Category Archives: Fan Experience

Comments on the experience of being a Tigers fan, including views on Comerica Park and fan relations.

2007 Season, Fan Experience

Ticket Experiences – open thread

16 Comments

So, how have everyone’s ticket-getting experiences been today? I got into the “virtual waiting room” and was in there for 40 minutes before my browser crashed. Did anybody else have better luck?

Meanwhile, the cheapest Opening Day tickets on StubHub are up to $138.

3:45PM UPDATE: Things seem to be running along smoother now. The Tigers just issued a release saying that as of 2:15pm both the Saturday, June 9 game against the New York Mets and the Saturday, August 25 game against the New York Yankees were already selling standing room only tickets. At that point nearly 61,000 tickets had been sold today. Combined with the 16,500 full season equivalents that puts 2007’s paid attendance already at nearly 1.4 million. In 2006, individual game sales for the entire first day, which included Opening Day, totaled only 29,000.

2007 Season, Fan Experience

Drawing for Tigers Opening Day tickets

7 Comments

Opening Day tickets won’t be going on sale on March 3rd like the rest of individual game tickets. With a Comerica Park record 16,500 full season equivalent ticket packages sold, it means there aren’t a whole lot of Opening Day tickets left for the general public. Instead the club will hold a drawing.

The Opening Day registration period begins at 9 a.m. (ET) on Friday, March 2 on the team’s website, www.tigers.com. The registration period ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 11. The random drawing will take place early in the week of March 12 with winners being notified by e-mail no later than Friday, March 16. Winners will be eligible to purchase two tickets for Opening Day.

There is no charge to register for this opportunity and no obligation to buy a ticket. There is no assurance that any particular registrant will be selected. Winners may not transfer this purchase opportunity.

Fans who do not have Internet access can still register for the random online ticket drawing by calling (313) 471-BALL (2255) and working with a sales representative from the Tigers to complete the form. Winners who registered on the phone would be contacted by a member of the Tigers sales staff after the drawing.

If you miss out on Opening Day you can always try for the second game, April 4th when the team will pass out American League Championship rings.

And if you’re wondering, the price for Opening Day tickets on StubHub is up to $99 $120.

2007 Season, Fan Experience

Tigers leave Ticketmaster?

14 Comments

It appears that the Ticketmaster won’t be handling Detroit Tigers ticket sales this year. If you’ve purchased spring training tickets you may have noticed that the process was hosted by tickets.com and driven by an MLB account.

I’m not sure what the resulting fees will be, but the impact looks to be:

  • There’s a new phone number: 866-66-TIGER (866-668-4437)
  • Individual tickets will be available 3 ways on March 3rd at 10:00am. 1. Online at Tigers.com, 2. In person at the Tigers box office, 3. Over the phone. You will no longer be able to go to a Ticketmaster outlet.
  • Because it is a frenzy online when the tickets go on sale and you only have minutes to get your information in, you may want to create an MLB.com account ahead of time – and log in.

The fact that it requires an MLB.com account makes this feel like a MLBAM initiative and less of a team specific thing.

If the fees are less this will certainly be a positive for Tigers fans. And in doing a dry run with spring training tickets it appears the the captcha is actually legible. There is nothing like the frustration of not being able to even decipher the text you need to type in.

2007 Season, Fan Experience, Former Tigers, Spring Training

Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up

10 Comments

PFP

The first day of spring training every year brings pitchers fielding practice. Today was no different, except for the fact that there were 50 media assembled to see if the Tigers pitchers could throw the ball to third base. Now let’s move on.


credit: Roger DeWitt

They wear many hats

That section headline reminds me of a clue that Chuck Woolery would have given on Scrabble back in the day. In this case though it refers to the new hats the Tigers are sporting. Either New Era or the Tigers have added goofy white detailing the the Tigers BP hats. Not really a big fan and I can’t imagine fans clamoring to buy them. I’ll keep an eye on Uniwatch for more information.

Three out of 10 GMs prefer Yankees

MLB.com polled the 30 general managers to get their preseason picks for World Series champs. The Yankees and Red Sox dominated getting 17 of the 30 votes, but 2 GMs picked the Tigers.

“With the pitching staff they have and adding Sheffield makes the Tigers an easy favorite for me,” one manager said.

Added another: “As long as that pitching holds up, they’re the team to beat.”

Continue reading Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up →

2007 Season, Fan Experience

Tigers Ticket Sales Surging

4 Comments

Andrew Miller in the rain
Credit: Roger DeWitt

Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Tigers have sold 13,885 season ticket equivalents this year. That’s an increase of 4000 over last year. So what will the impact be on Opening Day tickets?

Last year there were very few Opening Day tickets made available to the general public. With the increase in season ticket sales, that number stands to be even smaller. Individual tickets go on sale March 3rd at 10:00am and there is sure to be a mad scramble.

Taking a look at some of my sponsors in the sidebar, tickets are already available and you’re looking at paying $100 a seat. At StubHub! there are a couple tickets available for $85 (aff link), but that supply is pretty low. Basically your Opening Day options are 1. Buy Season Tickets, 2. Try and get lucky on March 3rd, 3. Pay through the nose, or 4. Head down and enjoy the day, but invest your money in 4 other games.

As for me, I picked up 4 in the pavillion for $75 a couple weeks ago.

And it’s not just regular season tickets that are a hot commodity (despite the rainy weather today). Spring Training tickets have seen a 53% increase in sales.

Fan Experience

The Extra Innings DirecTV deal and Tiger Fans

20 Comments

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the pending deal that would put MLB’s Extra Inning package exclusively on DirecTV. Previously, it was available on most major dish and cable systems. I live in Southeast Michigan so I unfortunately won’t be effected by this. However, I anticipated that many DTW readers wouldn’t be so lucky.

