From Shaughnessy:
QUOTE
Tom Werner, one of the Red Sox owners -- and the man who oversees the television arm of the organization -- said, ''We don't want to exclude people who can't afford cable, but we don't want to give free tickets to people, either. We have to balance that concern.
Free tickets? Since when did one game a week on a local station constitute a free ticket? I realize that this is going to generate more income for the club, but at the same time it continues a trend at the ballpark of making decisions in the name of the almighty dollar.
I was in a discussion the other day with a friend of mine who pointed out that the Sox don't do any sort of giveaways like the other MLB clubs. Now, many of those giveaways are undertaken as a way of bringing fans to the ballpark, which the Sox don't need to worry about. However, I feel like more and more Fenway and the Red Sox are becoming elitist. The best seats are going to the corporations, and ticket prices are obscene. I'm willing to pay high ticket prices, but it's just sad to see all the corporate bigwigs shootin' the breeze when the diehards and lifelongs are at home talking to their television. (Think about the moneyed friend of Jimmy Fallon in "Fever Pitch").
