Phil Castellini: "Both renewals and new ticket sales are up significantly"

[Hoosier Red]

There would be, if MLB had a similar system as the NFL where all TV revenue is shared equally amongst all teams. It's very simple: MLB doesn't care about parity/fairness; the NFL does. It's not hard to see why one has emerged as clearly our nation's favorite professional sport.

It's a little bit chicken and egg too, but the NFL doesn't have any "local" media(aside from Radio which I believe the team's actually keep.) But because the NFL TV and internet deals are sold as all or none, then there truly is no local media contracts.

On the other hand, in baseball, 30 different teams are selling 30 different ad packages. Not only does this cause the networks to spend additional money overall(there are two sets of announcers at virtually every game) but on some level it encourages a company like DirectTV, which has a significant stake in the Fox Sports Network, to attempt to keep individual contracts low. They don't want FSN Milwaukee to pay $100 million and FSN Cincinnati to pay $50 million. Soon the Reds will be demanding a deal similar to what the Brewers get. Meanwhile, teams who do not have a deal with FSN(name the city) get more money because their networks are dependent on the teams doing well. YES network in particular probably has a vested interest in raising the Yankees competitive advantage.

So on one hand, the baseball system is inequitable, on the other hand, it probably brings in more TV revenue than it could otherwise.

[traderumor]

As I recall, it's one of the worst contracts of any baseball team (bottom 1/3).
I know the Indians do bettter than us.

It was really encouraging to see such strong ratings gains last year on FSN. This will put the Reds in a good position to negotiate future TV deals.

I hope the Reds see a good attendence bump next year. I plan to take my family after a long absence, however, I've been burned by buying tickets in advance and then seeing Steve Parris, etc.. So my policy is to always buy tickets a couple days befre.

Try showing up expecting to see Elmer Dessens on a July 4 game and show up to see Jared Fernandez instead. :thumbdown Then it seemed like we drew Haranag every time for awhile.

That all kinda got left in the dust last year, though, as our only game we were able to do turned out to the be Sunday complete game win by Bronson and we got to watch the standings change to the Reds going into 1st place for the first time.

[OnBaseMachine]

More from Fay, with quotes from Bob Castellini.

Update: Literally seconds after I posted this, I got this from one of my regular emailers:

“Just ordered my 20 game pack. I’ve never owned season tickets to any team. The way the reds are run and the success on the field made my decision for me. The ticket people on the phone were great to work with.”

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/201...ssage-to-fans/

[Griffey012]

More from Fay, with quotes from Bob Castellini.



http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/201...ssage-to-fans/

I am moving to Cincinnati in about a week to start a new job. Once I get some money put away I plan on purchasing a 20 pack also, can't wait.

[REDREAD]

Try showing up expecting to see Elmer Dessens on a July 4 game and show up to see Jared Fernandez instead. :thumbdown Then it seemed like we drew Haranag every time for awhile.
.

I think I ended up seeing Paris like 4 times in a row!
One time, I even waited until the day of the game. Neagle was listed as the starter. Even verified on my way out. Get to the park, Neagle was scratched for PARIS, who gave up 4-5 runs in the first 3 innings.. I was so pissed.
That might've actually been the last game I saw in Cincy.. Neagle was dumped later and I was convinced that we were never going to have a decent season as long as John Allen was running the team.

At least now, the team is pretty solid 1-5 in the rotation. There's no starting pitcher that you see projected and think "well, this is an automatic loss".
With my luck though, if I bought an advance ticket, I'd end up getting Maloney or LeCure

[Blitz Dorsey]

As a Reds fan who also has the misfortune of rooting for the Bengals, it's good to know that at least one of my teams is run properly.

[Matt700wlw]

The Reds have to be watching the Bengals absolute trainwreck of a 3 weeks and saying "thank you."

The Bengals loss most definitely could add to the Reds gain.

[WVRedsFan]

As I recall, it's one of the worst contracts of any baseball team (bottom 1/3).
I know the Indians do bettter than us.

It was really encouraging to see such strong ratings gains last year on FSN. This will put the Reds in a good position to negotiate future TV deals.

I hope the Reds see a good attendence bump next year. I plan to take my family after a long absence, however, I've been burned by buying tickets in advance and then seeing Steve Parris, etc.. So my policy is to always buy tickets a couple days befre.

That could change with winning the division and all. It always seems to be the case. But you have to understand that money is tight, not only for the man on the street, but also for businesses. My business is running at a break even pace where it was showing a healthy profit three years ago. Given that, there is not a lot of money that people have to spend on recreation. I live 300 miles away, and a trip to a game costs me roughly $600. You guys who live close by only spend about $100, but that's real money in this economy.

In a small market, the FSN is the best deal for the Reds regardless of the money. In the old days when WLW-T had the network, Reds fans only got to see their favorite team maybe 50 times a year. Now you can see virtually every game. That will build into somewhat of a following. I've noticed the bars in the area now have the Reds on every night (not that I would know ). Used to be the Braves, years ago. Now that FSN pretty much controls the games, access is important and a winning product will increase that take for the Red$.

[redsmetz]

Story on the Reds increased sales in today's Business Courier:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnat....html?ana=e_ph

[redsfandan]

As I recall, it's one of the worst contracts of any baseball team (bottom 1/3).
I know the Indians do bettter than us.

It was really encouraging to see such strong ratings gains last year on FSN. This will put the Reds in a good position to negotiate future TV deals.

Does anyone know when the Reds current contract with FSN expires? I thought it was soon.

[WebScorpion]

All I can say is: Hey oh, way to go, O-hi-o!

[OnBaseMachine]

From Mo Egger:

Reds sold 3x the previous select-a-seat record at today's event. No word on whether they'll officially thank Mike Brown.

http://twitter.com/MoEgger1530

[TOBTTReds]

No word on whether they'll officially thank Mike Brown.

http://twitter.com/MoEgger1530

Officially, no. Internally, heck yeah!

[Ron Madden]

Hal McCoy says 2.8 million is the target for 2011.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayto...l?cxtype=ybuzz

[The Operator]

Hal McCoy says 2.8 million is the target for 2011.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayto...l?cxtype=ybuzz

Off the top of my head, that would be around 35,000 per game.

I'd love it but I don't know if I expect that just yet.