The Dodgers on Friday announced they had put an "extremely limited" number of season tickets on sale but now are "charging as much as 140% more than the season price set last fall," according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. The Dodgers "increased the price in each of the 20 ticket categories made available Friday, and by at least 50% in 10 of them." Dodgers VP/Ticket Sales David Siegel said that the new prices "reflected what he called 'unprecedented' demand for tickets." Meanwhile, the Dodgers said that available tickets would "start at $12 per game, which Siegel said constituted adequate disclosure of the price hikes 'although we didn't spell it out.'" Shaikin noted the Dodgers had "sold season tickets for as low as $5 per game." While it is "common for a pro sports team to raise prices on season tickets each year, it is highly unusual for a team to raise those prices twice within a year." Siegel acknowledged that some fans had "expressed unhappiness over the price increases as well as the inability to buy additional seats for an existing account at the original prices" (L.A. TIMES, 2/2). CBSSPORTS.com's Dayn Perry wrote if teams could "raise prices any time they needed additional revenues, then, suffice it to say, they'd raise prices a lot more often." What the Dodgers are doing is a "simple response to what they perceive as increased demand." Perry: "Upset that it costs more to see the Dodgers play? Direct your outrage toward supply and demand, not the players" (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/1).
