Tuesday conference call with Brooks

[SoxThunder]

Also, I've found that my wife becomes more interested in the White Sox baseball when she's able to better "connect" with the players by knowing a bit more about their off-the-field personalities. We loved it when Beckham did that impersonation of Peavy this summer (talking in a tough, southern hick voice). It showed some of the players' character and made the players more likeable.

[ChiSoxGal85]

Originally Posted by SoxThunder

I've tried using this Wifi at the Cell, but it never works. The Sox should copy what the D-backs did at Chase Field...looks very cool: http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/.../c18115394.jsp

If fans have reliable Wifi service at the ballpark, there could be so many cool social media fan interactions. Think about the possibilities: During pregame autographs, a fan gets his/her picture taken with Gordon Beckham, tags @whitesox and @gordonbeckham, and uploads it to Twitter/Facebook. Everyone sees the picture in their newsfeeds and this makes them wish they were at the ballpark to "get in on the action". (Let's face it...Facebook has become a way to show off to all your friends all the cool places you've been.) By doing this, the players would get more "followers" and get a larger audience to tweet to. During the game (between innings), the Sox could show some of the tagged "fan pictures of the game" and show them on the scoreboard. This would get people to do creative stuff just to get their pictures on the scoreboard: dress their whole family up in Sox gear, make creative signs, take tailgating pictures, get their pic with Southpaw, etc. This creates that "buzz" feeling and also makes the fan feel like a contributing part of the White Sox family and the game experience.

I agree 100% with this; the Dbacks setup looks great. Social media is the way to go - the more people tweet/FB post/ or whatever their media preference is, the better. Once a wifi network is in place that could handle a full stadium, I'd love to see between-inning tweet or text message contests, with White Sox giveaways. I was able to win Sox Tweet Seats once in 2010, which I thought was really cool.

I've given up on trying to use the Boing wifi, it was pretty much useless this season.

[doogiec]

Originally Posted by Jerko

Ok most of this is non-baseball related, but here are a few things they can change IMO to make Sox games a more pleasurable experience.

Ushers: Having one in every section, and having them work the same area of the park every game, might make them a little more "on the ball" so to speak. I know a few of these guys because I usually stand on the concourse, and without their little guide book, they're lost; even for something as simple as where certain stands are located throughout the park. Nice guys; not really trained properly IMO.

I'm definitely with you on the usher point.

I've been to a lot of different parks over the years, and USCF is the only one that doesn't seem to want to bother with ushers. Using Detroit as an example, every time I've gone there the ushers check the ticket, and offer to show you where the seats are. Other ballparks are the same.

I sat in premium lower deck seats about 20 times last year. Not ONCE did anyone check my ticket when walking in, much less say anything to me. And the constant routine of people showing up for their seats after the game started, either needing to kick out the people who had stolen the seats earlier, with those people moving to other open seats, over and over again blocking the game gets tiresome.

The last game I attended someone with an aisle seat started smoking. Not just smoking, but intentionally blowing the smoke behind him. I was going to say something, but saw the usher walking toward him. She just kept on walking, and didn't say anything until another fan grabbed her and told her to take care of it.

If they want to charge for the premium seats what other teams charge for premium seats, they need to consider the entire experience, not just the seat location.

[Foulke You]

Originally Posted by ChiSoxGal85

I agree 100% with this; the Dbacks setup looks great. Social media is the way to go - the more people tweet/FB post/ or whatever their media preference is, the better. Once a wifi network is in place that could handle a full stadium, I'd love to see between-inning tweet or text message contests, with White Sox giveaways. I was able to win Sox Tweet Seats once in 2010, which I thought was really cool.

I've given up on trying to use the Boing wifi, it was pretty much useless this season.

I also had no luck connecting to the Boing wifi hotspot as well. 4G coverage in the ballpark is also pretty much non-existent. Social media interaction is huge for many younger fans, casual fans, and ESPECIALLY female fans. My wife always expresses her disappointment that her photos/check-ins don't upload until after the Sox game is long over. It's a big deal to a lot of people to be able to do use sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tout, etc. during a ballgame. I sat behind a group of girls in the bleachers who took their pictures after the Sox beat the Tigers in September and they each spent 5 min trying to upload the photo to no avail. I had to explain to them that US Cellular Field is a black hole for cell phone coverage. The Sox need to understand that people want to interact with their friends, brag that they are at the game, etc. As others have pointed out, it is FREE MARKETING for the team when fans check into YOUR product and post pictures from YOUR ballpark. The Sox seem to be slow in recognizing its importance in today's marketplace.

[Jerko]

Originally Posted by Harry Potter

I'm in the other camp. As a season ticket holder, I enjoy knowing that for the most part, Lots A and B are season ticket holder only. I thought Lot C and Lot E/F takes cash daily in addition to Lot G.

