4/22/09

Guest Blog: Overpricing and charity

This guest post come from my good friend Jeremy Schilling, who maintains his own blog at jschil.wordpress.com.  Enjoy…

No, this is not another blog post about the overpricing of tickets or the lack of perfect attendance at early Yankee and Mets games this season. This post is about ideas.

NBC Nightly News has been doing a segment for about a month and a half now called “Making a Difference” – how average Americans are helping their neighbors in tough times. It’s by far the most popular segment Nightly News has run in a long time.

So let’s have these teams make a difference.

There are hundreds of charities out there which would love to go to a baseball game. Give the tickets to them.

Now I understand that yes, this comes with a financial loss. But you know what – hopefully they’ll pay it forward, and eventually, it’ll all come full circle. No one wants to see empty seats in a ballpark, no one. So why don’t we fill it up with worthy people – baseball’s next generation.

Does this next generation care about tax-exempt bonds, personal seat licenses or obstructed seats? I bet you not. Most just want a day out in the sun and fun, seeing America’s pastime, and a time away from all their troubles.

Change was the keyword for a good 5 or 6 months in this country in late 2008. So why don’t we CHANGE the lives of Americans by giving them prime seats, the expensive seats that no one wants, to worthy charities and letting deserving people see a baseball game.

That is the American way of doing things.

Thank you, Jeremy.  Check out his blog at jschil.wordpress.com.