Cardinals Raise Every Single Ticket Price

So all those billion dollar TV deals you’ve been hearing about in baseball the past year? Like with the Dodgers, Yankees and Angels? 

Well the Cardinals don’t have one of those.

Worse, the Cardinals just re-upped a couple of seasons ago with Fox Sports Midwest right before the TV rights deals started exploding and are now in the midst of a long term deal that will take them right to the precipice of this decade.

Uh-oh.

Uncle Bill and his increasingly pushed to the forefront son (The Third) aren’t happy when they’re not making money. And right now, they know they left probably 8-15 million dollars per year on the table by negotiating a deal when they did.

Part of it was bad timing. Part of it was lack of foresight that I don’t know if the aforementioned teams had. All of it means the Cardinals are going to make that perceived deficit up.

OHAI, you see where the Cardinals are raising every single ticket in the ballpark for 2013? You see where Bill DeWitt III admitted this was above inflation? Yeah. That happened.

But, PEOPLE, there is NO WAY that the Cardinals can be competitive unless you come to the ballpark and buy these tickets. Or at least that’s the talking point that the Cardinals are hammering home.

You know, because they don’t make any money off of the national TV deal, merchandise sales, concessions, parking, in-stadium advertising, corporate sponsorships, radio, MLB online, banquet events at the stadium, lottery scratcher tickets, postseason bonus’, rights leases to use logo or anything.

It’s their business. The Cardinals are free to charge a billion dollars to sit behind home plate. If they get someone to pay for it, more power to them.

But don’t feed me this bullshit that you NEED to raise ticket prices to stay competitive. Because you NEED to raise ticket prices to make more money. You were profitable in 2012. You’ll be more profitable in 2013. We’re all adults here and paying an extra buck or two is fair for the entertainment value you’ve provided the past several years.

Yet something tells me you aren’t lowering ticket prices as soon as you become un-competitive. This isn't a two way street. It happens to be in context now because the Cardinals are competitive. Someday it won't, though. And, yet, you'll still want 3 million+ people coming into Busch Stadium.

Call a spade a spade: the Cardinals are looking to become more profitable. And we're going to help.

Like it or not.

We don't need a spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down. Spare us the PR. We're old enough to know the deal.