The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jack Nicas noted the Wrigley Field economy is “sputtering as seats go unfilled.” The Cubs are “on pace to sell fewer than three million seats for the first time in eight years.” The team is “off 2,066 tickets per game from last year, another losing season,” and actual attendance “is even lower than the depressed ticket sales suggest.” Ticket brokers, whose “bulk purchases inflate the club’s sales figures,” said that they “had been burned this season.” Chicago-based ticket broker Max Waisvisz said, “Some games in April, I had 300 to 400 unsold seats.” In addition to seats inside the ballpark, “many of the rooftops overlooking the field, which sell seats and pay 17% of their revenue to the Cubs, are half empty during weeknight games.” Several rooftop venues “now offer Groupon discounts,” and Lakeview Baseball Club, one of the oldest rooftops, “is now in foreclosure” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/16).
UNSCATHED: In St. Louis, Bernie Miklasz noted as a “business enterprise, the Rams have made it through the lockout without suffering much damage.” The team made the “obviously smart decision to accept partial payments on season tickets rather than demand full payment during a labor conflict.” The Rams have a “season-ticket renewal rate of 94 percent -- assuming that fans follow through on their deposits, which is a fairly safe bet.” Rams Exec VP/Football Operations & COO Kevin Demoff said that this “will be the Rams’ highest season-ticket renewal rate in more than a decade.” The Rams have “sold 4,000 new season tickets, which doubles what they sold in new season tickets a year ago” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/17).
WAITING ROOM: In DC, Jason Reid noted Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder and high-ranking team execs for years “have boasted about the waiting list” to purchase season tickets, “claiming as recently as two years ago it included more than 160,000 names.” The recent acknowledgment “about the Redskins’ difficulty selling upper-deck end zone tickets provides an opportunity for Snyder.” The “door is ajar for him to improve the club’s relationship with its loyal, but frustrated fans.” Redskins CMO Mitch Gershman sent an e-mail to fans on Friday “aimed at clearing up what he called ‘some recent confusion in the media’ regarding the waiting list.” Gershman wrote, “We continue to have one of the largest season ticket Wait Lists in the NFL, and we are one of just a few teams that has a Wait List at all.” Reid: “Maybe there is a wait list, maybe there isn’t. And maybe it is no longer as big as the Redskins once maintained. But why continue this fixation on it?” (WASHINGTON POST, 7/16).
CHANGING GEARS: NBA D-League Texas Legends coach Nancy Lieberman said that she “will be switching to the personnel side” of the team’s operations starting next season. ESPN’s Marc Stein noted Lieberman’s move to the front office comes “after taking the expansion Legends to the playoffs as the first female to coach a men’s team under the NBA’s umbrella.” Lieberman yesterday said that she “debated the switch for weeks after the Legends’ season ended in April, ultimately deciding that her long-held goal of ‘making it normal’ for a woman to coach men at the game’s highest level would have to be temporarily placed on hold for family reasons” (ESPNDALLAS.com, 7/17).
