"Fear the Beard" aka The Seattle Mariners Ticket Office

Cross another baseball stadium off the list - Safeco Field in Seattle, home of the Mariners. A rather dismal team with even worse ticket office procedures. Here is my story.

 

Whenever I am planning to visit a new place during baseball season, I always check to see if the home team will be in town. I will go so far as to say that this fact has played a part in planning when possible. Case in point, Danny and I adding a spontaneous trip, by my standards, across the state of Florida to see the Tampa Bay Rays on our honeymoon. I still contend that he knew exactly what he was getting when he married me. I digress. 

 

I lucked out with the Mariners as my friend's and my schedule did not have much leeway. I saw that the Mariners would be in town playing the Angels so I asked Jenni if she would be up for a game. She graciously agreed stating that while she does not particularly care about the game on the field, she does like the side entertainment, particularly the Jumbotron.

 

As I do with any new stadium, I called the Mariners ticket office directly so that a real live person could help me. I was looking for two tickets that would offer a good view of the Jumbotron. This was truly a first for me, normally with a new stadium I just pick two decent, albeit cheap seats, simply to be in the stadium. When I finally spoke to a real person, I was met with an interesting response. They only help people who are ordering at least eight tickets. In other words, my order was not worth their "customer service" time, even though I could have bought the tickets in the time this conversation took. My only option was to order directly from Ticketmaster. Another reason I like to speak to a real person and then pick up my tickets at Will call is that you are ensured the team logo on the ticket, rather than the generic Ticketmaster printing. Sure enough once I ordered my overly-priced tickets, with a direct view of the Jumbotron, because the Mariners do not offer any reasonably priced tickets in my humble opinion, I received in the mail two generic Ticketmaster tickets!

 

Not being one to let these things go, I decide to try the Mariners "chat" option. I typed out my situation to which I was told that I should have called the Mariners customer service... I typed with unnecessary strength, which would be comparable to seething on a telephone, that I had tried to do that, I was in "luck," I could go to the Will Call at the stadium and have the ticket reprinted. Okay, that doesn't sound so bad. Then he types the kicker, for an ADDITIONAL $3.00 FEE. So now on top of the two tickets and the ridiculous Ticketmaster service fee, I have to pay $3.00 more for a ticket with the Mariners logo on it. I told him this did not make me ever want to come back to his stadium, but he didn't care.

 

So on the night of the game, Jenni went in to secure at least one beard hat, which was the give-away for that night (rocked in the picture above), and I stood in a very long customer service line. After about 20 minutes, a gentleman approaches me and said he does not think it is possible for that to be done. Fortunately, the woman at the window took my $3.00 and reprinted my ticket after some cajoling. Was the ticket worth it? Probably not, but I have a stub from all the other stadiums. Plus I meant it when I said, I would probably not be back.

 

The stadium does have a retractable roof, which is kind of interesting, and the graphics on the Jumbotron were fun, but the stadium lacked any real character or pizazz, and the team on the field seriously lacks offensive productivity. The Mariners lost 6-3, although they had their opportunities with more than one inning with the bases loaded. Their opponent for the evening is an interesting story as well. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim spent a ridiculous (read: RIDICULOUS) amount of money in the past couple seasons on players such as Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols. Pujols theoretically plays first base and swings a mean bat, but he is currently suffering from plantar fasciitis. He looked awful - 0/4 and hobbled along trying to do his obligatory run to first base. I had heard about his ailment heading into the game, and so I thought to myself that he could be the DH (designated hitter) now that he is in the American League after coming over from the St. Louis Cardinals who are in the National League (no DH). I had forgotten they signed Hamilton to be their DH, and since they don't really need him in the outfield where else are they going to put him? What on paper should be the best three-four punch in baseball looks old and tired (and overpaid)! Even so, the Angels' stadium was rated the best in the country by Sports Illustrated, which I look forward to seeing one of these days.

 

Here is the moral of the story - the Mariners are not a good enough team nor is the stadium really all that special -  thus the Mariners ticket office should be careful about how much they are willing to push the average fan with their ridiculous procedures. I have never experienced anything like it. Nor do I think I will again.

 

Clearly they are not talking about going to a Mariners Game

 

 

Will I go back to Seattle? Absolutely!

Will I go back to Safeco Field? Probably not.