$75 ticket a symbol of greed
<!--subtitle--><!--byline-->By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Staff Columnist
<!--date-->Article Last Updated: 06/18/2007 12:50:35 AM MDT
In the history of Denver sports, never have great fans been played for such suckers.
The knuckleheads who run the Rockies have finally figured out how to be No. 1 at something.
Bless their greedy little hearts.
This week, and this week only, in return for a cool $75, Dick and Charlie Monfort will rent you one chair at the corner of 20th and Blake for three hours to watch the New York Yankees scratch themselves.
Now, there's no denying that Derek Jeter is a fine-looking ballplayer. But I would not pay 75 bucks for a seat at Coors Field, unless I got to sit alongside Angelina Jolie.
Guess this is not the dusty old cowtown it once was.
Even mediocrity no longer comes cheap around here.
Diners who have more money than sense can fork over $48 bucks for a steak in a local restaurant.
It seems criminal to pay $18 per day for the privilege of parking your car in a little garage on the prairie at our airport.
But the biggest rip-off of consumers in Denver?
The Rockies win, the Rockies win!
For years, our major-league excuse of a baseball team has taxed the patience of spectators, to say nothing of overcharging them for every beer sold at the ballpark.
So the Yankees, who stand a mere 26 ahead of the Rockies in World Series titles, come to Colorado. And what happens?
A good seat behind home plate that went for $42 at Coors Field on Sunday will suffer from 79 percent inflation in barely more than 48 hours.
That stinks worse than being stuck behind a bus in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Should getting a little taste of the Big Apple really be that expensive? Heck, for the same price of buying four $75 tickets to see the Yankees play the Rockies, a hopelessly homesick New Yorker could purchase a plane ticket and give his regards to Broadway in person.
Let me pause from this rant about the pending invasion of George Steinbrenner ditto heads to give kudos to Rockies manager Clint Hurdle. After his team was stuck eight games under .500 in late May, and folks like me were calling for his hide, Hurdle has done the best work of his career during the past month.
A tip of the cap to Matt Holliday, Todd Helton and Jeff Francis for producing a recent 16-7 run that even Rockies apologists did not see coming.
But shouldn't the players in the Colorado clubhouse wonder about ownership's priorities, when the team makes it so painfully obvious there is more entertainment value in a brief visit by the Yankees than the pitching and hitting done by the Rockies all summer long?
Ownership kindly asks for your indulgence while the Kid Rox grow up, but does not hesitate to take your money when an American League franchise that demands excellence hits town.
It's proof Colorado fans will happily fill the stadium to see a baseball team that tries to win it all every year. But take me out to a ballgame this week, and we won't be able to afford peanuts or Cracker Jack.
It's true the Monforts only charged for Yankees tickets what the market would allow. So let's give them an "A" in basic economics to balance their "F" in Baseball 101.
Ever wonder why the Rockies own no better than an 18-18 record at home, where a Colorado team once routinely left visitors feeling lightheaded.
It's because years of mismanagement by the Monfort brothers means the Rockies no longer enjoy a home-field advantage for anywhere near 81 games a year.
Or have you not seen the sea of red when the Cardinals visit, or heard the divided loyalties during the seventh-inning stretch when the Cubbies are in Denver?
With the Yankees making themselves at home for three days, the crowd at our ballpark figures to be more obnoxious than Times Square at rush hour.
The most beloved Bombers on Blake Street will be from the Bronx.
LoDo does not look good wearing pinstripes.
This is what happens when what once was a great baseball town sells its soul.
Don't blame me.
Thank Dick and Charlie Monfort.
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_6165859
<!--subtitle--><!--byline-->By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Staff Columnist
<!--date-->Article Last Updated: 06/18/2007 12:50:35 AM MDT
In the history of Denver sports, never have great fans been played for such suckers.
The knuckleheads who run the Rockies have finally figured out how to be No. 1 at something.
Bless their greedy little hearts.
This week, and this week only, in return for a cool $75, Dick and Charlie Monfort will rent you one chair at the corner of 20th and Blake for three hours to watch the New York Yankees scratch themselves.
Now, there's no denying that Derek Jeter is a fine-looking ballplayer. But I would not pay 75 bucks for a seat at Coors Field, unless I got to sit alongside Angelina Jolie.
Guess this is not the dusty old cowtown it once was.
Even mediocrity no longer comes cheap around here.
Diners who have more money than sense can fork over $48 bucks for a steak in a local restaurant.
It seems criminal to pay $18 per day for the privilege of parking your car in a little garage on the prairie at our airport.
But the biggest rip-off of consumers in Denver?
The Rockies win, the Rockies win!
For years, our major-league excuse of a baseball team has taxed the patience of spectators, to say nothing of overcharging them for every beer sold at the ballpark.
So the Yankees, who stand a mere 26 ahead of the Rockies in World Series titles, come to Colorado. And what happens?
A good seat behind home plate that went for $42 at Coors Field on Sunday will suffer from 79 percent inflation in barely more than 48 hours.
That stinks worse than being stuck behind a bus in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Should getting a little taste of the Big Apple really be that expensive? Heck, for the same price of buying four $75 tickets to see the Yankees play the Rockies, a hopelessly homesick New Yorker could purchase a plane ticket and give his regards to Broadway in person.
Let me pause from this rant about the pending invasion of George Steinbrenner ditto heads to give kudos to Rockies manager Clint Hurdle. After his team was stuck eight games under .500 in late May, and folks like me were calling for his hide, Hurdle has done the best work of his career during the past month.
A tip of the cap to Matt Holliday, Todd Helton and Jeff Francis for producing a recent 16-7 run that even Rockies apologists did not see coming.
But shouldn't the players in the Colorado clubhouse wonder about ownership's priorities, when the team makes it so painfully obvious there is more entertainment value in a brief visit by the Yankees than the pitching and hitting done by the Rockies all summer long?
Ownership kindly asks for your indulgence while the Kid Rox grow up, but does not hesitate to take your money when an American League franchise that demands excellence hits town.
It's proof Colorado fans will happily fill the stadium to see a baseball team that tries to win it all every year. But take me out to a ballgame this week, and we won't be able to afford peanuts or Cracker Jack.
It's true the Monforts only charged for Yankees tickets what the market would allow. So let's give them an "A" in basic economics to balance their "F" in Baseball 101.
Ever wonder why the Rockies own no better than an 18-18 record at home, where a Colorado team once routinely left visitors feeling lightheaded.
It's because years of mismanagement by the Monfort brothers means the Rockies no longer enjoy a home-field advantage for anywhere near 81 games a year.
Or have you not seen the sea of red when the Cardinals visit, or heard the divided loyalties during the seventh-inning stretch when the Cubbies are in Denver?
With the Yankees making themselves at home for three days, the crowd at our ballpark figures to be more obnoxious than Times Square at rush hour.
The most beloved Bombers on Blake Street will be from the Bronx.
LoDo does not look good wearing pinstripes.
This is what happens when what once was a great baseball town sells its soul.
Don't blame me.
Thank Dick and Charlie Monfort.
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_6165859
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