Nationals Raising Ticket Prices Upon Move To New Ballpark
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Kasten Defending Ticket Increases
For ’08 Season |
Tickets for the 1,800 premium seats at the new Nationals ballpark will cost $150-400 per game, according to Thomas Heath of the WASHINGTON POST. The most expensive seats for Nats games at RFK Stadium this season are $140 a game. The first 500 seats behind home plate at the new ballpark, called the Presidential Seats, cost $300-400, and include food and nonalcoholic drinks at a restaurant behind the section. Nationals President Stan Kasten “defended the pricing of the top seats, saying they ‘were acceptable numbers that can easily be filled’ and represent a small percentage of the stadium's 41,222-seat capacity.” Kasten: “It's the money that comes from those upscale customers, from the upscale businesses, that really helps us, that really enables us to keep the low-end ticket prices that we want so desperately as well.” But DC Council Chair Vincent Gray believes that the tickets “should be more affordable than those of other teams because the city is paying” for the ballpark. Heath notes the 66 luxury suites between first and third base start at $150,000 a season. There are 1,300 $150 Diamond Seats one section behind the premium seats, and the rest of the 24,000 seats in the lower bowl start at $29 for a partial season-ticket plan and run to $60 for seats behind the dugouts. Tickets in the upper deck and outfield will cost $5-20 (WASHINGTON POST, 6/7). Also in DC, Tim Lemke notes the average per-game cost of a season ticket at the new ballpark will be $30, up from $21 this season at RFK Stadium. Nationals tickets will "likely rank among the five most expensive" in MLB, in the same range as the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Cardinals (WASHINGTON TIMES, 6/7).
FAN-FRIENDLY? Comcast SportsNet’s David Lee reported the Nationals “unveiled the new fan-friendly ticket prices for 2008. They’re the first team in the majors to make the announcement so early, but they are in a unique situation with a ballpark coming next season. After the new premium seats that will be pricey, the team kept budget concerns in mind with the rest of the pricing.” Kasten said for the average fan the team was "very cognizant of appealing to them, and we have many areas of this ballpark that really will work well for our budget-minded fans” (CSN, 6/6).
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