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Message: [QUOTE="kibblesnbits, post: 3228985, member: 97"] The net of that is that the A's claim to have increased their pathetic attendance by about 1,200 per game by further cutting prices via offering general admission freebies, free or discounted parking and 50% off concessions to entice partial season ticket plans. I have no problem with it and the packaging as a membership is in keeping with trends (many soccer teams were playing the membership angle long before baseball discovered it) , but the heart of the offer is still price cuts. I also don't have a problem with critiques of the USL business model. I really don't understand flying a team to KC to play a reserve team on a Wednesday before far fewer than 1,000 fans (not to mention letting the parent club stack the roster because it was a rare mid-week game). The league should have much more regional scheduling and bus travel. Something like 6 divisions of 6 teams each where teams play division rivals 4 times and each team in a second division twice for a total of 32 games would make far more sense. Lastly, I don't think HA is as far off on pricing as you do. The mid-field chair seats should be $30 and an end line $10 option would have helped, but had to be cut due to budget. That's why the mere $3 discount helps through affiliates. This is a team playing 17 games, overwhelmingly on weekends. It's not comparable to the Yard Goats trying to sell 72 games, including weekday games in the 1/2 of the season before the kids get out of school. If the Yard Goats were only playing on weekends you can be sure their tickets would be significantly more expensive too. Even so, I paid about $25 to sit upstairs at one of their games in May and I don't think I've ever paid less than about $12-$15 (similar for a family to the $13-$16 sideline seats at Dillon). At $30 a season membership would be $500 or less for the limited number of the best seats in the house and getting it down to $200 or so at the low-end would help. I think the biggest and most inexplicable screwup is the lighting issue that's forcing 5:00 starts in the baking sun. I can understand the construction schedule slipping as that's happened in many places, particularly at the minor league level and when schedules are very tight. But how hard is it to obtain a few light poles and fixtures that meet modern standards over a period of 9 months? I don't get it. That should have been one of the few off-the-shelf items. [/QUOTE]

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