Season Tickets 2021

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
I got a mailer yesterday from the Red Sox that said...

We look forward to welcoming you back home to Fenway Park next season. We are excited to announce new season ticket holder benefits for 2021, including:

- Increased STH Discount
- Flexible Payment Plan
- Ticket Exchange Program

I will be calling you within the next few weeks to go over the details. Thank you again for being a part of our season ticket holder family!
Has anyone received the call or learned anything about what's planned for next year? I assume they don't know much about what opening day with fans is actually going to be and when the park will be at full capacity.

I just rolled my payment from last year forward to this year when they offered a 10% bonus on top of it. If they're actually giving an even greater discount, then they'll probably end up having to issue some kind of refund or offer to keep it rolling for another year.
 

snowmanny

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 8, 2005
15,670
I got a mailer yesterday from the Red Sox that said...



Has anyone received the call or learned anything about what's planned for next year? I assume they don't know much about what opening day with fans is actually going to be and when the park will be at full capacity.

I just rolled my payment from last year forward to this year when they offered a 10% bonus on top of it. If they're actually giving an even greater discount, then they'll probably end up having to issue some kind of refund or offer to keep it rolling for another year.
I got the card and I had done the same with last year's account. I wrote my rep a friendly letter noting my desire to eventually return to Fenway but stating that I was not returning until the pandemic was completely cleared. I have zero interest in spacing rules and mask rules and so forth, although I recognize others will have other thoughts.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
I got the call this afternoon. As expected, they don't have any information about next year, but they're planning to simply assume the games are happening at full capacity and issue refunds when they don't.

The ticket swap option allows you to use your tickets up to 72 hours before the game to exchange for a different game from the general availability tickets. There aren't any fees or anything for it, so it might be useful for partial season plans.

He couldn't give me any exact numbers on pricing, but he said I'll have a credit on my account after rolling last year's payment forward. Invoices with all the details are coming in a couple weeks.
 

Catcher Block

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2006
5,825
St. Louis
I can speak for another MLB team who is going to offer their STH an opt-out for 2021. Details are still being figured out, but the idea is to take a decently sized deposit, something like 20%, to be put towards 2022, with no loss of seniority or tenured perks. Just controlling the damage before a (hopefully) normal 2022 is the main focus.

Our original plan was to hold invoicing until January when we thought we might have some more insight on what the season will look like, but it became clear that we wouldn't have an impactful amount of additional info by then. At that point, we figured we may as well invoice now and let STH know that prices were frozen and physical tickets won't be mailed this year--everything is going to be managed in the Ballpark App or MyTickets accounts. It will be unpopular, but we can hide behind the uncertainty of the schedule and the ability to update digital tickets on the fly.

Exchanges we're a non-starter because that genie doesn't go back into the bottle unless it's after a WS win or something similar. I know of other MLB and NHL teams who have offered exchanges only to roll them back during successful seasons, and it becomes a customer service nightmare.
 

lurker42

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
173
Exchanges we're a non-starter because that genie doesn't go back into the bottle unless it's after a WS win or something similar. I know of other MLB and NHL teams who have offered exchanges only to roll them back during successful seasons, and it becomes a customer service nightmare.
Just as an additional data point to support this, I moved to San Diego in 2010 and was a Padres season ticket holder from 2010-2015. The ticket exchange was an incredibly popular perk that they put significant limitations on for 2016, thinking that the draw of ASG tickets would keep people on board. I'm a college professor so I travel a lot in the summer, and the prospect of eating the value of 1/4 to 1/3 of my tickets was enough to make me drop. And I wasn't the only one, as local sports news humorously observed that the Padres managed to be the first team on record to see a decrease in season ticket sales the year they hosted the ASG.
 

PseuFighter

Silent scenester
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
14,408
Invoices just went out. I'm only continuing if they let me defer to 2022 without payment, and imagine I won't be the only one requesting this. Not interested in giving them more money, and it's an absolute certainty that there won't be full capacity when the season starts. Pass.
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

Red-headed Skrub child
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
8,260
Seacoast NH
Invoices just went out. I'm only continuing if they let me defer to 2022 without payment, and imagine I won't be the only one requesting this. Not interested in giving them more money, and it's an absolute certainty that there won't be full capacity when the season starts. Pass.
They're pretty much admitting that with the information below from the "Health and Safety" section. I have no idea how they're going to do it if they open the gates to partial capacity - some sort of lottery? Baker hasn't really been screwing around with this so what's the max they allow -10K people maybe? The Sox still have my cash from last year since I chose to roll it over in exchange for the 10% credit. I'll probably have to reach out to my STH person in the near future to see what I can do about not being part of this partial capacity nonsense.


We are hopeful that we will welcome fans to Fenway Park during the 2021 Major League Baseball season. However, MLB and/or city and state public health officials may implement capacity restrictions to ensure the safety and well-being of our fans, and we anticipate that those capacities could fluctuate throughout the season. With many seats being unavailable in a reduced capacity/socially distanced ballpark configuration, we may be unable to fulfill all of the games reflected on your invoice. Once we have greater clarity regarding these variables, we will communicate the number of games and specific seats that we are able to provide you, doing everything possible to ensure reasonably comparable seating locations.

