It Costs A Lot of Money to Suck

I write this post just mere minutes after watching Colby Rasmus launch a walk-off home run deep into the right field bleachers for a much needed Cardinal victory.




Of course, if the Cards could hit, Colby’s homer wouldn’t be necessary and Adam Wainwright would have been rewarded for his great pitching performance. So many men left on base yet again, but this time it stings as the Cards were getting men on base against potential All-Star, Matt Cain. Nine men were left on base. The back breaker coming when Chris Duncan struck out on three pitches with the bases loaded to end the Redbird threat.

Runs are clearly coming at a premium this year and are in high demand. But how much exactly are Cardinal fans who come to Busch Stadium to watch a game paying per Cardinal run? More than they should be.

In 43 home games this year, the Cards have scored 173 runs, which averages out to four runs per game. The average ticket to a game at Busch Stadium is $29.43.

Before I get into the hardcore math, I would like to take the time to state that one of the reasons I went to the World’s Finest School of Journalism at THE University of Missouri was because I hate math. Hate may not even be a strong enough word. I DESPISE math, almost as much as I despise Keith Hernandez (view YouTube video). So, doing this article says a lot about how much I love sports. I’m willing to do math problems to talk about sports. You’re welcome.





Back to the topic at hand. $29.43 divided by four runs per game averages out to $7.50. That’s right. Cardinal fans are paying $7.50 per run. To put this into perspective, a beer at Busch costs $7.75. If the Cardinal offense were much worse, they would owe me an ice cold Bud Light when I come to the ballpark.

So how does this compare to the rest of the teams in the National League Central? Let’s take a look.






These numbers left me with two questions:

1. Can I afford for the Cardinal offense to continue to stink?

2. Who the hell is paying $47.75 to go watch the Cubs in that dilapidated stadium?

The second question was easy to answer: THESE GUYS!


And no, I can’t afford to pay $7.50 per run. I can barely afford $2.50 per gallon of gas. I’m an unemployed college graduate with a journalism degree. Even if I do get a job, I still don’t think I can afford the outrageous price for a run. This is why I need the Cardinal offense to get going. When they’re hitting, runs are so much cheaper.

Let’s go back five years to the awesome season of 2004 and what was, what I consider, the most consistent and best offense the Cards have put on the field in at least the last 20 years. The average ticket price back then was $23.76 and the Cards were averaging 5.11 runs per home game. This comes out to $4.64 per run, which is a very affordable price. If we take that 5.11 runs per home game and insert the 2009 average ticket price into the equation, the price is still much better: $5.94 per run.

Even if the Cards could average just a half run more per home game, the price goes down almost a dollar to $6.54, which is still pricy, but hey, at least that would mean they were hitting at home again.

There is some good news for Cardinal fans however. And that news is that Cardinal fans are not Yankee fans. The Yankees far and away have the most expensive ticket, which averages $72.97 for a home game in the new wiffle ball field that is the new Yankee Stadium. These tickets are so expensive that no matter how good the Yankees are, runs are still very expensive. New York is averaging 5.68 runs per game, which is great. But it costs $12.62 per run! At least Cardinal runs are affordable when the offense is good!


*Thanks to baseballreference.com and baseballprospectus.com for providing me with ticket price information.