Alan Greenwood

Finally, as that old New England saying goes, dawn breaks over Marblehead.

Red Sox fans are protesting the only way fans can effectively protest: They aren’t buying tickets.

Well, at least they aren’t buying as many tickets. It seems sales are down at the Fenway Park box office, reportedly by about 15 percent. There are also fewer folks wandering around the ballpark in Fort Myers, Fla., which must have that Chamber of Commerce fairly numbed a few springs after the city forked over the dough for a second Red Sox ballpark in a quarter century.

The financial hit has been enough to put the sales pitch into overdrive. Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy launched into an infomercial during the Mookie Betts damage control press conference, featuring John Henry and Tom Werner. There are plenty of seats available for those warm and cozy April and May weeknight games, as well as ticket packages that include munchies, soda and cheap seats for games against the schedule’s lesser lights.

For instance, Brock Holt will lead his Milwaukee Brewers into town June 5-7 and there are still field boxes available at $176 per fanny. Card-carrying members of the Brock Holt Fan Club may want to splurge on club seats for $245 a pop.

Ticket prices are higher for this season, since dumping half of David Price’s bloated salary and not paying Mookie Betts could not add enough to the bottom line. The good news is that, for once, fans are not simply whining about high prices, they are actually refusing to pay them.

The free agency era has provided cover for club owners, in every sport, to jack up ticket prices on a whim. They need not even mention player salaries; they simply shrug and mumble about the cost of doing business. In response, the masses routinely nod and curse those money-grubbing players for making it impossible to take the kids in to see a game.

This has always been a myth. Whether it is in Boston, New York or St. Petersburg, Fla., ticket prices are set by one factor: What the market will bear.

The Red Sox market has been more than willing – in fact, it has been downright pleased – to pony up whatever the ballclub demands. Even this season, with higher prices and the prospect of a mediocre team, attendance will not drop through the floor.

For one thing, Fenway Park is New England’s top tourist attraction. If baseball fan from Nebraska visits Boston and the Red Sox are in town, there is a reasonable shot that they will want to take in a game at the lyric little bandbox.

For natives, going to Fenway is a rite of summer. New England towns still organize bus trips to Boston to take in Red Sox games, as they have for generations. That won’t end even if upper bleacher seats run as high as $42.

But instead of going to two or three games, fans may limit themselves to one. Even that would help drive home the message that on-field mediocrity will cost the Red Sox where it counts the most.

TIME TRAVEL: Feb. 23, 1965 – “The high-flying cagers from Nashua High tuned up for Friday’s showdown battle with Portsmouth by capturing its 13th win of the season at the expense of hapless Manchester West, 85-53, last night at the Chestnut St. Gym.

“Although 11 members of the Purple squad scored, as the Nashua attack was well spread, Mike Lapinski took the game’s honors with his 19-point performance while Jack Bresnahan was next with 13.”

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

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