To get a handle on this I’ve been running a poll in the sidebar. Now that the poll is 10 days old, and we have 94 votes it’s probably time to take a look at the results.

How does MLB’s exclusive deal with DirecTV effect you
Response Results
I live in SE Michigan, it doesn’t make a difference 27%
I already have DirecTV and subscribe to MLB EI, so no change 6%
I’ll be watching the Tigers on MLB.tv now 26%
I’m switching to DirecTV because of this 2%
I’m out of luck. I can’t/won’t switch to DirecTV so I’ll miss the games 39%

Continue reading The Extra Innings DirecTV deal and Tiger Fans →

Fan Experience, Tiger History

Group Project: Preserving Tiger Stadium

25 Comments

Okay, so we’re not going to all start a campaign to save the old girl before she gets it from the wrecking ball. What I’m talking about is preserving some of Tiger Stadium’s history and charm. Moving some of Michigan and Trumbull to Montcalm and Witherall.

A couple weeks ago I flashed back to the overwhelming sense of green when entering a stadium. The comments went down the road of remembering Tiger Stadium. A commentor named Ed left the following:

I wish parts of Tiger Stadium had been integrated into Comerica. Sometime in July or August I wrote Dave Dombrowski about that very thing. He wrote back…personally!…to say that they have been thinking about that very thing. His letter stated too that they would be considering what they might do and thanked me for my suggestions.

So I thought maybe we could come up with a list of ideas. I’d love the rightfield overhang to make the journey, but that may be a little too hard to pull off. Something simpler might be to the have flags from the other American League teams ringing the top of the stadium.

What would you like to see brought from the old place to Comerica Park?

2007 Season, Fan Experience

161 Tiger Games on TV

5 Comments

What a change from the last couple years when the Tigers were scrambling to get games on TV. This year the Tigers have ensured that all but one game will be televised – and they did it before the end of January. Last year they were still adding games in mid April.

Fox Sports Net Detroit will pick up 134 games (plus 3 spring training games). Fox 2 WJBK will be the over the air partner which will air 17 additional weekend games, plus simulcast Opening Day. For those who are out-state a network of over-the-air affiliates is being lined up throughout Michigan and the Toledo area to carry the package of games airing on WJBK. An additional 10 games will be on National television in the form of Fox Saturday Baseball or ESPN Sunday night baseball.

The lone game that won’t be aired is an April 7th tilt against the Royals that falls during Fox’s exclusive rights window.
Continue reading 161 Tiger Games on TV →

Fan Experience, Former Tigers, Minors, Site News

Tigers Miscellaney

6 Comments

This, that, and the other…

  • The big news in baseball is the impending exclusive deal for the Extra Innings package with DirecTV. Here is a roundup of what some columnists are saying. Living in Southeast Michigan this isn’t a big deal to me. But with the Tigers surge in popularity I’m sure there are many displaced Tiger fans who will be frustrated. I’ve put up a poll related to this in the sidebar. Let me know what you think.
  • The Tigers signed Joey Eischen to a minor league deal. He’ll get an invite to the big league camp, as will catcher Dusty Ryan.
  • When I mentioned being surprised that the Tigers were positioning Eulogio de la Cruz as a starter, Matt sent info showing how much better de la Cruz performed as a starter last year. Matt also has a blog where he recently did a deep dive of the Tigers drafting of college players and their progressions through the system
  • Jason Beck has a couple of TV notes. Beck notes that the Tigers have 6 televised spring training games. Also, the Tigers have eight 3:55pm Saturday games which is the start time for Fox Saturday Baseball.
  • Cameron Maybin has a webpage. (hat tip The Surge)
  • Carlos Pena is following in the tradition of Greg Norton, Alex Sanchez, and Eric Munson. He’s signing with the Devil Rays.
  • For my feed subscribers, it seems like I just went full feed and now I’m back to partial. But it’s not my fault (entirely). I recently upgraded to the new version of WordPress (2.1) which supports full feeds differently than the old version. I’m hoping this gets corrected in the short term or that a work around is created. In any case I hope to be all the way back to full feed by the end of the weekend, even if it means uninstalling the new version.
Fan Experience

It was so green

17 Comments

It was so green. Those are the first words that I use to describe my first memory of Tiger Stadium. The bright contrast of the green grass and blue seats as I emerged from a dark tunnel is the first and most enduring sensory experience I remember at a major league game. Listening to others describe their first experiences, many stick to the same theme. This isn’t just true of Tiger Stadium, but other parks as well. But if you were to attend your first game now, I have a hard time believing the reaction would be the same. New stadium construction and better TV have probably dimmed some of the vividness.

Back in 1982 when I attended my first game, all I’d known was the game on a TV screen. Watch ESPN Classic for any sporting event from the 80’s, and once you stop laughing at the clothes and the graphics, look at how washed out the colors were. The transmission was poor and the TV sets weren’t much better. Now with games being broadcast in HD, it is crystal clear and just as bright as being there in person.

I think the other thing that will impact this is the trends in all the newer stadia. ‘Back in the olden days’ many stadiums were closed in and concourses were tucked back underneath the seats. You didn’t see the field at all until you came up through the tunnels. And when you did get your first glimpse the grass was contrasted by the backdrop of the stadium itself. Now fans get to enjoy open-view concourses and outfields that open up to reveal rivers, bays, and cityscapes.

Now none of these innovations are bad things. I love the crisp clear picture on TV. With 2 little kids, being able to see the game while venturing out for more concessions is wonderful. I just wonder when today’s kids reminisce about their first game, what enduring memory will they have?