NATIONALS NOTEBOOK
Prices on Some Tickets To Be Reduced in 2010
Partly because of the economy and partly because of a 100-loss season, Nats fans won't have to reach deeper into their pockets to attend games next year.
(By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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Saturday, September 26, 2009
Preparing for their third season at Nationals Park, the Washington Nationals announced their 2010 season ticket prices on Friday, lowering the cost of roughly 2,000 outfield seats and leaving all other prices virtually identical to 2009.
An additional 1,000 high-level outfield seats have been reduced strictly under the half- and partial-season ticket plans.
The most noteworthy pricing change is fairly simple: This year, season tickets for the left field box -- sections 103-107, where Josh Willingham scatters most of his homers -- went for $25 per game. Next year, they'll go for $20.
The other noteworthy change at the 41,888-seat ballpark will affect the priciest sections -- including the presidents seats, located just behind home plate, which have often remained half-empty. In 2010, presidents seats ($300) will remain the same, but there won't be as many of them. The team will carve what it calls a home plate box section ($150) into two portions of the presidents seats.
For the diamond seats ($150), the team will follow a similar plan, creating in the farthest corners of that section the home plate reserved seats ($75). For all other sections, full season ticket prices remain the same.
"I don't know that [the prices are] ever perfect, because it's always depending on what the market conditions are," Nationals President Stan Kasten said. "In this past year, we've had to deal with not just a 100-loss team, but also the turmoil in the market because of the economy. That won't always be the case, and our decisions year-to-year will always involve how the economy is doing as well as how our product is doing. At the end of the day it will come down to demand."
Through 74 home dates this year, the Nationals have averaged 22,566 fans, down from their 2008 average of 29,005. This year, for the first time since the team relocated to Washington, it declined to release the size of its season ticket base.
Kasten on Friday called the fan support "tremendous," adding that it "just supports everything I've thought about this market since I came. It's going to be huge once we get our job done on the field, which we haven't done yet. But once we do, this is going to be fantastic."
One More Turn
Left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler will get one more start this season, taking the ball Monday in the series opener against the Mets. Since his September call-up, Detwiler, who is nearing his limit for innings in 2009, has looked far more polished than he did during 10 first-half starts, compiling a 2.84 ERA this month (three games, two starts).
