The Cincinnati Reds Try to Cash In On Sox


1205521896Despite what Hank Steinbrenner says, the Red Sox are a hot commodity. (We’re still not over our harrowing experience in the Virtual Waiting Room.) Our team is so hot, in fact, that less popular teams are forcing their fans to pay more to see the visiting Red Sox.

A Consumerist reader regaled the blog’s editors with the story of his tussle with the Cincinnati Reds ticket office. The former Bostonian has friends and family coming into town for a Sox-Reds series in June, and wanted to buy tickets to the games.

Unfortunately for him, he’d have his guests for much longer than that weekend series. To cash in on the popularity of the Red Sox, the Reds are requiring that fans who buy a ticket for any Red Sox game to also buy tickets to three additional games against such baseball powerhouses as the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals.

Despite numerous complaints from the Consumerist reader, the Reds aren’t sorry.

I received a phone call from a member of the Reds yesterday evening, who pretty much told me that what the [customer service representatives] had told me was correct and I would have to purchase a pack of tickets for each of the single Red Sox games I wanted to see. He then went on to tell me that since I am a Red Sox fan originally from Boston, I should be used to paying these prices for baseball games!

Why are you having such a hard time understanding the situation here, Cincinnati? We use the dregs of the league like you as an extension of Fenway Park. (Just ask the Orioles.) You and your under-.500 ilk are like our Aerobed—not quite as comfortable as our own beds, but make a serviceable alternative while we’re on the road.

Deal with it.