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GUEST COLUMN: Rockies tickets, anyone?

Saturday, November 3 at 12:00 AM

By Don Mayer

The World Series has come and gone and, despite the sweep, Coors Field and Colorado looked vibrant, with masses of standing, towel-waving Rockies fans. Yet both before and after the Series, the ticket sales debacle showed signs of leaving a curse on the Rockies organization (though hopefully, one that will not last as long as the Babe’s).

Some fans still complain of “poor treatment,” “lack of loyalty” and “dashed dreams,” while others promise to boycott the Rockies “for a long, long time.” Still others lash out at “corporate greed,” the aiding and abetting of scalpers, and the loss, for many local fans, of a fair chance to attend Colorado’s first World Series.

An apology is surely due, but at the very least, management should carefully reflect on what went wrong.

Borrowing from James O’Toole’s The Executive’s Compass, we see four cardinal “compass” values on the field of play: Liberty (north), Equality (south), Community (west) and Efficiency (east). The values on opposite directions are in conflict with each other, and all of the values can be applied to management’s ill-starred choices.

The Rockies could have stiffed Community by selling tickets to the highest bidder, maximizing their Liberty to generate the greatest profit for themselves. They could have exercised their own Liberty with complete Efficiency by finding a competent Internet agent (which they clearly did not). But “whatever the market will bear” (Liberty) meets resistance because of the compass value of Community. Also, membership in a larger community (Major League Baseball) held management by setting maximum ticket prices.

Community was partly served by giving some preference to season-ticket holders, and management defended against complaints by noting that “80 percent of the online tickets” went to Coloradans. This reaffirms that Community matters. But the number of tickets resold on eBay and on ticket-scalping sites mainly affirmed Liberty: the liberty of those having lots of money to spare, and the liberty of folks with sufficient tech savvy to use complex computer programs to penetrate past the “countdown.”

Liberty is across the compass from Equality. To completely equal (or level) the playing field, why not create a lottery? Each fan could get one number, and numbers would be selected at random to be redeemed for one ticket. Yet this would not reward season-ticket holders, close associates of players or Rockies employees, or give preference to the local and regional fan base. Plus, there are practical problems: people wishing to buy seats together would be frustrated, as many couples, friends, and families would find that they would not be sitting together, or even at the same ballgame.

Some degree of Equality could be achieved by letting fans line up for tickets, with no Internet sales. But lines raise fairness questions, too. They give a big advantage to those who live in town, or who know in-town folks with infinite patience, warm clothing and camping chairs.

Other questions to ponder quickly emerge: should management, to be fair, sell just one ticket per customer, or four? Should it create a system of tickets that cannot be transferred to others? Could it? Can it prohibit one person holding a place for numerous others? Should it? What if one person holds a place for groups of cooperative line-standers?

It’s possible that Rockies’ management thought it could avoid these issues and create a more efficient, simpler and fairer process through Internet sales. But as a knowing friend predicted on Friday before Crash Monday, “They think they can handle this because of the one-game Padres playoff. But they won’t know what hit them.” And so it was.

No system will satisfy everyone’s preferences and values. Next time — and there will be a next time, Rockies fans — management’s chosen method must reflect values as important as liberty and efficiency: the values of equality and community. Internet sales can be done efficiently (other teams have done it), and community and equality can also be served. A two-step system using e-mail to enable season-ticket holders to claim one ticket per game within a certain number of hours, followed by a broader lottery for all remaining tickets, would have been far better.

Don Mayer teaches business ethics and law at the University of Denver.

READER COMMENTS

We're over it. Management had its shot. When they fail to re-sign Matsui and Fogg this year, trade Atkins, and fail to sign Holliday next year or the year after to a long term deal, it will just be salt in the wound.

Go ahead Rockies management, prove me wrong.

Posted by A former fan on November 6, 2007 10:35 AM