I've heard from a few season-ticket holders that the Pirates have sent them 2020 invoices with increased prices, and I've seen some of the invoices myself. The bills are, indeed, higher.
But upon checking with the team Thursday afternoon -- and by that, I mean people there I've long known and trusted -- there actually isn't a price increase.
Sound weird?
OK, stick with me ...
One invoice, sent to me by a subscriber in Sandy Lake, Pa., did show that his total amount due for a partial-season plan in 2020 -- four seats at 20 games each -- had increased from $3,604 this year to $3,724 next year. That's definitely a higher bill, by a factor of 3.3 percent. Other invoices showed slightly higher increases, one at 10 percent.
But the team officials who responded to me -- in great detail, I might add, with written material -- stressed that there's been no actual increase in per-game pricing. Rather, there are two other factors in play:
• There will be one additional home game in 2020 because the Pirates won't play in the Little League Classic, as they did this year at the expense of a game at PNC Park. So that's 81 real home games rather than 80.
• There also will be one additional weekend home series, and those have been priced higher than weekday series for years, not just in Pittsburgh but in all 30 Major League Baseball markets.
The officials also pointed out -- again, in great detail, with written material -- that prices for 2020 will actually be lower than they were 2018, and even then they were the lowest in the majors. A full-season field-level box seat, for example, cost $3,239 in 2018, then dropped to $3,083 in 2019, then, because of the two bulleted points above, will be $3,146 in 2020. The overall drop in season-ticket prices from 2018 to 2020 will have been by 2 percent.
The Pirates are a wounded animal these days, to put it mildly, so they're easy prey. When I first saw these invoices, I was as ready to pop off as anyone might be. But this is why one tells both sides of the story.
