| 18 February 2010
A press release from the Lions landed in my email inbox yesterday. It breathlessly trumpeted their lowering prices on 19,000 seats.
Straight from the Lions own PR flacks:
Included in the 19,000 reduced season tickets are approximately 16,000 seats in the lower and upper levels and approximately 3,000 club seats.
Price reductions also include over 13,000 season tickets in the 100 and 200-level sections. More than 8,500 season tickets located in the 100 level (lower seating level) and over 4,500 season tickets in the 200 level (upper seating level) have been reduced by $8 per game for a total savings of $80 per season ticket.
Approximately 1,900 season tickets in the 300-level (upper seating level) have been reduced from $50 to $40 per game, a savings of $100 per season ticket, and another approximately 1,000 season tickets in the 300-level have been reduced from $68 to $54 per game, a savings of $140 per season ticket.
That's all well and good. But the price of the tickets aren't the biggest reason the Lions didn't sell out 4 games, and needed help from an invading opposition fan base in a couple more.
Sure, lowering ticket prices on close to 1/3 of the seats at Ford Field will help the Lions' blue collar fan base, one who doesn't know from month to month if they'll remain employed. (We're living through this scenario at TWFE HQ. Rumors are flying the GF will be permanently laid off from her job of more than a decade in June. We're worried, to say the very least, and it is affecting how we spend our money. Tickets aren't high on the list. Bulding up the emergency fund is...)
Your typical Detroit Lions fan's financial situation...
But $40-$56 isn't chump change. It's a serious amount of jack when you have to pony up for 10 games. (And don't get me going on the NFL foisting 2 useless preseason exhibition games, at full price, on season ticket holders. It's criminal...)
Despite the high prices, regardless of the local economy, there are plenty of fans in SE MI who would have no problem shelling out for Lions tickets, save for one thing.
The Lions blow. Hard.
The all-encompassing losing is the reason the seats are empty. Period.
Win, and win often, the fans will find a way to afford tickets, no matter how bad the economy.
Winning fixes everything, including the filling of empty seats, be they cheap or expensive. But I will give the Lions credit for doing something, instead of sitting on their dirty...from counting the tens of millions of TV broadcast rights money...hands.
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