Usually the WORST time to raise season ticket prices is the season following a bad year. Although the 2019 Titan Baseball team did not have a losing record, they did miss the postseason for the first time since 1991. Bad news is that reserved season ticket seats for the 2020 season are going up 15 percent.
Before Titan Baseball fans grab their pitchforks and torches and storm CSUF Athletic Director Jim Donovan‘s office, the actual price per game for reserved season tickets actually goes down in 2020 compared to 2019. Regardless, you have to scratch your head at the timing of raising prices following a season that dipped well below Titan Baseball expectations.
Season tickets in 2019 cost $256 per reserved seat. (Not sure what general admission season tickets cost and not even sure they sell season tickets for those sections.)
Season tickets in 2020 will cost $299 per reserved seat. Comparing apples to apples, it would appear Titan Baseball season tickets went up roughly 15 percent from last year. But this is an apples to oranges comparison because the 2020 Titans will host 33 games at Goodwin Field.
The young lady at the CSUF Ticketing Office explained the increase in season ticket prices is attributed to the Titans hosting more home games in 2020 compared to 2019. That is in fact true because there are 33 home games scheduled in 2020, not including the Alumni Game and the exhibition vs. Japan Federation.
In 2019, the Titans scheduled 27 games at Goodwin Field despite the second game vs. Arizona State getting canceled due to weather. There was no offer of a refund for that rained out ASU game nor a credit on next year’s season tickets.
Despite the total cost of reserved season tickets going up, the cost per game actually goes down… by an average of $0.42 per game.
- $256/27 = $9.48 per game
- $299/33 = $9.06 per game
In professional sports where the number of home games are consistent year after year, (MLB teams host 81 home games. NFL franchises have eight regular season and two preseason games.) it’s smart to raise ticket prices when the team contends for a playoff spot and fan support is high. Of course in college athletics where the number of games hosted can fluctuate from year to year, fans need to do a little bit of math to figure out their actual cost per game.
We also understand there are fixed overhead costs associated with homes games which include ticket staff, press box staff, janitorial staff, field maintenance, water and electricity in the stadium, etc. We get that and if you break it down, $9 per game for high quality college baseball is a steal. Considering the Titans will be improved over last season, the product on the field provides more value for a lower price per game for the season ticket holder.
By comparison, a reserved seat season ticket for UC Irvine works out to be $7.96 per game. Long Beach State will also host 33 games this season and a reserved seat within the first five rows of Blair Field will run you about $4.50 per seat. Then again, that is UCI and Long Beach State and as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for”.