Dig into comments on Philly.com, or on fan websites such as The700Level or TheGoodPhight, and you'll find at least a few rants about the owners' wanting to "line their pockets," or sarcastic questions about whether prices will drop "when they lose 99 games in 2014."
On the other hand, many hard-core fans seem to be sucking it up. One typical reaction was this comment from a Philly.com reader, "Shawnmac": "An additional $10M in revenue will allow the success machine to continue. We have a great thing going on here. . . . Just win."
The Phillies aren't saying how much revenue the increases will bring, though that doesn't stop fans from calculating. With most seat prices rising by $2 to $5, and the Phillies aiming to repeat this year's record attendance of 3,647,249, $10 million is a reasonable, uh, ballpark estimate.
Nor can anyone say what the Phillies might do with the money - or with extra revenue that could come from similar increases in the prices of beer, baseball caps, or Bull's BBQ. Fans may hope it will help buy a top free agent - maybe even Jayson Werth or Cliff Lee. But the team already boasts the fourth-largest payroll in baseball, $142 million in 2010, and it's anyone's guess how high the owners will go.
For now, it's worth taking a closer look at what the Phillies did, and at how it fits into the sports-business arena.
