It used to mean something special to have box seats to a baseball game. It
meant you were going to sit near the field and be close to the action: the best
vantage point to catch a foul ball, get an autograph, see the players spit, hear a
fastball pop into the catcher's mitt or observe the banter between the dugout
and the umpires.
Lately, though, baseball has suffered from a proliferation of box seats, which
has devalued the very term.
The real box seats became field boxes and then club boxes, and before you
could say Bob Uecker, baseball stadiums were filled with loge boxes and
terrace boxes and main boxes and outfield boxes and lower boxes and upper
deck boxes until the majority of seats in the park are called box seats.
They usually are the same old seats. They just have a new name to appeal to
the fan who would prefer to buy a box seat.
And now it's come to this:
For the first time this year, the Chicago White Sox are selling the seats in the
absolute back row of the ballpark as box seats.
That's right. The very last row, the highest seats in the stadium, the ones where
you stick Uecker when he comes to visit, are now considered box seats.
"Upper boxes," to be specific, which, depending on the day of the week, will
cost you either $2 or $6 more per seat than they did last year when they were
simply "upper reserved" seats.
That's a pricing structure worthy of a phone company.
Until now, I had refused to refer to Sox Park as U.S. Cellular Field, but this
has won me over.
As far as I can tell, the only baseball stadium in America that's trying to pass
off a seat in the last row as a box seat is U.S. Cellular Field.
Don't get me wrong. I don't put this in the same category as the Cubs scalping
their own tickets, and the Sox upper box prices are still relatively reasonable at
$16 apiece for weekdays and $20 on weekends.
But I'd sure like to see the look on the face of the first guy who unwittingly
buys his "box seats" at the ticket window or over the phone, proudly reports as
much to his wife and kids and then leads them on the climb to the very last row
of U.S. Cellular Field for an up-close look at the rivet work on the new
stadium canopy.
As you know if you are a Sox fan or drive the Dan Ryan, the back row of
U.S. Cellular Field isn't what it used to be.
During the off-season, the Sox have lopped off the top eight rows of the
stadium and are adding the canopy to help fans deal with the steep pitch of the
much-maligned upper deck.
Instead of 29 upper deck rows, there are now 21.
Last season, the first 15 rows of the upper deck were categorized as upper
boxes and the rest were upper reserved. This year, all 21 upper deck rows
between the bases are upper boxes, except for the front few rows of the upper
deck, which are now called premium upper boxes and sell for $2 more than an
upper box.
In defense of the new definition of an upper box, the White Sox say the
changes simply reflect fans' preference for seats between the bases, regardless
of how high they sit.
"That's the seats where they buy first," said Rob Gallas, the team's senior vice
president for marketing and broadcasting. "To our fans, that's been preferable."
Gallas pointed out that some seats that used to be called upper boxes -- the
first 15 rows of the upper deck from the infield dirt to the foul poles in the
outfield -- have been reclassified as upper reserved and the price reduced by
as much as $8.
Does Gallas know of any other stadiums that classify the top row as a box
seat?
"We didn't try to develop this with other parks in mind," he said. "We tried to
develop it with Chicago fans in mind."
So there you have it, Sox fans. This one's for you.
Lake view included?
I asked Gallas if there was any possibility of me making a quick trip out to the
park to see what the view looks like from a back row box seat, but with the
construction project in full swing, that didn't work.
"Not even we're allowed to go up there. It's a danger zone," Gallas said, noting
the possibility of a steel beam being dropped on my head, which I would guess
is an even greater possibility today than yesterday.
So I'm just going to have to wait for the baseball season to start before I get a
peek.
Opening Day is April 13 against Kansas City, and I'll probably wait a few days
after that to take my boys out.
Then, in the later innings, after the crowd thins out, maybe we can sneak UP
into the box seats.
(C) 2004 The Chicago Sun Times
White Sox reach rare air with new box seats
Chicago Sun Times, March 4, 2004
by Mark Brown
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