Are the Orioles really that bad.. now I need tickets for Sunday

[BigDirty]

Since Big Mike Sweeney and the rest of the Kansas City Royals are visiting the Baltimore Orioles this weekend, I decided that I would take a weekend trip (which means no CC games for me on Sunday) down to Baltimore to see them. I got my hotel room cheap through Priceline, which I expected, however, I didn't expect to get my tickets so cheap through ticket brokers (read- scalpers) for so cheap.

For the Saturday game, I got a $30 on the lower level behind home plate for $15, and for the Sunday game I got two upper level $15 tickets for $1 each. So I've gotta wonder if I got the deal of the week (as far as baseball tickets are concerned), or are the Orioles just that bad that they can't even draw against one of the worst teams in baseball this year?

[bignick]

nice deal! MLB tickets arnt that expensive to begin with.

[CaseyRyback]

I used to pay 2 bucks for bleacher seats for the Rangers(this was 5 years ago though).

If you do not go to a game in NY ticket prices seem fairly reasonable.

[BigDirty]

nice deal! MLB tickets arnt that expensive to begin with.

Well you come from brewers country, where they sell $1 seats....... I'm stuck in the high rent district with three of the biggest draws of the season in driving distance (Yankees, Phillies, and Red Sox), which aren't only tough tickets, but fairly pricey as well.

This is the first smaller market game I've been to in a while, I usually hit up NY, Philly, and LA to go to games, and this seems like an anomoly.

[CaseyRyback]

actually if I remember correctly Camden Yards usually remains in the top 5 in attendance.

Also, if you go to DC, take 495 and do not drive through the city (only posting since they are so close)

and the traffic sucks the whole way down (just returned from trip to Jersey). They are doing construction all along I-95. If you have an EZ pass it will not be that bad, but those tolls really fuck up traffic.

[BigDirty]

actually if I remember correctly Camden Yards usually remains in the top 5 in attendance.

Also, if you go to DC, take 495 and do not drive through the city (only posting since they are so close)

and the traffic sucks the whole way down (just returned from trip to Jersey). They are doing construction all along I-95. If you have an EZ pass it will not be that bad, but those tolls really shaq-fu up traffic.

Gee! Shaq-Fuing fun for the traffic... and I'm actually staying down in Alexandria since I've got a couple friends down there to see, so I'll have to hit 895 to get down.

As for Camden Yards, I'm pretty sure it's been dwindling with the introduction of the newer parks like pac bell, petco, safeco, and citizen's bank... but also the other thing is Camden Yards has a bigger capacity than a lot of the others as well.....

[PapiChullo]

Well, the O's have been pretty bad for the last 5 years at least. So the prices and attendance have gone along with their performance. They used to always have high attendance, because it's the only team in MD, and surrounding arease, like DE, VA, and DC. But since they've been sucking it up lately people have stopped going, but it's still one of the best parks in the majors.

[The Successful Dropout]

i live 10 minutes from baltimore...the orioles suck...wendys gives out free tickets w/ combo meals...no joke

[coffman]

As a life-long Orioles fan, I can say, unfortunately, that yes the Orioles are really bad. The thing is they actually have good hitting this year, but as usual their pitching sucks. I believe things really started getting bad for them when they let Mussina go to the Yankees. Maybe one of these days Angelos will learn that he needs to invest in pitching as well in order to keep his team competitive.

[Lootr2Core]

nice deal! MLB tickets arnt that expensive to begin with.

Well you come from brewers country, where they sell $1 seats....... I'm stuck in the high rent district with three of the biggest draws of the season in driving distance (Yankees, Phillies, and Red Sox), which aren't only tough tickets, but fairly pricey as well.

This is the first smaller market game I've been to in a while, I usually hit up NY, Philly, and LA to go to games, and this seems like an anomoly.


YOu consider Baltimore a 'smaller market' team? Sheesh what would you consider Kansas City?

