Between $40 parking and $12 beer, attending a Texas Rangers game is pricier than ever
With two hours remaining before first pitch, about 2,000 tickets remained available for the Texas Rangers’ season home opener.
At 3:30 p.m., in the bottom of the first inning of the Rangers’ game against the Colorado Rockies, on a comfortably beautiful afternoon, there were chunks of empty seats in the second and fourth decks.
There were more fans at Globe Life Mall for the 2021 home opener, which included loosely enforced COVID restrictions, than there were for the 2022 season opener, which featured zero limitations.
Official attendance for the Rangers’ home opener was 35,052. Capacity is 40,300.
It’s the first time since 1996 the home opener was not a sellout.
Reasons are aplenty, as baseball stadiums all over the country are seeing the previously unfathomable thought of empty seats for a home opener.
The most common, reasonable, reason is the start of the 2022 MLB season was delayed because of the labor dispute, which affected when teams could actually announce a schedule.
The other explanation is that an MLB game is just a harder sell than ever before, and packing a 40,000-seat venue for a regular season game that isn’t NFL, or major college football, is fast approaching unrealistic.
The last explanation is something that no MLB team wants to hear — the price of attending an actual game.
Tickets on StubHub for Monday’s game were available for as low as $10, but there was a tiny selection of those seats.
The more likely price was around $90 a ticket. Several $300 dugout reserved seats were available, too.
Add in the price of parking, and concessions, and you have an expensive afternoon. We’re talking $250, easy. And, for some, it would be closer to $1,000.
Brandon Schubert of Wylie has attended Rangers’ Opening Day since 1993. He and his dad, Paul, made it a tradition to attend Opening Day together.
On Monday afternoon, Brandon Schubert sat at a picnic table on the fourth level concourse with his 7-year-old son, Winston.
Paul died a few years ago, but his son and grandson have maintained the tradition.
Brandon spent $300 for two tickets. He estimated the whole day, with parking and concessions, will cost about $500.
“Honestly, I don’t know if we didn’t have this tradition if I would have done this,” Brandon said. “I grew up playing baseball, and I love baseball. But [his son] plays soccer, and I don’t know if he really likes baseball the way I did. I’m doing this because I’ve done this since the third grade, and it was with my dad.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said. “It’s like property tax. You set X amount aside every year because you know you’re going to have to pay it.”
The cost of attending pro sporting events has been an expensive proposition for the last 30 years.
Throw in inflation, and the trickle-down discomfort of higher gas prices, and the cost of leaving your driveway feels like it will soon require a second mortgage.
Now, more than ever before, some of the prices associated with attending any event is a perfectly good reason why a family may just stay in to watch Netflix, or Disney+.
To park your car at the Rangers game can cost as much as $40.
A large draft beer is $12.
A bottled water is $7.
A personal pizza is $12.
A mixed drink in a Rangers’ Opening Day cup is $24.
A “beer bat” is $25.
Nachos are $8.50.
You get the idea.
If you are really don’t fear your credit score, you will venture into the team store. You can find a Texas Rangers hat for $35, and a T-shirt is $50.
Go to any major league park in any city, and you will find similar prices. They’re higher in LA and New York, lower in Tampa and Milwaukee.
What fans pay in Arlington for a ticket, beer and a hot dog is going to be similar across the other 29 MLB parks.
On Monday afternoon, friends B.J. Carnes and Debbie Martin drove in from Tyler, and had free tickets through work.
B.J. bought a beer for herself and Debbie, for $20.
“Honestly I didn’t even look at the price [of concessions], because what does it even matter?” Martin asked. “It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it. We do this about three to four times a year, and we can do it.
“But a family of four? I don’t see how they can afford it.”
Many can’t.
“It’s like [the price of] a vacation,” Carnes said.
Higher prices do not explain all of those empty seats at Monday’s Rangers’ home opener.
But they probably explained some.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 5:22 PM.
