Cubs reduce season-ticket prices 5.1% for 2023

All season-ticket sections will see lower prices for next year, reduced anywhere from 2.7% to 6.7%.

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The Cubs announced they will cut the price of season tickets by an average of 5.1%.

The Cubs announced they will cut the price of season tickets by an average of 5.1%.

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

When the Cubs announced their attendance for 2022, anyone who had seen the smattering of empty seats in Wrigley Field throughout the season wasn’t surprised. They had sold 2,616,780 tickets, their lowest paid attendance in a non-pandemic season since 1997.

Now the team is lowering season-ticket prices. The Cubs announced the change Wednesday, cutting ticket prices by an average of 5.1%. According to senior vice president of Marquee 360 Cale Vennum, who oversees the Cubs’ ticketing, all full-season-ticket holders will see their prices lowered by 2.67% to 6.72%. The largest price cuts are for seats in the terrace, upper level or bleachers.

“We know that season tickets are a long-term commitment, and our fans have a lot of choice about where they’re going to spend their money,” Vennum said. “The dynamics are changing in a really competitive market. And so we hope that by decreasing the ticket prices for next year, it really demonstrates our commitment to the season-ticket holders, and those are the folks that have ultimately supported us on this journey as we go to build the next great Cubs team.”

The Cubs’ rebuild — paired with the COVID-19 pandemic — has, naturally, corresponded with a two-year attendance slump. After the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which cleared fans from the stands for health and safety reasons, the Cubs had a paid attendance of 1,978,934 in 2021, as fans were gradually reintroduced to ballparks.  

This season, the 74-88 Cubs, who finished third in the National League Central, still had the ninth-highest paid attendance in the majors. But it paled in comparison to their 2019 total (3,094,865 for fourth overall).

“We’ll go through as many as — the last time we added it up, it was, like, 5 million lines of data,’’ Vennum said of the decision to lower season-ticket prices. ‘‘We take in ticket sales, weather/team performance, schedule, all sorts of different things. And then we have to combine that with the feedback from our fans.” 

He compared their ticketing operation to the process on the baseball side — but instead of melding baseball analytics and player feedback, they look at ticket data, conversations with season-ticket account representatives and annual surveys. 

Vennum didn’t provide figures on the Cubs’ season-ticket holder retention from 2019 through 2022, saying he didn’t have the numbers readily available and adding that renewal had been “strong.”

Season-ticket holders, and those on the waiting list, have to weigh the price against the team’s rebuild timeline. When the team is losing, and seats are readily available, it’s also harder to make back money on the resale market. At least the new balanced schedule should drum up some intrigue for previously rare matchups.

The rebuild timeline, however, is hard to pinpoint. This offseason will be a pivotal one, but the Cubs don’t want to tip their hand for fear of a competitive disadvantage on the free-agent and trade markets. 

“I know that we have some holes to fill,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said at the end of the season, “and we’ll be aggressive to try to fill those holes in the best way possible.” 

He reiterated that the goal is to be “competitive” next season, in addition to looking to the future. 

When pressed on what that meant, he said: “We certainly want next season to look a lot more like our second half [this year] than our first half. And I think if it does, we do have a chance to be in the race and play meaningful games throughout the entire season. And, hopefully, that means competing in October.” 

Season-ticket holders have that half-commitment to go on when deciding whether to renew before their first payment deadline next month. Vennum, too, pointed to the Cubs’ momentum at the end of the season — they had a 39-31 record in the second half — after it was clear they were out of the playoffs.

“I think it makes that decision a lot easier as you’re deciding to renew your tickets as a season-ticket holder,” he said, “that, ‘Hey, there’s momentum behind the team, and my price is going down; this is a good time to stay on this ride and be a season-ticket holder with the Cubs.’ ’’

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