Greetings. I’m finally off Grand Jury Duty and back to work, and I can get to some of the issues I was mentioning last time. Actually, that entry engendered both greater thought and discussion within the office about really breaking down how we treat our fans.
As I said last time, there are two main schools of thought among season ticket holders, in terms of what kind of benefit they expect or wish for when they purchase season tickets to the Staten Island Yankees. One group wants monetary value, pertaining specifically to discounted prices on tickets, food, merchandise or parking. This would fall under the “bulk rate” philosophy. I addressed many of these issues last time.
The second, more ephemeral issue is “treatment”. You could call it “care”. “Love,” perhaps. This relates more to issues of access to players, ability to get behind the scenes in some way, special lines for food, the like.
Even though typically I try to talk about the things I can give, I need to start with something I can’t. That’s a special reserved area in the parking lot for season ticket holders. I’d love to do this. I know that other parks do. I think it’s a great idea. But it doesn’t conform either to our parking situation on a broader scale.
Because we share our lots with the ferry commuters, we are simply not permitted to carve out an area specifically for us. So I couldn’t simply say, well, the 200 spots closest to the left field gate are reserved for season ticket holders on game days. They are also attractive spots for commuters, and when we negotiated our deal with the City that kind of preference was specifically excluded. I will say this, however: I’ll work on it, at least for Saturday/Sunday games.
The next issue is that of giveaways. I mentioned last time that we were going to go to back to our “giveaways to all fans” policy when we have giveaways. But I need to make something clear: The giveaway is for all fans that night. I can’t guarantee any fan, whether season ticket holder or individual off the street, that there will be a giveaway item available at any time at all. But if you’re there that night, you’ll get one.
The other area where we try now, and will expand upon this season, to make certain that season ticket holders are treated specially, is regarding access to players and coaches. I think this will be particularly important this season with Tommy John. Keep watching here in the next week or two, and I’ll get specific. I have, oh, five exciting ideas just for season ticket holders that are currently in the planning stages. As soon as they are finalized I’ll announce them.
* * * * *
I’ve gotten way away from my stated goal of describing the off-season goings-on at the park, or giving our history. But in some ways the last two installments do give you an idea of how things work. We are constantly evaluating ourselves, trying to understand what we need to do to make our product more attractive. Fundamentally that means putting on an entertaining event in a beautiful, clean, safe venue where we treat our fans even better than we’d like to be treated ourselves. The rest goes to paying the bills. That may be flip, but it has a lot of truth in it.
See you Friday.
Josh
