Astros fans looking to buy tickets to some of the biggest games of the year may find themselves out of luck this season as the days of first-come, first-serve begin to wane.
In an attempt to create a more efficient and fair ticket-ordering process for both the three-game home series against the New York Yankees (June 13-15) and the three-game home series versus the Boston Red Sox (June 27-29), the Astros are conducting a ticket lottery that began Wednesday and ends on Feb. 11.
"We anticipate the demand for tickets to these series to be similar to what we have experienced for postseason games, and we want to give all of our fans an equal chance to purchase tickets for these games," Astros Director of Ticket Sales Bill Goren told the Houston Chronicle.
According to the Astros Web site, fans must register to be in a random drawing for an opportunity to purchase up to four tickets to both the Yankees series and Red Sox series, depending on ticket availability. Even if your name is randomly picked out of the sea of applicants you’re not guaranteed a ticket.
Though the process was based on the idea of a fair market for ticket sales, the lottery-style process is confusing and far from fair. Die-hard baseball fans – those who can’t afford season tickets – who are among the first to register for the drawing have the same chance of purchasing tickets as ticket brokers, so instead of getting their seats for the game early, they’ll probably end up buying overpriced tickets on eBay.
The Astros should stop taking the fun out of America’s favorite past time and stick to a first-come, first-serve basis for ticket sales so fans can go back to spending their hard-earned dollars on overpriced hot dogs.
