18 February 2010

Opportunities Galore

It's not enough, apparently, to graciously reap the financial windfall of a coveted Yankee visit in June. No, MLBAM has conspired with the Dbacks to impose one of those faux lotteries on Derrick Hall's dwindling faction of "deeply valued" fans. It's not the kind of generally understood "lottery" where you actually win something. Instead, an undisclosed number of "applicants" will possibly be selected for the humbling opportunity to buy Yankee tickets. At, of course, premium prices. Gee. Bring out the bubbly.



It's also the kind of "lottery" where all the form defaults are set to deluge "applicants" with waves of spam from MLB and the Diamondbacks. Plus, you provide copious personal data with utterly no guarantee of even transacting a sale.

Just to prove they're actually doing this, I screen printed part of their Purchase Opportunity Form (yes, that's what they call it) from dbacks.com before it disappears into the night like a burglar.




This fake contest started back on September 15th (roughly four months after the parent club's fake season began in earnest under AJ Hinch), and ends today, February 19th. Gee, sales have been sluggish since 2005's transfer of power, but does it really take five months to sell Yankee tickets?

The fan friendly Dbacks bestow other ostensible ticket opportunities upon deeply valued followers. Like driving to Tucson($30) to endure exhibitions no one tries to win, and paying $14-18 for each seat with any kind of back to it. Well, $14-18 before various fees and the prevailing privilege of a traffic jam before paying extra for unpaved parking.

These are marvelous opportunities to tell the Diamondbacks, "No thanks." If you love baseball, like I do, the three time defending Pac 10 champion Sun Devils play in a verdant little jewel box in Tempe. An easy walk from light rail, and parking was free the last time I went. Tickets are $7 and $10 for seats right near the action. Players try to win. They care like hell actually, and heated ejections are common. The chattery home crowd is intense and occasionally intimidating, without the benefit of free flowing in-game alcohol or prompts from a giant advertising scoreboard.

Imagine that.

7 comments:

Russell said...

I've never quite got the point of a lottery where the winners have to actually spend money. It does seem to be a way of harvesting e-mail addresses rather than a genuine attempt to sell tickets, after all if you wanted to sell tickets you could just actually sell them. Or am I being too literal minded?

Anonymous said...

You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view

Russell said...

Well said anonymous. More opinion please!

I have to add that I am living in an Olympic city where the main Olympic ideal seems to be to get as drunk as possible (so a Gold medal for Britain seems to be on the way).

Diamondhacks said...

Russell, you're a mind reader...once Vancouver got soused, Amy Williams captured Britain's first winter gold in thirty years!

Gary said...

Sun Devil Baseball. A lot of fun at low prices! Can't wait for the new season.

cici said...

Why the hell do people really want to see the Yankees *that* much? If they want to see the D-Backs get beaten (which, considering the Yankees are an AL team, seems pretty likely) they could have gone last season when no one wanted to go (or possibly this season) and if they want to see the Yankees, they should just go to New York!
Do I have a skewed opinion because I live there? If I do, I apologize for taking for granted the wonderfulness that is the Yankees.

Diamondhacks said...

I dont know why so many people want to watch the Yankees. Personally, their MO and length of games make them unusually boring to watch -I'd much rather take in a Sun Devil game live than pay through the nose to bask in Derek Jeter's stadium wide aura.