The Bears are "raising season ticket prices" for 85% of the seats at Soldier Field, though the increase does not impact club seats, according to Brad Biggs of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Prices will increase $2-10 per seat in the affected sections. Non-club seats will range from $76-150, while club seats remain between $265-385. Invoices to season-ticket holders were sent yesterday, and "full payments are due" April 9. Team Marketing Report indicated that the Bears had the fifth-highest average ticket price in the NFL last season at $101.55. Bears President Ted Phillips said, "What we tried to do was look at how do we remain economically competitive and at the same time be fair to our season ticket holders." Biggs reports single-game tickets will be $25 "more than the equivalent seat purchased by a season ticket holder, an increase Phillips said affects the 'few thousand' seats the Bears don't sell as season tickets." Soldier Field has been "outfitted with HD televisions, but Phillips said no definitive plans are in the works when asked if the team is seeking to upgrade the smallish video boards in the stadium or make other upgrades" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/29). This marks the ninth price increase in 10 years "since the opening of new Soldier Field" in '03 (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 2/29). In Illinois, Mike Imrem writes professional sports "is a supply-and-demand business, so normally I don’t address the disease of teams gouging consumers," but this "particular instance qualifies as insane." Imrem: "Actually it has to be viewed as a race between the Bears and Bears fans to determine who is more insane. Are the Bears for demanding that customers pay more despite a precarious economy, last season’s .500 finish and widespread public dissatisfaction over the way the franchise is run? Or are Bears fans for blindly anteing up year after year and decade after decade, heading toward century after century?" (Illinois DAILY HERALD, 2/29).
TITANS ALSO RAISING SOME TICKETS: In Nashville, Jim Wyatt reported the Titans are “raising ticket prices by $6 in the lower bowl at LP Field, but prices in the upper deck will remain unchanged” for the ’12 season. It is the first price increase “in three years, and the Titans expect their average season ticket price to remain among the lowest in the NFL.” Overall, tickets will “range from $45 to $91 per game.” Prices on “club-section seats also will remain unchanged” (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 2/25).