Especially if I leave work late for a weeknight game - it's nice to have a season ticket holder lot to park in.

Now that's not to say they can't improve traffic flow for the cash lots - that's a whole other discussion.

Good points.

[Jerko]

Originally Posted by Foulke You

I also had no luck connecting to the Boing wifi hotspot as well. 4G coverage in the ballpark is also pretty much non-existent. Social media interaction is huge for many younger fans, casual fans, and ESPECIALLY female fans. My wife always expresses her disappointment that her photos/check-ins don't upload until after the Sox game is long over. It's a big deal to a lot of people to be able to do use sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tout, etc. during a ballgame. I sat behind a group of girls in the bleachers who took their pictures after the Sox beat the Tigers in September and they each spent 5 min trying to upload the photo to no avail. I had to explain to them that US Cellular Field is a black hole for cell phone coverage. The Sox need to understand that people want to interact with their friends, brag that they are at the game, etc. As others have pointed out, it is FREE MARKETING for the team when fans check into YOUR product and post pictures from YOUR ballpark. The Sox seem to be slow in recognizing its importance in today's marketplace.

Closer to the end of the season, if I ignored the wifi and used the 4g it seemed to work on the first shot. I was at Bacardi a few Sundays ago, and there was free wifi in there (their own, not the Boingo), and it worked like a charm. I'm not a wifi expert by any means, but maybe by next season that will be improved?

[doublem23]

I have Verizon and I never had any problems with my 4G inside the park at any game I attended.

[keloms]

13. There was one other question about season-ticket holders and dynamic pricing. There remains a gap between the STH price and the individual game pricing. Brooks said on only the rarest occasions would a dynamically-priced ticket sell for less than the STH price. Obviously, they want to encourage people to buy season plans, and the best way to do that is to convince people the best value resides in the ST packages.

If im not mistaken, I saw that the new $20 tickets were going to be $1701 for a full season plan which averages out to $21 a game. Unless we're the Cubs and opening day games are 3-4 times the standard price, there's very little value in that.

[tstrike2000]

Originally Posted by JB98

I know there's a lot to digest there. The conference call ran longer than I expected. I'm sure there were things said that I didn't even include. If anyone has any questions about what was said, I'll try to answer them.

Nice work, Sir, in summarizing it for us.

[palehosepub]

Originally Posted by keloms

If im not mistaken, I saw that the new $20 tickets were going to be $1701 for a full season plan which averages out to $21 a game. Unless we're the Cubs and opening day games are 3-4 times the standard price, there's very little value in that.

I think its about seat loacation the best lower deck reserved seats will average $21 and the $20 daily seats will be in the corners. Plus other season ticket benefits......

[WhiteSox5187]

Originally Posted by doublem23

I have Verizon and I never had any problems with my 4G inside the park at any game I attended.

I have Version but I don't have 4G and I can NEVER connect to a wifi network in the park.

[Chez]

JB:

Thanks for the excellent summary. One question about the survey -- how did they choose the group that was surveyed? Did they only survey fans who were already at the park or who were frequent ticket purchasers, or did they also include fans or potential fans who didn't go to many (or any) games? I hope they included a representative sample from the latter group.

[fisk4ever]

Originally Posted by Chez

JB:

Thanks for the excellent summary. One question about the survey -- how did they choose the group that was surveyed? Did they only survey fans who were already at the park or who were frequent ticket purchasers, or did they also include fans or potential fans who didn't go to many (or any) games? I hope they included a representative sample from the latter group.

I only go to a few games a year and I got the survey.

[mrfourni]

Originally Posted by Chez

JB:

Thanks for the excellent summary. One question about the survey -- how did they choose the group that was surveyed? Did they only survey fans who were already at the park or who were frequent ticket purchasers, or did they also include fans or potential fans who didn't go to many (or any) games? I hope they included a representative sample from the latter group.

It was an online survey. I was sent an e-mail asking me to complete. I also remember the Sox advertising the survey on their television broadcasts.

[JB98]

Originally Posted by Chez

JB:

Thanks for the excellent summary. One question about the survey -- how did they choose the group that was surveyed? Did they only survey fans who were already at the park or who were frequent ticket purchasers, or did they also include fans or potential fans who didn't go to many (or any) games? I hope they included a representative sample from the latter group.

They gave 8,000 surveys to fans, all of whom bought tickets during the 2010 or 2011 season. They specifically tried to target people who were going to the ballpark less (or not at all) during the 2012 campaign.

If my understanding is correct, they did not survey any current STH. And by STH, I mean people who had either one of the 27-game plans or the full 81 games. As you might expect, the survey wasn't about finding out what the STH think. They targeted people who aren't buying as many tickets lately to find out the reasons why.