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| Always in the dark |
There is an old metaphor that many businesses treat their customers like mushrooms by keeping them in the dark and feeding them manure. So when Tom Anselmi, the chef operating officer of MLSE says the “pricing details” of the club’s so-called dynamic pricing “have yet to be finalized” one really has to smile. Of course the details haven’t been finalized. They never will be. The Leafs will make up more reasons to raise or lower the price of a game than the Toronto Star has stories. You will never know anything except the price. Buying a ticket will be even more of a chump’s game than it has ever been. The categories that have been established — super premium, premium plus, premium, regular and preseason — are just names. Any whim on the part of the Leafs will move a game from one category into another. It is an inevitable outcome of business. Demand far exceeds supply and there is no competition or alternative apart from staying away.It mirrors an attempt by Coca Cola about 15 years ago to install vending machines that would automatically raise prices for its drinks in hot weather. The hotter it got, the higher the price. At the time the president of Coke was quoted as saying it was “fair” that the Coke should increase in price with the level of the mercury. The plan didn’t work because Coca Cola has competition.
