The Chicago Cubs are coming of a disappointing 2019 season, which not only saw them finish behind the Brewers and Cardinals in the NL Central, but also saw them miss the postseason for the first time in five years.
Optically speaking, it wouldn’t have been the best time for another aggressive round of ticket price increases:
Cubs season ticket prices are decreasing for the first time since 2009, decreasing at about 2.5% on average for 2020.https://t.co/GN54GMdfVf
— Chicago Tribune Sports (@ChicagoSports) November 6, 2019
To be sure, most of the flatness/decrease is a reflection of the timing of the home schedule – there are a lot of early-season, bad-weather games at Wrigley Field, which simply wouldn’t justify higher prices.
That said, ticket prices tend to go only in one direction, and the Cubs’ have stayed flat or gone in that one direction for more than a decade. The fact that they’re going down, in 2020, is still a somewhat notable thing. If nothing else, the Cubs will be able to wield it as a shield against criticisms that they raised ticket prices despite a bad team and no spending grr grr. Not that this is going to be any kind of real inoculation if the Cubs choose to field a team that is not improved from last year.
We’ll see how the organization discusses this pricing level, and also how they price out individual tickets after the flip of the calendar.