With the Red Sox "collapsing last fall and sitting in last place this spring, season ticket holders’ currency has plummeted," according to Beth Teitell of the BOSTON GLOBE. Season-ticket holders' seats are "often selling for less than face value, if at all." With Red Sox tickets available on sites like Ace Ticket, "friends and associates no longer feel the need to snap up season ticket holders’ offerings weeks or even months in advance." Season-ticket holder Jeff Ciffolillo said, “You feel like you’re making sales calls when you’re trying to give them away." Even with a waiting list of 8,500, an all-time high, Red Sox Senior VP/Ticketing Ron Bumgarner makes phone calls to season-ticket holders "who plan to drop their packages and invites them in to feel the magic behind the scenes at Fenway." Red Sox Exec VP & COO Sam Kennedy said that the no-show rate is "typically between about 5 and 10 percent, and this year it’s hovered on the high end." After the '11 season, the season-ticket renewal rate for '12 dropped to 96%, compared with a 98% for the '11 and '10 seasons. Ace Ticket President & CEO Jim Holzman said, "You can get games for face value going into June, which is unusual" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/19). In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy wrote, "They are the last-place Boston Red Sox. It has become part of their name." The Red Sox are the "bottom-feeders of the AL East." Shaughnessy: "What about the notion that fans don't like this team?" Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia said, "Hopefully the fans like our team, but that 's not my job. My job is to help us try to win games. Would you like us more if we were winning more? If we win, you guys are going to like us" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20).
