I was a little confused this morning when I read Ed Sherman’s interview with Tom Ricketts. In it, Ricketts said that the Cubs’ meagre attendance numbers had more to do with the soggy weather than the crappy baseball.
When you play most of your home games in 45 degrees and it’s wet, I’m sorry, I can understand why some people don’t want to come out. That’s been the driver here. Once we get some spring weather, people will want to be at the park.
This struck me as either incredibly naive or intentionally evasive, but I wanted to give Ricketts the chance to clear up that and some of his other more confusing statements (such as “I can’t stand it when I hear someone say they can’t afford to go to a game. It might be hard to get tickets for a Yankees or Sox game, but there’s no reason why they can’t afford to go another game.” Really, Tom? No reason anyone can’t afford to go to a game where the average ticket price is $FU?). Unfortunately, the terms of a certain restraining order don’t allow me to conduct one-on-one conversations with Cubs ownership, whoever that may be. So I did the next best thing:
I got a hold of @NotTomRicketts. I can usually count on him to be pretty straightforward, honest, and direct, especially when it comes to the subject of buying Cubs tickets. Here’s my Q&A with him that should help set the record straight.
April 2011 was the least sunniest April in Chicago history. How much do you think that has impacted ticket sales in the early going this season?
Tremendously. As you know, some of the finest meteorologists work here in Chicago and they were all predicting back in February that this would be a dreary April. I’m certain Tom Skilling and his cohorts scared a few people off from buying tickets in advance. Then when it turned out the weather predictions were correct, few people came out on the day of game. I mean, remember that Mother’s Day game against the Reds where we drew 31,000 or so? Can you really expect people to show up to a weekend sunny game with temperatures in the 60s against a division rival? What can you do about that? You can’t beat science.
Which do you think is more directly to blame for the Cubs poor performance thus far: bad weather or poor attendance?
The weather. Definitely the weather. Because, as I mentioned, the weather is primarily responsible for keeping the people away from the ballpark and that creates a dead atmosphere that the players don’t like. They need to feel that energy from the crowd to get clutch hits. Ari Kaplan tells me that the Cubs are batting .456 in clutch situations at home during sunny days when the crowd noise is “electric.” I know the games aren’t played on Ari’s statsheets, but he makes a compelling argument.
Who owns the Cubs?
This again. You bloggers never quit with this question do you? Can’t you just take our word like the mainstream media does? I’ll tell you what . . . I’m going to tell you a little secret . . . nobody fucking knows. If you look at the paperwork that completed the transfer from the Tribune, it is a mess of legalese that none of us understand. “Wherein the party of the first part agrees forthwith to the party of the second part on Article VI, subsection D, blah blah blah . . . ” Even Pete can’t figure out what the hell is going on and he is way smarter than me at this business stuff. I just tell everyone I’m the Executive Chairman and hope nobody fact checks it. But that information probably shouldn’t leave your mother’s basement.
Some people have accused this front office of putting too much pressure on Starlin Castro. To prove them wrong, list five players in the history of the game who had more potential than he does to save a floundering franchise.
(At this point, NotTomRicketts mumbled something about Babe Ruth and then trailed off. Read into that what you will.)
Did you miscalculate fan interest when you set the prices for Cubs tickets this offseason?
Not at all. We kept the overall average ticket price flat. We cannot stress that enough. On average, it costs the same amount to go to a Cubs game this year as it did last year. Last year was a shitty team. Let’s not pretend that last year wasn’t a complete joke that was all Lou’s fault. Now we have made a few solid moves and brought in a new staff ace in Matt Garza, good clubhouse guy Carlos Pena, and some old fan favorites back into the fold to make the team better. So fans are getting a better, more likable team that should be able to contend for the same amount as last year’s crap team. So, once again, if the ticket sales are down, it must be the weather.
What do you say to people who can’t afford to pay $60 a ticket or who think the ballpark concessions are too expensive?
We can’t have everything we want in life. For instance, I wanted the state to fork over $250 million to us to renovate Wrigley Field and build a bunch of revenue-driving shops and stuff out on Clark Street, but it didn’t happen. Did I whine and complain that the state wouldn’t give me the money? Well sure I did, we’re talking about $250 million being taken away from me and these people are complaining about $60 seats? Cry me a river. We went and provided plenty of cheap seats for people on budgets to come out to the ballpark, and did they show up for that Monday, April 4th game against the craptastic Diamondbacks? No. The 500 section up in the pigeon poop and spiderwebs was practically empty that day. And that was a pretty decent 47 degree day. That ain’t bad for April in Chicago, so I’m not sure what else people want.
