October 26, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Ryan,
think any remaining items would be related to semantics or preference as opposed to real disagreements
I agree, but I forgot one comment, you said earlier:
Good discussion. I never expected discussions about economics.
No one expects the discussions about economics, our main weapon is surprise...and fear...our two weapons are...
You get the idea.
JimFive.
October 26, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I'm so impressed with the basic understanding of economics by some of us "techies". I thought I might be the only one proposing a solution involving MUCH higher ticket prices and/or auctions. My hat is off to you all - excellent application of theory going on here!
The beauty of higher prices is that the proceeds of the sale would go back to the Rockies, enabling them to obtain/retain better players over time, increasing the likelihood that they would make additional trips to the World Series. As the supply of world series tickets increase over time, the price could come down again as the demand receded in the face of additional World Series berths on a semi-regular basis. (Think Yankees model.) I'm not suggesting we would be on equal footing with New York or other larger markets, but at least we have a chance of keeping our best players as they transition to free-agency.
The underlying theory is that producers don't set prices. Consumers set prices! All the Rockies have done by charging a lower amount than the market will bear is create an artificial "shortage". This would be just as maddening if they tried to sell tickets for $1,000,000 each. Almost nobody would attend the game.
I don't care if the Rockies want to sell tickets for $0.01 each, but if they are going to sell for less than the market will bear, they should anticipate shortages and create a lottery system to deal with it. That is the only fair thing to do.
The really shocking part of all of this is that the law of supply and demand is an economics/business 101 concept. Why are the Rockies/MLB being run by seemingly incompetent people who don't understand such simple concepts?
Perhaps someone should tell the Monforts about a great organization we have here in Colorado called The Independence Institute(http://www.i2i.org) which offers a basic economics course for a mere $75 that explains such things: Free People Free Markets (http://www.freepeoplefreemarkets.org/).
Adam
October 26, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Just have to share this story from the early days of Ticketron. They were an early computerized event ticketing service in the Mid-Atlantic US area. Ticketron offered ticketing terminals to various business such as video stores, supermarkets or department stores. They're no longer in business having been acquired in 1991.
Ticketron quickly became the only alternative to camping out at the arena. Instead people began to camp out in the parking lot of their local video store. They expected quicker access to the better tickets but it was discovered that the employees where the Ticketron terminals were located quickly became adept at skimming off the cream of the tickets. Often, the first two minutes of a ticket sale was used to buy, buy, buy as tickets came out front row first. These tickets often went to a local scalper who established "informal" relationships to build their inventory. This happened for years and when the news broke people were distraught that this "computerized" system wasn't really fair.
Do I think we can create fair system for digital goods or even traditional items such as sports tickets? Yes I do, but it will take a lot of thought and effort.
Peter Shire
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