WBC attendance analysis

An interesting analysis of WBC attendance on Baseball Analyst. Pretty much predictable, but demographic split in bracketing still seems necessary to avoid mostly empty seat stadiums, so a soccer World Cup style one country hosting all games is probably still too early for the WBC. Good to see healthy crowds at Dodger Stadium for the semis and finals (probably) though.

Saitama Seibu Lions lower playoff ticket prices!

When the Saitama Seibu Lions clinched 2nd place (and the right to host some of the Climax Series playoff games) earlier in the season they announced several efforts to ramp up their ability to draw larger crowds to the Seibu Dome, which due to its inconvenient location at the border of Saitama and Tokyo isn’t primed for big crowds, especially on weekdays when they’ve drawn only about 14000 people up until the recent potential 1st place clinching games which had drawn 26000-33000 people. The Lions backed into clinching 1st place recently when the 2nd place Orix Buffaloes lost enough games, this means that the Lions are going to host the PL finals (or Climax Series 2nd stage) with a 1 game advantage, and Saitama gets to host the entire series of up to 6 games (Oct 17-19, 21-23).

The two major efforts in their campaign are:

• Host Game 1 at Omiya Stadium. They had already hosted a game there on June 27, the stadium is more centrally located within Saitama and this was in line with Seibu’s efforts to more firmly plant its roots in Saitama. Hosting the first playoff game there was an unexpected surprise and should help the team in this endeavour.
• Lower ticket prices! Ticket prices have been dramatically slashed in an effort to draw strong home team support and to not be an embarrassment. The Lions have also designated much of the third base side (traditionally for the away team supporters) for Lions fans, they better turn up in droves though I’m sure other fans won’t shy away from buying the “Lions cheering section” seats on the third base side. Anyways, here are the prices.
• Regular season: Special S 10,000 yen, Infield S 4000 yen, Infield reserved 3000 yen, Infield unreserved 2500 yen, Outfield unreserved 1800 yen.
• Climax Series: Backstop Special 7500 yen, L Infield reserved 2000 yen, L Infield unreserved 1500 yen, L Outfield unreserved 1000 yen, Visitor outfield unreserved 1500 yen.

So, basically the team halved ticket prices and are trying to fill the stadium with Lions fans. I plan on being there to take in a few games. Despite these efforts though, tickets are still available for all 6 games.

The Ikea Train

Ikea is opening up a new store in Kobe on the 14th, and their marketing team took the idea of train advertisement several steps further by completely redecorating the exterior and interior of each car, and each car having completely different themes. Rather like the showroom style Ikea stores themselves. But since when has Ikea started using crazy patterns? It’s probably just the clashing patterns that make this seem whack, and they’re probably even decent on their own or when combined with solid colours.

The exterior

 

And various interior shots:

Price tag, nice touch.