Tickets are being priced on the secondary market for what some people would call reasonable market prices, substantially below face value. Is that fair to the fans who paid full price, and do you plan to offer a discount to make it up to your best customers?
It is probably not fair to our best customers since they paid full price way back in January before all this weather nonsense got started, but let’s face it, our best customers regularly bring their own baloney sandwiches with them to munch on while sitting in their crappy seat and cost us concession revenue. So I’m not all that inclined to bend over backwards for those people. Life isn’t always fair, or so I’ve been told from people who don’t have a billionaire father.
If ticket sales fail to rebound, who in this organization will take the fall for the disappointment?
Is Tom Skilling part of the organization? I think we may still have enough influence on the Tribune to get his ass fired. Otherwise, Todd says he knows a guy who fixes problems. That has nothing to do with anything, really. Todd just likes to brag.
Which is more likely to improve on a sustained basis: the Chicago weather or the Chicago Cubs?
I really think we are on the right course here. Ken Rosenthal also agrees with me, so I don’t think there is any rational argument otherwise at this point. Our plan of trading away valuable members of the minor leagues while simultaneously relying on prospects taken way above their consensus draft slot to perform at the major league level can’t possibly fail. I believe that. It’s what gets me through the nights. Say, you wouldn’t want to buy any Cubs tickets for the next homestand, would you? The weather should be much better. I’ve got bleachers, I’ve got Club Box, I’ve got all the good seats. Make me an offer. Please?
Comments
[quote name=Muck Muckintuck]Does Al Yellon really believe himself to be that interesting of a person, that he can write…[/quote]
http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2011/5/16/2172190/the-wreck-of-the-chicago-cubs
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
[quote name=AndCounting]New stuff:
http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/articles/not-tom-ricketts-clarifies-statements-on-attendance.html%5B/quote%5D
Nice try.
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
[quote name=Jame Gumb]Nice try.[/quote]Please don’t allow me to break the stride of the, and really I can’t tell you enough what it means to read some of the things you quoted from that bleeding mess of prose, conversation in which only my sheer morbid fascination with exposing my eyes to that verbal train wreck could keep me from looking away, because it may have been the greatest example of personal failure parading as success I’ve ever seen in the post-sports-history world, barring, of course, everything Charlie Sheen has done since the hiatus of Two and a Half Men.
AndCountingQuote Reply
Wow, I thought I had rambled on quite a bit, but that sentence/paragraph would have been short by Al’s standards.
AndCountingQuote Reply
(dying laughing) It won’t be long before he is literally begging people to show up there.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=AndCounting]Wow, I thought I had rambled on quite a bit, but that sentence/paragraph would have been short by Al’s standards.[/quote]Al doesn’t see a difference between sentences and paragraphs.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=AndCounting]Wow, I thought I had rambled on quite a bit, but that sentence/paragraph would have been short by Al’s standards.[/quote]
It’s not easy being a faget.
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
The Cubs should have known about the weather because Mike Quade asked Tom Skilling in February so he could set his May lineups and tell veterans that they won’t play on rain-filled days.
That’s seriously the longest sentence I could conjure, and it’s a bout a tenth of an Al sentence.
MishQuote Reply
[quote name=Mish]That’s seriously the longest sentence I could conjure, and it’s a bout a tenth of an Al sentence.[/quote]
That’s because you’re not descriptive enough…
[quote name=Mish]The Cubs — whom we’re used to seeing not be on top of the news, which is to say they’re always behind — should have known about the inclement weather because Mike Quade (note: I didn’t make the Total Recall [a cheesy sci-fi movie released in 1990 staring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is now the governor of California] Hauser/Quaid joke) asked Tom Skilling (not Tom Skerritt of Top Gun [homoerotic jet movie] and Mash [what I did to my penis when I watched Top Gun] fame) in February, which is spelled with two Rs, so he could set his May lineups and tell veterans, of baseball, not war, that they won’t play on rain-filled days.[/quote].
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
[quote name=Mish]The Cubs should have known about the weather because Mike Quade asked Tom Skilling in February so he could set his May lineups and tell veterans that they won’t play on rain-filled days.
