Guaranteed Rate Field has been surprisingly lively for a park that's allowed to host fewer than 10,000 fans.
In 10 days, it's going to get a whole lot louder.
The White Sox announced that they'll be expanding capacity to 60 percent starting May 24, and the initial crowds should be at reduced-capacity capacity of roughly 24,300, what with the Cardinals coming to town for three games. The Orioles follow for Memorial Day weekend, which will also be a non-standard drawing environment.
When June rolls around, the White Sox will host the Tigers, Blue Jays and Rays over the course of the first three weeks, and I'll be curious to see whether the Sox sell out for those midweek affairs. Two Junes ago, a Monday-Tuesday series with the Nationals drew fewer than 17,000 fans, and even a Thursday game against the Yankees barely breached 25,000. A month later, a Monday-Wednesday series against the Miami Marlins drew fewer than 15,000 for the first two dates.
Setting aside the fact that I'm teeing up obvious attendance jokes, I'm more curious about how increasing the ticket limit while maintaining an imposed scarcity will affect ticket sales for these series. There's an inertia component to attendance, in that the more tickets that are available, the less motivation there is for fans to act early, which creates the possibility they may never act. Scarcity, be it natural or synthetic, forces fans to think harder and move faster when it comes to securing tickets.
There won't be a perfect comparison between the 2021 White Sox and any other team of recent vintage because they're a first-place team that's been years in the making. Previous instances of first-place Sox teams had the markings of flukes and finished as such. If the Sox had no attendance limits, I don't think they'd be pulling in fewer than 20,000 barring some combination of a boring midweek opponent and awful-but-playable weather.
But would they average 24,300 for a midweek series against the Rays under more normal circumstances? I think they're a year and a real postseason run away from having that kind of power. But if the Sox briskly sell out Tuesday nights hosting the Rays and Jays (including them because Canadians aren't traveling this year), that represents two things:
- Real progress in terms of building excitement.
- An experiment in the benefits of selling out a smaller limit.
The first is cool, especially if you subscribe to the idea that Jerry Reinsdorf won't spend money to make money, but will spend more money if he has more money to spend.
The latter isn't as valuable to common fans. Ballparks have shrunk in capacity as teams seek to maximize dollars spent per fan, and generate revenue from developing the surrounding neighborhood, which could reduce the value in the stadium's footprint. The White Sox, who created an opening to discuss a new ballpark by the end of the decade by reworking their stadium deal, will likely not be immune to such incentives. Hell, Major League Baseball may push the Sox in that direction, seeing as how it's doing the same thing behind the Oakland A's stadium efforts.
It's not a real fun thing to think about, because the best thing about baseball is its abundance, and the ability for any fan to find a professional game most places around the country. Between the consolidation of the minor leagues and the mindset of providing a premium experience, such sentiments take a backseat to extracting money out of the fans who show up. Romance, it seems, is inefficient.
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There will be a brief window during which the White Sox will send money the other way. In the same press release announcing the increased capacity, they also said fans who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine can do so at Guaranteed Rate Field, and receive $25 in cold hard Comiskey Cash.
Beginning May 24, the White Sox will offer two vaccination sites for fans located at Guaranteed Rate Field. Every fan who receives a vaccination before a game will receive a $25 White Sox gift card for use inside the ballpark. The White Sox also will promote vaccinations to the public through scoreboard and public address announcements, in-game promotional reads by announcers, signs inside and outside the ballpark, the Dan Ryan message board and various social media platforms.
There's a natural tendency for the already vaccinated to bemoan the lack of rewards for getting their shots early, but there's solace in already having done your part. It's also nice to see the White Sox, who cleared the 85 percent threshold for vaccinations among team personnel, to continue to encourage efforts among the greater public, which is a superior situation to the other team in town.
