Ticket sales predictable, encouraging

Joe Starkey reports today on recent ticket sales for the Tribune-Review.

The bad news is that the season-ticket base remains low (under 9,000) and the overall pace remains behind the sadness that was the 2003 pace.

The good news is that the walk-up sales have been great this past week.

On Wednesday, they drew the largest mid-week walk-up sale (7,331) in PNC Park's four-year history. Yesterday's game attracted 25,988, including a walk-up sale of 6,533.

The Pirates finished the month with a 12-4 home record, by far, their best month at PNC Park.

They are 22-11 in the past 33 games.

No wonder the team easily exceeded its projected July attendance.

Win and when we come, we'll bring more friends. Win while we're with you, and we'll all come back soon. It's pretty simple.

Starkey adds another opinion I share:

[Mike Berry, the team's vice president of marketing and sales] still seems a bit caught up in the "work ethic" thing. He used the phrase several times and said, "We think we have a hard-working group of players that fans can really identify with."

Nobody wants to hear that stuff anymore. They want results.

Nail, head, etc. Sure, we appreciate the fact that battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. We know that spirit matters.

But that's not enough. That's an expectation and not a hope. It's exasperating to watch Joggin' George Hendrick fail to reach safely when the throw gets past the first baseman. But it's not satisfying to watch the players hustle and lose. Having a good work ethic is the bare minimum.

We're not buying tickets for a team because they are sold with excuses. When the marketing people lead with this "they work hard like you" stuff, we're hearing excuses. "This team works hard" is code for "we probably won't win, but we'll hustle." As Starkey says, we're not buying that. "We got rid of George Hendrick" will not send me running to the ticket window -- especially when I know Randall Simon is still on the roster.

If the Pirates want to sell tickets for their August homestands, they should run ads that emphasize July's winning home record. Ads won't be as effective as the eleven o'clock news reporting a victory, but if Mike Berry needs talking points, winning more and building a home-field advantage should go up above the stuff about young guys with a good work ethic.