From: dave@snitor.sni.ca (Dave Till)
Subject: Re: Playoff Tickets
Keywords: this line contains a gratuitous use of the name "Huckabay" 
Organization: People Hoping That Jack Morris Can Do It Again, Inc.
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 14:38:25 GMT

In article <9967@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM> aclark@53iss5.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Allen Clark) writes:
>Well I received my tickets to game one of the ALCS at Skydome
>yesterday and I have a few comments on the process the Blue Jays used
>to offer them to the public.
>
>1) For the regular season good and bad seats are offered to the
>public, when the playoffs roll around the average guy gets offered the
>crap (believe me in Skydome the crap is CRAP!!).

Now *there's* a man who's forgotten all about Exhibition Stadium.
It's true that some seats in the SkyDome (slogan:  "The Ballpark You're
Still Paying For") are not exactly close to home plate.  However, in the
Dome you're never stuck with:

-- Seats 600+ feet away from the plate:  the far end of the North Grandstand at
Exhibition Stadium sloped away from the field.  To really know what was
going on, it was best to bring a radio to the game.
-- Seats facing at right-angles to home plate:  the first-base and
right-field benches faced the football field, not the baseball diamond.
Guaranteed to leave you with a crick in your neck.  No fun at all.

Compared to this, the SkyDome is the epitome of luxury.  (Even the SkyDome
food is better, despite being all McFood.  Exhibition Stadium hot dogs
and the house specialty -- freshly chilled pizza -- left a bad taste in the
mouth, and usually resulted in two days' worth of stomach cramps.)

>3) If the Jays do not make the playoffs I do not get a full refund (I
>lose an admin. fee)
>
>4) They did not accept any credit cards or personal cheques.  This
>forced me to spend even more money on a money order.
>
>5) Here is the kicker, the one that is unbelievable...I had to include
>a stamped addressed envelope!  They would not even send me the tix
>($0.42 for a stamp).  

It is a gross hassle (and I speak as someone who just went through it
myself).  However, look at it from the Jays' point of view:  every baseball
fan in Southern Ontario (and some outside it) who has $24 to spend will
have rushed their order form into the Jays' ticket office on the *same day*.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were hundreds of thousands of requests,
all of which have to be either filled or returned before this coming
Wednesday.  The only way this can be accomplished is to streamline the
entire process.

>I gues the Blue Jays want to save every precious $1.00 to pump back
>into the organization to pay the millionaires for next year...

Well, if they didn't pay the millionaires what they wanted, there
wouldn't be any post-season games to go to...

>However, I am thrilled to be going to game 1 of the ALCS and would do
>it all again to get tickets.

Me too.  I'm going to games 1 and 2 (my first ALCS games in person since
1985).  I'm looking forward to when they introduce the teams before
the start of game 1:  it'll be quite a rush.

--Dave "bring on the nasty Oaklands!" Till
e-mail path:  dave@silver.sni.ca or dave@snitor.uucp
(or try dwtill@watyew.waterloo.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball