Like most people, I was disappointed when the White Sox failed to sign Manny Machado and angry when they claimed they couldn't afford it. When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Bryce Harper yesterday, I skipped the disappointment stage. When I read Ken Williams' comments yesterday I was angry and frustrated, because it was framed entirely around not being able to afford the player. And then I saw this tweet from Bob Nightengale, about what happened when Harper joined the Phillies:
The #Phillies sell 100,000 tickets in a single afternoon after the Bryce Harper signing. #Smartmoney https://t.co/cMcnClAkTP
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 1, 2019
Which got me thinking, what would those ticket sales mean to the Chicago White Sox?
According to sportrac, the average ticket price for the White Sox in 2018 was $26.03. While the team keeps the food and drink sales in the Rate private, informal polling makes me think that saying an average spend of $50ish per person is a reasonable argument. So we'll call it a $75 per person per game spend. So lets to the math:
100,000 x $75 = $7,500,000.
Bonuses:
Parking Passes: $20 for parking (M-Sat) and $10 Sunday, and I'll assume 1/4 of these new ticket sales will need a pass and go a weighted $17.50 per pass.
25,000 x $17.50 = $437,500
T-shirts and Jerseys
Pure conjecture, but if 30,000 of those attendees buy a tshirt, and 10,000 buy a jersey you get:
$35.00 x 30,000 = $1,050,000 in t-shirt sales
$110.00 x 10,000 = $1,100,000 in jersey sales
Add it up:
$7,600,000 in ticket and concession sales +
$437,500 in parking passes +
$1,050,000 in t-shirt sales +
$1,100,000 in jersey sales =
$10,187,500 in combined upfront ticket sales and estimated pull-through revenue in one afternoon.
I get that my math isn't perfect - hardcore #108ing in the Rate will blow out a $50 estimated spend pretty quickly - and the overall t-shirt and jersey sales will blow my "gameday" estimate out of the water pretty quickly. But the next time this organization passes on a marquee player because of the cost, its worth remembering that half of Harper's 2019 cost was essentially covered in an afternoon.
CJ
