Even good seats are worth less to me than what I’d pay to see double A.

This right here speaks volumes…

“Housing cost plus the lack of increase in middle class purchasing power vs. cost of living, especially costs of luxury items like baseball tickets, has shifted the sports market from a middle class oriented audience to an expense account, business oriented market.”

(I wouldn’t do it either. I can see a minor league game locally and check out some prospects that way…maybe not for my team, but it’s easier to go to Texas during the season and see them that way.)

I could see going to one spring training game and buying the absolute cheapest ticket you can find to have the experience of doing it….but that’s it….unless you are retired, got more money than you need, and don’t particularly like your descendants, then I could see hanging out at the park every day for $50 plus the cost of snacks.

Dodgertown in Vero was great, free parking and tickets were 5 bucks or less, you could walk around and take in the history at that place.

Teams wonder why fans would rather watch from home or pick up those last minute tickets on stubhub when prices drop below a dollar. Baseball is sitting in the outfield talking about what a player should be doing to improve his stats, comparing todays game to years gone by, prospects coming up, tossing peanut shells on the ground, and f the yankees, f the red sox.

Those stadia were little better than municipal fields with larger grandstands. It’s hard to believe how much different-and nicer-the Spring stadia are now than 30 years ago. At the same time, housing-even in Florida-is more than it was then. That housing cost plus the lack of increase in middle class purchasing power vs. cost of living, especially costs of luxury items like baseball tickets, has shifted the sports market from a middle class oriented audience to an expense account, business oriented market.

Except that Spring games don’t really capture the business market-there’s little cachet, the games mean nothing, and major corporations don’t have a good value prop for block ticket buying at Spring games. Spring games still speak largely to the middle class, and mainly the local residents (Disney figures suggest 70% of their theme park business is regional). Since Florida localities have been feeling the squeeze on their middle class like everywhere else, and I assume in Arizona as well, continuing to raise Spring ticket prices will produce an inflection point leading to a reduction in attendance.

That will change when ticket prices stabilize and incomes catch up, or if ticket prices come down.