The 48 Metropolitan Areas With a Population Above One Million, Ranked
#
Metropolitan Area
Population(s)
1 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA CMSA 20,124,377
2 Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, CA CMSA 15,781,273
3 Chicago-Gary-Kenosha, IL-IN-WI CMSA 8,809,846
4 Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV CMSA 7,285,206
5 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA CMSA 6,816,047
6 Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-DE-MD CMSA 5,988,348
7 Boston-Worcester-Lawrence, MA-NH-ME-CT CMSA 5,633,060
8 Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI CMSA 5,457,583
9 Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CMSA 4,802,463
10 Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX CMSA 4,407,579
11 Atlanta, GA MSA 3,746,059
12 Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL CMSA 3,655,844
13 Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, WA CMSA 3,424,361
14 Phoenix-Mesa, AZ MSA 2,931,004
15 Cleveland-Akron, OH CMSA 2,911,683
16 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI MSA 2,831,234
17 San Diego, CA MSA 2,780,592
18 St. Louis, MO-IL MSA 2,563,801
19 Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO CMSA 2,365,345
20 Pittsburgh, PA MSA 2,346,153
21 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA 2,256,559
22 Portland-Salem, OR-WA CMSA 2,149,056
23 Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN CMSA 1,948,264
24 Kansas City, MO-KS MSA 1,737,025
25 Sacramento-Yolo, CA CMSA 1,685,812
26 Milwaukee-Racine, WI CMSA 1,645,924
27 Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC MSA 1,542,143
28 San Antonio, TX MSA 1,538,338
29 Indianapolis, IN MSA 1,519,194
30 Orlando, FL MSA 1,504,569
31 Columbus, OH MSA 1,469,604
32 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC MSA 1,383,080
33 Las Vegas, NV-AZ MSA 1,321,546
34 New Orleans, LA MSA 1,309,445
35 Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT MSA 1,267,745
36 Greensboro--Winston-Salem--High Point, NC MSA 1,167,629
37 Nashville, TN MSA 1,156,225
38 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY MSA 1,152,541
39 Hartford, CT MSA 1,143,859
40 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA MSA 1,122,974
41 Austin-San Marcos, TX MSA 1,105,909
42 Memphis, TN-AR-MS MSA 1,093,427
43 Rochester, NY MSA 1,081,883
44 Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC MSA 1,079,873
45 Jacksonville, FL MSA 1,044,684
46 Oklahoma City, OK MSA 1,038,999
47 Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, MI MSA 1,037,933
48 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL MSA 1,032,625

[cleaver]

I frequently scalp Os tickets and since Cal retired you can barely give tickets away. There's a place to sell tickets without interference called the scalp free zone, where the people selling tickets outnumber the ones buying by about 5 to 1.
By comparison, the last time I tried to sell Ravens tickets two guys who wanted to buy my tickets actually got into a fistfight over them.

[BigDirty]

YOu consider Baltimore a 'smaller market' team? Sheesh what would you consider Kansas City?


But take out DC, NoVA and the very extraneous "Metropolitan" area and that dwindles Baltimore very far down the list. Like on the nielsen market listing DC is 8 and baltimore is 23 and kansas city, well that's 31. Click Here for the 210 Designated Markets (http://www.nielsenmedia.com/DMAs.html)

It's also the reason that the Orioles Management vehnimately opposes the Expos going to DC.

But from what I gather, this is going to be a very empty game.

[Lootr2Core]

YOu consider Baltimore a 'smaller market' team? Sheesh what would you consider Kansas City?


But take out DC, NoVA and the very extraneous "Metropolitan" area and that dwindles Baltimore very far down the list. Like on the nielsen market listing DC is 8 and baltimore is 23 and kansas city, well that's 31. Click Here for the 210 Designated Markets (http://www.nielsenmedia.com/DMAs.html)

It's also the reason that the Orioles Management vehnimately opposes the Expos going to DC.

But from what I gather, this is going to be a very empty game.

Why would you take out DC now? I understand about not wanting another team to come into the market, but the reason the owner doesn't want a team in DC is that he considers that his market. So if the Orioles consider DC part of their market why wouldn't you?

[Lootr2Core]

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/baseball_markets.shtml

Baseball Almanac isn't quite sure either! Sometimes television ratings are used to describe markets and other times its population. Even the latter can be misused as it might or might not include adjacent cities. Al Streit discusses this exact topic and provides us with a very insightful look into Baseball Markets and their numbers as compared to the other major league sporting venues.

Baseball Markets

by Al Streit
An Analysis

In the early part of the 21st century, Major League Baseball finds itself the professional sport confined almost entirely to the largest consolidated statistical metropolitan areas (CSMAs) in the United States and Canada. While the other three major professional team sports in North America have numerous franchises in metropolitan areas with fewer than 2 million people, only three major league baseball teams are situated in such locales: the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers.

In what follows, the size of the particular CSMA is given, together with the baseball team(s) in that area. American League teams are shown in red and National League teams in blue. Cities shown in black italics represent metropolitan areas without major league baseball, but home to NBA basketball, NFL football, and / or NHL hockey teams.