As it relates to games that may be cancelled and/or games where we are unable to provide you with tickets in reasonably comparable seat locations, we will have a hassle-free refund/credit policy that provides you with a number of options. You will have the opportunity to apply the value of the impacted games(s) as a credit to your Red Sox account for future ticket purchases, or you can have the value refunded to your original payment method.
 

PseuFighter

Silent scenester
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
14,408
Sure, but don't charge us until they know. I think it's not right to give more money until there's a plan in place, and the risk of losing more season ticket holders is pretty high (lack of interest, high prices, pandemic/safety).

I also imagine if they move to a limited capacity, in addition to a lot of people feeling uncomfortable about attending until the pandemic is effectively over, they'll more likely than not do what NFL teams that allowed fans did this past season, first, offer a pre-sale for the reduced capacity, which probably won't sell well if it follows the patterns of teams that have tried this, and then open up to general public single game. I think it would be bad if they *required* you to take partial capacity tickets and deducted it from your season payment.

It's also worth noting that they're selling gift cards today with a 25% bonus (a bulk email went out this morning), which if used on single game tickets, negates the season ticket discount.
 
Last edited:

axx

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
8,126
Was looking for a good thread about this, but...

Sure, but don't charge us until they know. I think it's not right to give more money until there's a plan in place, and the risk of losing more season ticket holders is pretty high (lack of interest, high prices, pandemic/safety).
It's going to be touch and go. I think people are sleeping on the fact that negotiations with the union is going to be very nasty. It's going to be as bad if not worse than last year. I can say for certain that the schedule as is.. is definitely not happening.

The worst part of this is that vaccine distribution has been pitiful so far, making it pretty likely that general population won't start until Summer. Tough to think the Red Sox would be allowed to have fans without it.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
I can confirm they are doing away with paper tickets. I'm not happy about this.
I hope it's just a one year thing since the schedule is so up in the air. I'll be extremely upset if they drop paper tickets for the playoffs. There are no dates and times on those anyway and I have 9 framed World Series tickets that are looking for new friends.
 

PseuFighter

Silent scenester
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
14,408
Have to imagine they'll come up with a way to let you buy souvenir tickets and/or upsell you into souvenir tickets if you really want them. I think some mobile only teams did this for playoff strips (I would need to look to be sure, but pretty certain the Cubs had this option; Red Sox may have done the upsell at some point recently too).
 

Catcher Block

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2006
5,825
St. Louis
So does that mean the "Convenience charge" for online tickets will go away?
(Note: It might have already, I haven't been in the area for a bit).
A little bit more info on this....The fees you pay for Sox tickets online get split 3 ways:

Tickets.com gets around 50% of the per-ticket convenience fees as part of their contract with the team. MLB.com / BAMtech gets around 25% of the per-ticket fees, as they do with anything sold on any MLB team site. The Red Sox keep the remaining 25% of the per-ticket fees, but they (likely) keep 100% of any per-order fee and all of the delivery fees (if any).

The splits are much different (and far more lucrative) for concerts and other special events. The ticket provider takes all the flak for them as a "cost of doing business" expense, but the team and league (or the concert promoter) also benefit greatly.

As far as the removal of paper tickets, that's driven by Covid (the date/time/opponent on a digital ticket can be changed on the fly) but also by their deal with StubHub or Ace, whomever their third-party partner is. They'll give the Sox a better cut of their fees if the Sox go all digital, making it harder for people to sell tickets on other sites, and easier to sell via StubHub or Ace. That's the single biggest driver of digital ticketing in MLB over the last 2-3 years.
 
Last edited:

PseuFighter

Silent scenester
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
14,408
Tckets.com gets around 50% of the per-ticket convenience fees as part of their contract with the team. MLB.com / BAMtech gets around 25% of the per-ticket fees, as they do with anything sold on any MLB team site. The Red Sox keep the remaining 25% of the per-ticket fees, but they (likely) keep 100% of any per-order fee and all of the delivery fees (if any).
I think Tickets.com is owned by MLB (or MLBAM?) now.

Seems that way: https://www.tickets.com/about-us/

They've been able to get into all of the MLB venues outside of the very few that still have Ticketmaster deals, the Yankees being by far the largest.
 

Catcher Block

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 7, 2006
5,825
St. Louis
I think Tickets.com is owned by MLB (or MLBAM?) now.

Seems that way: https://www.tickets.com/about-us/

They've been able to get into all of the MLB venues outside of the very few that still have Ticketmaster deals, the Yankees being by far the largest.
Yeah, correct. The money still gets split between the two initially, even if it all ends up back in the league's pockets.

It's been a while since I knew the exact number, but TM is basically guaranteed 8-10 teams because of the legal implications with MLB owning the company providing the tickets to their teams' games.

The Yankees and the Braves are the biggest fish still with TM, if I recall correctly. Tickets.com doesn't do much else other than MLB, MiLB, and some motor racing. They're not in the same universe as TM.