That’s seriously the longest sentence I could conjure, and it’s a bout a tenth of an Al sentence.[/quote]The key is just to write a parenthetical description about every semi-significant word in the sentence. That and not having the slightest concern about the mental welfare of your readers.
AndCountingQuote Reply
Yellon owns 43 % of Comma Inc. He’s just trying to rep his brand
dylanjQuote Reply
Nicely done AC. I can’t wait until those box seats I had on that shitty April evening against the Rockies go on sale for $1.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Famous sentence:
That was high school freshman English and I am not a native English speaker and even I knew that sentence was fucked up.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
However, Charles Dickens still >>>>>>>>>>> Yellon.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I actually can’t stand Dickens but i haven’t read him in years.
MishQuote Reply
[quote name=Mish]I actually can’t stand Dickens but i haven’t read him in years.[/quote]
It took me nine weeks to get through “David Copperfield” because it was so boring. I had to read it for a project and I kept telling my teacher to postpone the exam (individual report) because I literally couldn’t get through more than two pages at a time.
But Charles Dickens is superior to Yellon almost by default.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]However, Charles Dickens still >>>>>>>>>>> Yellon.[/quote]RC, that was probably also one of the greatest English sentences ever composed. (It seems fitting to refer to it in the superlative.) While lengthy, it establishes a single thought about an era from the very beginning of a novel.
/DickensHigh
AndCountingQuote Reply
[quote name=AndCounting]RC, that was probably also one of the greatest English sentences ever composed. (It seems fitting to refer to it in the superlative.) While lengthy, it establishes a single thought about an era from the very beginning of a novel.
/DickensHigh[/quote]
I don’t dispute that, but the only reason I remember it is because it was so atrociously long (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]The only reason I remember it is because it was so atrociously long (dying laughing)[/quote]TWSS
AndCountingQuote Reply
I guess I did kind of back into that one…
…and TWSS.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]I don’t dispute that, but the only reason I remember it is because it was so atrociously long (dying laughing)[/quote]
There are perfectly well-constructed sentences that are long, but Al just doesn’t ever seem to know the difference between those and plain run-on sentences.
Aisle424Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21](dying laughing) It won’t be long before he is literally begging people to show up there.[/quote]
They gave something like 200 free tickets to my university after they turned down a proposal from the school. Tickets are being handed out like dot.com stock options in the late 90s.
Aisle424Quote Reply
If any of you are on the Cubs.com mailing list, do you have any idea why they are pushing the September series against the Astros so early in the year?
Oh wait, it might be a random generator. This other e-mail they sent is for the May series against the Mets. Weird.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
[quote name=Jame Gumb]The Cubs — whom we’re used to seeing not be on top of the news, which is to say they’re always behind — should have known about the inclement weather because Mike Quade (note: I didn’t make the Total Recall [a cheesy sci-fi movie released in 1990 staring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is now the governor of California] Hauser/Quaid joke) asked Tom Skilling (not Tom Skerritt of Top Gun [homoerotic jet movie] and Mash [what I did to my penis when I watched Top Gun] fame) in February, which is spelled with two Rs, so he could set his May lineups and tell veterans, of baseball, not war, that they won’t play on rain-filled days.[/quote]
[quote name=Chuck Dickens]It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.[/quote]
Dr. Aneus TaintQuote Reply
Is @NotTomRicketts a real fake twitter acct?
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Suburban Kid]Is @NotTomRicketts a real fake twitter acct?[/quote]
Is that like a fake Twitter account that really exists?
Aisle424Quote Reply
[quote name=Aisle424]Is that like a fake Twitter account that really exists?[/quote]
No, I meant a genuinely phony twitter account.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Nice snark.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Suburban Kid]Is @NotTomRicketts a real fake twitter acct?[/quote]
http://twitter.com/#!/NotTomRicketts
BerseliusQuote Reply
[quote name=Berselius]http://twitter.com/#!/NotTomRicketts[/quote]That’s all I wanted to know. Thanks, Berselius.
(dying laughing)
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Suburban Kid]Is @NotTomRicketts a real fake twitter acct?[/quote]is@nottomrickettsarealfaketwitteracct.com
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]is@nottomrickettsarealfaketwitteracct.com[/quote]Once again, I failed to pre-URL my question. I’m shitty at starting new sub-memes.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
preview up: http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/previews/series-preview-chicago-cubs-17-21-at-cincinnati-reds-23-17.html
BerseliusQuote Reply