On Monday, Colts fans can buy tickets to one or more of the 10 individual games on the team’s home slate for 2014. But to get tickets to one of the games, fans must buy tickets to another game.
The team announced that seats for the latest showdown with the Patriots can be had only by buying tickets to another game on the schedule. The good news? It’s the Giants. Bad news? It’s a preseason game.
Last year, Colts owner Jim Irsay justified the application of the same prices to preseason and regular-season tickets by arguing that the value evens out over the full course of 10 games. By forcing fans who want to see the most valuable game on the 2014 docket to buy tickets to a far less valuable game, the Colts are applying a form of flexible pricing, essentially doubling the cost of the Patriots game -- especially if Patriots fans will be buying any of the tickets.
It would be more sensible to simply adopt flexible pricing. Approved to be used for the first time in the coming season, several teams (including the Steelers, Bills, Lions, Patriots, and Dolphins) have opted to slide prices up and down based on the perceived quality of the game.
The Patriots will visit Indianapolis on November 16 for a game currently due to kickoff at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC. That could change under the concept of flexible scheduling, which begins in theory as early as Week Five in 2014.
