The Caps did the same thing: jack up prices, reduce benefits, reduce customer service, reduce giveaways, etc.
Uncle Ted and the Lerners just want $$$. Good short-term business but it will alienate true fans over time.
So did the Orioles in the 90s when they were good - you couldn't get a seat at Camden Yards for years. So the O's had no problem if a long term fan got alienated and dropped their piddly little partial ST plan, because there were always people who were willing to take them. Then the team's fortunes changed, the bandwagoneers stopped going, and those long term fans who had been the backbone of the fan base were too alienated to return. That place was a ghost town for years.
I fear this current Nats campaign has set the team up for the same kind of alienation once the team is no longer a playoff contender - and given the cyclical nature of baseball, that will happen eventually. The prospect of guaranteed post season tickets was a big incentive to renew partial plans. With that incentive removed, it's hard to make a case for keeping a partial plan. At this point, the team would probably prefer for partial STH to drop their plans, so those seats can be re-combined and packaged as half or full plans. And while there may be people to replace a partial STH who drops out now, that will not always be the case.
It's bad enough that the Nats reduced the partial plan STH bennies to practically nothing (not sure where the "Plus" is in this new plan for partial STH - it's more of a "Minus" for us). But the way it was marketed was a slap in the face to long term partial STH who hung in there, loyally renewing year after year - not only were bennies we'd had for years eliminated, but we were also told we were not "loyal", "enthusiastic" or "passionate". To top it all off, we're even getting different colored access cards next year, just to further emphasize our red-headed stepchild status. I think that's what brought the whole thing to a boil - the massive reduction in bennies was bad enough, but the marketing campaign did nothing but rub salt in the wound.
