After a baseball season in which the Red Sox had not a single paid fan in attendance, the local nine are planning on playing 81 home games with paid attendance at Fenway Park in 2021.
The Sox began their season ticket campaign this week, as sales representatives started calling season-ticket holders and offering discounts on renewal packages for next season.
With Alex Cora back in the dugout and the Sox poised to make some additions to a roster that finished with the franchise’s worst winning percentage since 1965, the Red Sox are confident enough that the pandemic will be contained to begin selling 81-game packages.
“We’re going to roll out invoices next week,” executive vice president of ticketing Ron Bumgarner told the Herald on Tuesday. “We sent all our season ticket holders a postcard telling them about them our new 2021 benefits package. And we just enhanced the benefits.
“So far the calls have gone great. People are appreciating it.”
That the Sox are expecting 81 home games is bold in itself, given the current spike in COVID-19 cases across the country. As of Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the seven-day average of more than 171,000 cases, by far the most since the pandemic began.
“This all under the assumption that there would be – we’re planning for 81 home games,” Bumgarner said. “But also preparing for a situation where there could be fewer games. But more likely this is, I guess my opinion is, we’d be faced with limited capacities to start the season. Obviously, that’s depending on MLB and city and state health guidelines and where we are with the pandemic at that time.”
Because of the uncertainty, the Red Sox are giving their season-ticket holders an option to pay only 25% of their season dues up front starting on Dec. 15, with another 25% due on the 15th of each consecutive month.
The Sox also believe they were honest with their fans about refunds during the 2020 season, when they offered a one-click option to request a refund for lost tickets or use that credit, plus a 10% bonus credit, toward renewals for 2021.
“We had about 40% of the season-ticket holders who took the credit and 60% took the refund,” Bumgarner said.
The Sox also added a 15% discount for anyone renewing season tickets this year, up from a 10% discount in years past.
Because of the uncertainty, the club will also allow any season-ticket holders to exchange tickets to any game they can’t attend in person for tickets to a different game.
It could get complicated for the team to fulfill all the requests for the 18,000 annual season-ticket holders at Fenway Park, especially if Massachusetts is limiting the size of social gatherings when the season starts at home against the Orioles on April 1.
“That’s the incredibly complex challenge,” Bumgarner said.
If the Sox can’t accommodate all their season-ticket holders, “we’ll provide you with as many games as we can in a comparable seat location,” he said. “And as many games as we do that, you can choose a refund or take a credit and use it for a future game.”
Bumgarner said initial feedback from season-ticket holders has been mixed.
“People are anxious and want to get back there out there,” he said. “We’re also getting people who say, ‘I’m not sure, I’m going to wait.’ And that’s fine as well.”
Single-game tickets usually go on sale in December, but that’s likely to be delayed this year as the Sox wait to see what the outlook is early next year.
“We put a hold on that until we have more clarity on the situation,” Bumgarner said.
