I've said this before but I think it bears repeating here: my season ticket gives me very little value, except to know that I support professional soccer in Ohio. I guess I'll get MLS Season Pass this year, a $99 value. If I didn't have a season ticket, I'd be able to buy tickets at or below face value to almost every game and then I'd get to move around and try different sections of the stadium. My season ticket usually won't sell at face value (I usually give it away if I can't make a game) and they've done away with the ticket exchange policy. If you're looking for value: buy tickets match-by-match and you'll be much better off. Lurk around here and reddit and there's tons of people who, like me, can't make many matches and are looking to get tickets in other fans hands at face value or less. I get tickets for my coworkers frequently. I pretty much never have a problem finding them something better than I've got. I wish the team would do better by season ticket holders. It was honestly better at old Crew stadium when we got more perks.
I think you're on a slightly different subject here, but... Regarding the exchange policy, if you can sell the ticket via the TicketMaster app, it's essentially the old exchange policy, is it not? You're just exchanging it to someone you don't know and receiving cash back. But yeah, the exchange policy was nice. (I guess that's one benefit to being in the Nordecke with GA seating and the FB exchange group.) Personally, I figure if I'm going to most every game (it seems I miss 1-2 per year), I might as well save the money off individual tickets and get a renewal item. Plus, they usually have a STM party of some sort. I often wonder how much of these changes are the league telling teams what they can/can't do. It'd absolutely make sense for a smaller market like Columbus or KC to have things reasonable for the market that may not need apply in cities like LA, Atlanta or NY. OTOH, if we had $600 season seats instead of that same seat being, say, $850, it might sell, but at what cost to the roster?
Would've had to knock out some seats. Field is a little too narrow for World Cup (Finals or Qualifiers). literally okay for any other soccer game.
you could always resell the ticket on sites like StubHub though. And you’re not guaranteed to be able to sell your ticket for what you paid for it even at the STM rate. Least they could do is waive the Ticketmaster seller fees for STM
Would it be difficult for them to sell something like this? You get 17 coupons for a certain price level. (Nordecke and premium seating options not eligible. Basically just the corners, lower sidelines up to the 18 and upper sections would be eligible.) Coupons can be redeemed starting a week before a specific game for that pre-sold price level. Blackouts (marquee opponents/dates) apply. What you do get: 17 vouchers to "use as you wish" in a specific zone. Season ticket pricing. What you don't get: Season ticket holder parties, presales, renewal items or discounts. The ability to get specific games at special pricing. If you want those games, you're at the whim of the market. The same seat all season. Any sort of monthly payment plan. Divide into two payments, sure...divide into seven or eight? Nope. If a family of 4-5 people knows they can't make all the games, because of school, summer travel, whatever, this might be a viable option.
We did the same. Last year for some games we ended up donating to them to a few fund raising auction events, and included my parking. This way I at least felt like there was some sort of value in those tickets. In 2006 the WC tickets had our names printed on them which made things somewhat tricky for the secondary market, because they said they were going to ask for ID at the gate. That lasted for all of 30seconds because the ingress to the stadiums for that WC was already very slow.
The Crew had the 5th highest fan cost per team in MLS for 2022. Tickets and concessions aren't cheap in Columbus, we're more expensive than LA Galaxy or both NY teams. https://theathletic.com/3983648/2022/12/08/mls-teams-costs-fans/
Pricier than Cincy I get (IIRC, the cost of living in major Ohio cities goes Columbus > Cincinnati > Cleveland), but higher than NY or LA?!
Wait a minute... our AVERAGE ticket price is $346? Is that because there are a bunch of fancy seats that are so expensive that they wildly skew the average?
Here's an explanation of the FCI statistic https://www.statista.com/statistics/202584/nfl--fan-cost-index/