A fledgling economic recovery hasn’t brought more season ticket sales for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim but July’s All-Star Game has helped them from getting any worse.
One week into the 2010 season, the Major League Baseball team has sold about 25,000 season ticket packages to companies and individuals, according to Robert Alvarado, vice president of marketing and ticket sales for Angels Baseball LP, the team’s operating company.
That’s about even with where the team was in season ticket sales at the start of the 2009 season, which came on the heels of the financial meltdown. At the start of the 2008 season, the Angels sold 29,000 season ticket packages.
Even with a better economy, businesses aren’t flocking back to suites and other tickets. The team’s ticket sales likely are a lagging indicator as businesses await a solid rebound before spending on something most see as a luxury.
Alvarado estimated nearly 90% of companies with season tickets renewed this year. Some others are looking to renegotiate their season ticket contracts, he said.
The Angels sell season tickets to companies under contracts that can run from a year to seven years.
Season ticket sales include full season, 81-game packages as well as partial packages. Full-year corporate suites, which can hold 12 to 16 people, go fro $70,000 to $240,000.
Those who have bought this year are hardcore fans and some businesses looking to get seats at the much-anticipated All-Star Game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in July.
“It has something to do with where we are,” Alvarado said. “We have not seen any more fallout. If anything we have seen a stabilization of our sales.”
Without the big game, “I hate to speculate what it would be like,” he said.
Season ticket packages come with an option for the same or other seats for the All-Star Game and related events.
As of now, there are no general tickets available to the All-Star Game or Home Run Derby, Alvarado said.
“We’re still working through what availability there will be and if there will even be any,” he said. “Obviously there will be a scarcity on those tickets.”
Anaheim and the Angels, which last hosted the All-Star game in 1989, are expecting a big boost from the game.
Two years ago, when the All-Star Game was held in New York, it brought nearly $150 million in business to the city. Even in the midst of the downturn this year, the midseason classic brought an estimated $60 million to St. Louis.
Inside Angel Stadium, the team has gained advertising with the offseason signing of former New York Yankee Hideki Matsui, a Japanese baseball hero affectionately known as “Godzilla.”
Several Japanese companies have taken out stadium ads because of Matsui: tire maker Yokohama Rubber Co., which runs Fullerton-based Yokohama Tire Corp.; tire maker Nitto Tire Corp., which runs Cypress-based Nitto Tires USA Inc.; camera accessories maker THK Co.; Kula Sushi, a sushi restaurant chain in Japan; and Komatsu Ltd., a maker of mining and construction equipment with longstanding ties to Matsui.
Others Japanese companies are expected to sign more deals as the season kicks into full gear, according to Alvarado.
“Matsui has a huge Japanese following,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of publicity and notoriety in that respect.”
About 120 or more Angel games are being televised live in Japan on NHK, a government-run TV station.
Irvine flat TV seller Vizio Inc. is another new advertiser at the stadium.
The company has been ratcheting up its marketing in the past two years, including with Super Bowl commercials featuring Beyonce Knowles-Carter.
On the field, the Angels are expected to face their toughest competition in years to win the American League Western Division with stepped up competition from the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers.
In 2009, the Angels drew 3.2 million people to home games, down 1% from a year earlier. The team ranked fifth in attendance among baseball’s 30 teams.
Officials said they expect to surpass 3 million attendees again this year.
