Nelson Algren said it best: Never play cards with a man called Doc, never eat at a place called Mom’s, never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own, and never start spewing stuff about economics when you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. Here’s SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi on the Giants’ new dynamic ticket pricing:
. . . it just seems downright wrong that you should be made to pay more for a baseball game because it’s a “great day for baseball.” It seems exploitative that you should be made to cough up extra dollars when Tim Lincecum is on the mound; will we be given a deep discount when Zito is pitching or Pablo Sandoval takes a day off? Further following the airline model, will we be charged extra for using the restroom? Do clean seats cost more? Do I have to pay extra to stay out of the all-felon, all-drunk, all-jerks talking loudly about work on their iPhone section?
Baseball writer/economics professor J.C. Bradbury schools him:
I’m not really all that sympathetic. People are paying a price for a product they value at that price or higher, I’m not seeing a downside. You used to be able to buy something you valued more for less, and now you have to pay a higher price that is still equivalent to or less than what you value the product. And when the product is a baseball game, cry me a river in the name of social justice.
OK, that was the fun part, not the schooling part. For that you’ll have to click through and read why it makes perfect sense -- for everyone -- for teams to do the dynamic pricing thing.