Australia MLB Opening Day 2014 Rip-Off

Australia MLB Opening Day 2014 Rip-Off

 BEFORE I go on a little bit of a rant, let me first introduce myself – I’m a mad MLB fan, but alas live outside America. I live all the way Down Under in Sydney Australia. So, barring a trip overseas, I’d never expect to get to watch a real MLB game.

 So imagine my happiness when I open the newspaper (or, more accurately, logged onto the internet) and find that MLB has announced they are starting the season in Australia, and in my home city of Sydney. Ultra happiness! My brother (also a big MLB fan) also wanted to buy tickets. But then imagine the disappointment when I went on to Ticketek website (the ticket company selling the tickets for this event) and found massively expensive tickets. Here are the venue map and prices:

 

Platinum	$499.00
Gold Grandstand	$369.00
Gold Concourse	$369.00
Silver	$259.00
Bronze	$189.00
Outfield	$99.00
Grandstand Outfield	$69.00

 These prices don’t include the $5.10 transaction fee and 1.95% credit card fee.

 Now, I was expecting a bit of a premium since these are the only 2 MLB regular season games ever played here but it seems way too steep for a sport that isn’t followed here. These prices are comparable to the ticket prices for the Australia vs. British & Irish Lions test at the Sydney Olympic Stadium (http://premier.ticketek.com.au/Shows/show.aspx?sh=WALLAANZ13&view=aru). Now rugby is a reasonably popular game here and the Lions tour is a huge thing – quite a much bigger deal than a regular season MLB game in a country where baseball isn’t popular.

 Those red seats ($69) are about 650 feet from the plate. Ouch. And those green ($99) outfield seats are still miles away – on most major-league parks those seats would be where the carpark is. These tickets are way more expensive than you see in American parks – heck, I can get tickets in September (midweek, but maybe in the thick of a playoff race) at Dodger Stadium to watch Ari@LAD (the same teams that will Down Under), just behind the centerfield wall for $20-$30. If I lived in Miami you can tickets for $9 – but you do have to watch the Marlins.

 Apparently tickets have sold well but personally me and my brother (he ain’t heavy) will be looking on Ebay for cheap tickets nearer the game when the scalpers maybe find they can’t sell the tickets. Though looking on Ebay at the moment (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MLB-LA-Dodgers-Vs-Arizona-Diamondbacks-Sydney-Sunday-23-3-14-/281123783943?pt=AU_Tickets&hash=item4174488507) there are 2 tickets for sale for over $400 (over $220 each) and they are those green outfield tickets (originally $99). So maybe the tickets prices could’ve been made even higher.

 This is different to the previous opening series held in Japan. In Japan baseball is really popular. Here in Australia, baseball is a very minor sport, behind Aussies Rules, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, cricket, basketball, netball, tennis, golf, hockey, motor racing, horse racing, harness racing, greyhound racing, and maybe a few more. Baseball does have some participation numbers, especially in western Sydney where played baseball myself. But the percentage of Aussie people who know who Albert Pujols or Justin Verlander are – 1% (maybe). But the MLB fans that are in Australia are quite passionate and they’ll be flocking to the SCG from around the country I guess.

 To give you an idea of how much profile MLB has down here, when the games were announced the only big name mentioned was not a player at all – it was Magic Johnson, who part-owns the Dodgers. If they’d mentioned Clayton Kershaw most people would stare blankly (not me, I’d love to watch him pitch live). These games will raise the profile of baseball a bit but the prices aren’t exactly geared to the normal Aussie sports fan.

 The local State government announced these games with fanfare saying it will bring a benefit of $13 million to Sydney. Although I’d love to know how much money the government paid to get the game here, not to mention the money it will cost to turn the SCG (Sydney CRICKET Ground) into a baseball filed – temporary stands, bullpens, mounds, new fences, etc.

 Getting past my grumpy young man thing, all in all it’s still pretty cool to have the season open in my backyard. The prices shocked me but given the quick sales of tickets and big Ebay prices I guess the demand seems to justify the price. But even though I’m a fan of baseball I’m a much bigger fan of cheapness – you can’t beat the value of MLB.tv - $120 to watch any game in HD, and since I’m in Australia I have no blackout restrictions at all.