Barnstorming out of the Fens
by Erich C. Mueller
Not having much money and being a baseball fan, I’m disheartened at the state of admission at Fenway. Factor in a hot dog, beer, and the scalped ticket, you are sadly getting close to the century mark.
That scalped ticket that goes for around twenty dollars face value may cost you seventy-five, even if, sigh, the Royals are in town. With ballparks getting smaller and ticket prices getting larger, there seems to be no end in sight for all my fellow frugal fans.
This is merely a sign of the times. The gap between rich and poor is widening at a faster rate than Vince Wilfork’s waistline. Regular people are getting squeezed out of the picture, but I’m not going cry over this.
I’m here with a solution: I want the Red Sox to hit the road for six games. A lot of the inflated cost of seeing the Sox arises from the small venue they play in. I love Fenway Park. It is the quintessential ballpark and a national treasure that should be preserved with the same earnestness that the Constitution is.
By taking their show on the road, the Red Sox would be undertaking an unprecedented public relations effort. Instead of the fans coming to the Sox, the Sox would go to the fans. I propose that the Red Sox play a home series in Gillette Stadium and another in Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
I know there are doubters out there who bring up the valid point that no one watched baseball in Montreal even when they had their own team. Lest we forget, that team was the Expos.
According to Forbes’ magazine, the Red Sox were worth $536 million as of the close of the fiscal year in 2005. Forty-four percent of that value was drawn from the market, which is proportional to the size of the city and surrounding areas.
Without that portion, (ie-the fans) John Henry and everybody else who makes money off the Red Sox would be out $249 million.
The market does not just include everyone living within ten miles of the city. In Gillette, the Red Sox would already have a significant advantage by playing on a field that is at the epicenter of New England pride.
By having a three game series in Montreal, the Red Sox would find a throng of rabid baseball fans from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont eager to cheer them on.
Also, Molson (no limit on how many beers you buy at once. Oh Canada!) and poutine might be more satisfying than the overpriced dogs and pretzels slung at Fenway.
Honestly if your are eating crab cakes and sipping chardonay at a ballgame, you are sadly missing the point.
This is not just a PR stunt. Fenway Park can hold a mere 33,871 spectators.
If Gillette Stadium were set up in a similar fashion as the Oakland coliseum , where the NFL’s Raiders also play football, then about twenty-four percent of the 68,756 available seats would be lost to the outfield. That would still allow 52,255 people to take in a Sox ‘home’ game at once! Olympic Stadium can host 43,739 fans.
The increased number of ticket sales alone makes any owners’ mouths water like Pavlov’s dogs.
There are countless factors here that I did not have time to consider, like the impact on local merchants and hotels. I don’t think there would be a problem booking a concert or another event in place of the traveling Sox.
It is important that John Henry, Larry Lucchino, and even Theo Epstein not forget that fans from the far-flung reaches of New England are dying to (but might not be able to afford to) cheer their Sox on.
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