Markets of more than 10 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

21,199,865 New York Mets, New York Yankees
16,373,645 Anaheim Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers

Markets of 5-10 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

9,157,540 Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox
7,608,070 Baltimore Orioles
7,039,362 Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants
6,188,463 Philadelphia Phillies
5,819,100 Boston Red Sox
5,456,428 Detroit Tigers
5,221,801 Texas Rangers

Markets of 3-5 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

4,682,897 Toronto Blue Jays
4,669,571 Houston Astros
4,112,198 Atlanta Braves
3,878,380 Florida Marlins
3,554,760 Seattle Mariners
3,426,350 Montreal Expos (Montreal)
3,251,876 Arizona Diamondbacks

Markets of 2-3 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

2,968,806 Minnesota Twins
2,945,831 Cleveland Indians
2,813,833 San Diego Padres
2,603,607 St Louis Cardinals
2,581,506 Colorado Rockies
2,450,292 Montreal Expos (San Juan)
2,395,997 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
2,358,695 Pittsburgh Pirates
2,265,223 Portland, OR

Markets of 1-2 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

1,986,965 Vancouver, BC
1,979,202 Cincinnati Reds
1,796,857 Sacramento, CA
1,776,062 Kansas City Royals
1,689,572 Milwaukee Brewers
1,644,561 Orlando, FL
1,607,486 Indianapolis, IN
1,592,383 San Antonio, TX
1,540,157 Columbus, OH
1,499,293 Charlotte, NC
1,337,726 New Orleans, LA
1,333,914 Salt Lake City, UT
1,231,311 Nashville, TN
1,187,941 Raleigh, NC
1,170,111 Buffalo, NY
1,135.614 Memphis, TN
1,100,491 Jacksonville, FL
1,063,664 Ottawa, ON

Markets of fewer than 1 million people
--------------------------------------------------------------

951,395 Calgary, AB
937,845 Edmonton, AB
599,671 Green Bay, WI

[alfonsosoriano]

nice deal! MLB tickets arnt that expensive to begin with.

Well you come from brewers country, where they sell $1 seats....... I'm stuck in the high rent district with three of the biggest draws of the season in driving distance (Yankees, Phillies, and Red Sox), which aren't only tough tickets, but fairly pricey as well.

This is the first smaller market game I've been to in a while, I usually hit up NY, Philly, and LA to go to games, and this seems like an anomoly.

Oh man, the Yankees are the worst for tickets. That's why I can hardly go. The tickets would be in the upper deck way up or in the bleachers.

[Lootr2Core]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1599


Everyone please check out this article, a wonderful idea.

[BigDirty]

I frequently scalp Os tickets and since Cal retired you can barely give tickets away. There's a place to sell tickets without interference called the scalp free zone, where the people selling tickets outnumber the ones buying by about 5 to 1.
By comparison, the last time I tried to sell Ravens tickets two guys who wanted to buy my tickets actually got into a fistfight over them.

Where is this mystical Scalp-Free zone? The seller of my tickets for sunday backed out, and if I can get a deal on site, it'd be sweet.

[cleaver]

I frequently scalp Os tickets and since Cal retired you can barely give tickets away. There's a place to sell tickets without interference called the scalp free zone, where the people selling tickets outnumber the ones buying by about 5 to 1.
By comparison, the last time I tried to sell Ravens tickets two guys who wanted to buy my tickets actually got into a fistfight over them.

Where is this mystical Scalp-Free zone? The seller of my tickets for sunday backed out, and if I can get a deal on site, it'd be sweet.

Across the street from Pickles; the opposite side of the stadium as the warehouse.

[BigDirty]

I frequently scalp Os tickets and since Cal retired you can barely give tickets away. There's a place to sell tickets without interference called the scalp free zone, where the people selling tickets outnumber the ones buying by about 5 to 1.
By comparison, the last time I tried to sell Ravens tickets two guys who wanted to buy my tickets actually got into a fistfight over them.

Where is this mystical Scalp-Free zone? The seller of my tickets for sunday backed out, and if I can get a deal on site, it'd be sweet.

Across the street from Pickles; the opposite side of the stadium as the warehouse.

Sort of along the third base line? (Just trying to get bearings straight) Which also reminds me... Stub Hub is NOT a good place to buy tickets from. They use that Half.com model, and leave you hanging......

[Southberm]

you cant get lower level behind plate at shea or yankee stadium without getting season tickets or slipping the guy 20 bucks on a non important game