Hits keep on comin’: Sox fans billed for post-season tix
By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Friday, September 22, 2006
As Red Sox fans watch their playoff dreams circle the drain, steamed season ticket holders are still reeling from the whopping post-season ticket tab the team sent out for the playoffs and World Series seats.
The invoices demanded payment for three divisional series games, four American League championship showdowns and four World Series homegames. The parking tab for 11 games was also due. No credit cards or personal checks accepted.
But what really stuck in the superfans’ craw is that the bills arrived after Theo & Company sent perenially po’d pitcher David Wells to the Padres - thus signaling that management was throwing in the towel on the post-season.
“We weren’t going to win,” said one primo seat holder, who refused to pony up $11,000-plus for four seats for the playoffs. “My mind was made up during the Yankees series in August. I knew if they started winning after the deadline, I’d be screwed. But that didn’t happen.”
The aforementioned screwing would be that the ticket holder would lose their posh seats for the playoffs and championship games and have little chance at scoring substitute, albeit less desirable, ducats.
And although many longtime seatwarmers were steamed that the team sent out the dunning letters after the Yankees drubbing and after the Wells trade, team spokesguy Charles Steinberg said he hadn’t heard anything about the unrest.
“Frankly, the only complaints we’ve heard is that we’re not going to get to play in the post-season,” he said.
Now, die-hard believers who did pony up for the 11 games and parking, were given the option of automatically applying it to their 2007 regular season invoice which, BTW, are hitting mailboxes in November.
“Why would I want to let the Red Sox hold onto that money for so long and collect interest on it,” said one ticket holder. “Why? So they can use the money to buy more property around Fenway? Or not pay Johnny Damon or Bronson Arroyo?”
Refund checks were another option but only “after the conclusion of the Red Sox season in postseason play,” read the invoice.
“Actually, the refund process will begin when we’re formally eliminated,” said Steinberg.
Meanwhile, our spies in the skyboxes say that team CEO Larry Lucchino isn’t exactly all broken up over the breakdown of the Sox this season. Word is, the Sox czar, who lost a high-profile power struggle with ex-underling Theo Epstein this past winter, is privately telling pals “The little Emperor has no clothes.”
“I have not heard a peep to that effect,” said Steinberg.
File Under: Post-Season of Discontent.
_________________
well I guess they gotta pay off Josh Beckett's waste of a contract somehow
By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa
Friday, September 22, 2006
As Red Sox fans watch their playoff dreams circle the drain, steamed season ticket holders are still reeling from the whopping post-season ticket tab the team sent out for the playoffs and World Series seats.
The invoices demanded payment for three divisional series games, four American League championship showdowns and four World Series homegames. The parking tab for 11 games was also due. No credit cards or personal checks accepted.
But what really stuck in the superfans’ craw is that the bills arrived after Theo & Company sent perenially po’d pitcher David Wells to the Padres - thus signaling that management was throwing in the towel on the post-season.
“We weren’t going to win,” said one primo seat holder, who refused to pony up $11,000-plus for four seats for the playoffs. “My mind was made up during the Yankees series in August. I knew if they started winning after the deadline, I’d be screwed. But that didn’t happen.”
The aforementioned screwing would be that the ticket holder would lose their posh seats for the playoffs and championship games and have little chance at scoring substitute, albeit less desirable, ducats.
And although many longtime seatwarmers were steamed that the team sent out the dunning letters after the Yankees drubbing and after the Wells trade, team spokesguy Charles Steinberg said he hadn’t heard anything about the unrest.
“Frankly, the only complaints we’ve heard is that we’re not going to get to play in the post-season,” he said.
Now, die-hard believers who did pony up for the 11 games and parking, were given the option of automatically applying it to their 2007 regular season invoice which, BTW, are hitting mailboxes in November.
“Why would I want to let the Red Sox hold onto that money for so long and collect interest on it,” said one ticket holder. “Why? So they can use the money to buy more property around Fenway? Or not pay Johnny Damon or Bronson Arroyo?”
Refund checks were another option but only “after the conclusion of the Red Sox season in postseason play,” read the invoice.
“Actually, the refund process will begin when we’re formally eliminated,” said Steinberg.
Meanwhile, our spies in the skyboxes say that team CEO Larry Lucchino isn’t exactly all broken up over the breakdown of the Sox this season. Word is, the Sox czar, who lost a high-profile power struggle with ex-underling Theo Epstein this past winter, is privately telling pals “The little Emperor has no clothes.”
“I have not heard a peep to that effect,” said Steinberg.
File Under: Post-Season of Discontent.
_________________
well I guess they gotta pay off Josh Beckett's waste of a contract somehow
