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS. Dynamic ticket pricing firm Qcue CEO Barry Kahn said, "There's a significant boost in that revenue for teams. It's typically a double-digit percentage increase." Kahn said that $1-1.5M is a "common revenue increase for teams." Shea notes single-game tickets at 41,681-seat Comerica Park "will range in starting price" from $9-95. Those were the "base prices when tickets went on sale March 1," as dynamic pricing began Monday. Kahn said, "Goal No. 1 for the Tigers is making sure they sell 3 million tickets. Our conversation with the Tigers is repeatedly to help make sure they maintain that" (CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS, 3/2 issue).
FIELD OF DREAMS: Shea noted the NHL, Red Wings and Olympia Entertainment are "splitting the cost of the new grass field that will be installed at Comerica Park" in time for the Tigers' season-opener March 31. The NHL "agreed to pick up costs at Comerica Park as part of the deal it swung with Red Wings and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch to host its Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium instead of Comerica Park." The league built a "temporary ice rink on Comerica Park's infield for the Hockeytown Winter Festival games at the end of December" as part of the Winter Classic festivities in Ann Arbor. For the Winter Festival, "all of the Comerica Park grass was removed." A "woven barrier was put over the bare dirt to protect it until the sod is installed -- once the snow clears." The ice rink was "removed last month." The Tigers "haven't disclosed a timeline for the new turf to be put down" (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 3/3).
