Pitchers, catchers and position players have reported to spring training for another year. As the Major League Baseball machine cranks back to life for the 2016 season, thoughts inevitably will turn to efforts at speeding up the game, as well.
Last year’s average game time was down six minutes compared to 2014. With that gain in hand, though, perhaps MLB should declare victory in its battle to speed up play and instead view the 2015 average of two hours and 56 minutes as an opportunity for a new dynamic. Namely, rather than vilifying David Ortiz for objecting to imprisonment in the batter’s box between pitches, MLB should introduce platoon fans.
Think about it: Instead of buying a ticket to the whole game, fans could purchase a time-share of sorts — an inning-share: batting practice through the top of the fifth, or the remainder of the game. Each fan would get about 90 minutes of game time.
Fans, like players, would be specialists. Early birds would cheer and jeer the opening lineups, rate the national anthem performers and first-pitch honorees, and follow the starting pitchers. Their replacements would identify with relief pitchers, pinch hitters, and defensive specialists, they’d stretch in the seventh inning, and they’d join in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
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Early arriving fans at Wrigley could catch batting practice, and “night cap” spectators could sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Platooning would satisfy Joe Torre’s goal as MLB’s chief baseball officer of “getting people to the late innings” when excitement peaks. The “night-cap” inning-share option would appeal to fans who work late, prefer to eat dinner at home with their family, or watch their children’s Little League game. Other families could buy the early ticket and get home by bedtime on a school night.
Both shifts would have a turn at beating the traffic coming or going. No one could object that the game drags on forever.
It would address another concern, as well: affordability of tickets, especially for demographics teams are targeting for their first exposure to the ballpark experience. The split tickets could be priced at 60 percent of a full ticket. For teams with dynamic pricing, the half-game price would rise or fall with the normal price. For premium-priced rivalry games, teams could extract more revenue, and more fans could afford to taste the experience of a Yankees-Red Sox confrontation at Fenway Park or Cardinals-Cubs battle at Wrigley Field.
If the game isn’t sold out or no one purchased the second half, the first-shift fans could have the option of buying another seat or standing room for the remainder of the game for a nominal amount. Fans could even purchase two halves in advance in different parts of the ballpark — combining a bleacher seat and box seat experience, or mixing sun and shade or standing and sitting. The team would collect 60 percent of each seat; fans could splurge on one seat and save on the other.
The MLB.com Ballpark app could facilitate this process of fans’ extending their stay. It would function similar to the seat-upgrade option that’s offered.
To ensure that the first-platoon fans actually exit the ballpark if they don’t buy an extension, they would post a credit card deposit equal to the price of their ticket that would be collected if they don’t check out of the stadium within 15 minutes of the end of their shift — much like a charge for a late rental car return. This early fan who decides to find an empty seat or standing room and forfeit the deposit would then pay a 20 percent premium for the privilege, so 120 percent of face value. But the fan gets to stay, and the team gets a revenue bump — everyone wins.
Tickets, whether physical or electronic, would need to be specially marked to prevent seating disputes and ticket reseller abuse. The seats offered in halves would be scattered around the ballpark to minimize disruption during the changeover, as well as to disperse the ushering and the between-fan housekeeping duties that would be required — and to provide a range of seating options and prices. Since the housekeeping would resemble a connecting airline flight’s quick turnaround, the team’s official airline could sponsor the cleanup crew. Similarly, Uber or Lyft could sponsor the shared tickets and promote a discounted ride home for the early crew and to the game for the second shift, times when traffic should be light around the ballpark.
If weather shortens the game, relief fans would receive a rain check good for a future shift.
It’s likely that the two fans sharing a seat would spend substantially more money in total at the ballpark on parking, concessions and souvenirs than the typical fan does, given that so many of those fans leave well before the game’s last pitch. The first shift would be more likely to arrive early to watch batting practice and eat and drink. Before taking their seats, the later shift could stroll and munch in team-controlled areas like Eutaw Street at Orioles Park or Boston’s Yawkey Way, and they might also stay afterward to enjoy a ballpark club or neighborhood establishment.
The fans could be admitted to the ballpark starting in the fourth inning to stroll the concourses and buy concessions. By arriving early, there would still be time to imbibe before the spigot is turned off after the seventh inning.
Creative marketing departments could offer season or partial-season, half-game, or mixed-seat packages and group platoon tickets. Sell the first shift to youth teams with an early curfew and the latter package to college students.
So even as MLB persists to find ways to reduce game duration, it should also embrace the opportunity and experiment with platooning the fans.
Bob Ruxin (ruxin76@gmail.com), author of “An Athlete’s Guide to Agents,” is a sports lawyer and consultant based in Lexington, Mass., who hates to leave a game early.
