Going to MLB games?

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

Question for you guys that attend MLB games in person. If you have tickets to see your favorite team and the game is rained out, how does the team handle the situation? We had a terrible experience but I will wait for your answers before I tell that story.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Its never happened to me and if talking about it jinxes me I'm gonna take away your birthday or something.

The Cards make case by case decisions usually based on innings played and fircumstances. They usually issue a ticket that you have to later exchange for a game based on availability.

BKB

[Thumper]

Not to hijack your thread, but hey! This IS GoodHunting! This is not a direct answer ... but it is at least related. Years ago (22-23 maybe?) I would go to our local racetrack (stock car) maybe once a month. The tickets (like everything else) had gotten so ridiculously expensive, that's about as often as I could afford to go. There were two local tracks here in town and they raced weekly. One ran Friday nights and the other on Saturday nights. One Friday night, my dad and I decided to attend the races and decided to spring for a few extra bucks to purchase entrance into the pits. Late Friday afternoon looked like some weather might move in, but that's pretty normal here as the weather changes hourly during the summer. As we went through the ticket line, the weather started deteriorating rapidly. Almost the exact minute we entered the pit area, the bottom fell out of the sky and it started pouring rain. We had JUST cleared the ticket gate, but decided to run back out to the lot and sit in the car until the rain passed. Well, it set in and continued raining until they finally called the race.

So, we had bought the tickets probably an hour before the race was to start and were inside the ticket gate maybe 2 minutes for the night. I figured, no problem, we'll use the tickets for a future race. I read the fine print on the ticket and it stated in case of a rain-out, there were NO refunds, but the ticket would still be good for the next scheduled race (which would have been the following Friday). Problem is, my dad and I were going to be out of town (Tennessee) on a business trip the following Friday.

Upon our return from Tennessee, we decided to use our tickets for the next upcoming race (2-weeks from the orig. date). We got to the gate, presented our $40.00 worth of tickets and were told they were only valid for the race following the rain-out date. We pleaded our case, explained the situation, and were told, "Sorry ... no can do". Now mind you, this was not some big special race like the Daytona frigging 500! This was just a small, local track where the local backyard mechanics raced their creations every Friday night. Outside of the neighborhood, not ONE of their names would be recognized. If it were some big annual or special event, or some sort of "special/discounted" ticket prices, I'd maybe understand. We refused to purchase additional tickets and were turned away at the gate.

To this day, I've never returned to that track, even though it's no more than 10 minutes from my house. I wonder how much $$$ they've lost just from my (and/or my dad's) lack of attendance the past 22+ years?

[airbud7]

If I order my ticket through StubHub for an Atlanta Braves game I will be refunded if the event is cancelled and is not rescheduled.

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

See Air, the "refunded if not rescheduled" was the catch for us. My whole family love the Braves so we bought tickets to see them play the Nats in DC (couple of years ago, wanted to see Chipper). We get there and about 10 minutes before first pitch, the sky opened up. They waited about 30 minutes and called the game. It was a Saturday so we went to the ticket office to see about switching the tickets to Sunday's game. We were told that nothing could be done about the rained out game until a reschedule date was announced. That was in June and the game was eventually rescheduled and played in late August, mid-week, after my kids had started back to school. DC is a 6 hour drive and an overnight stay for us, there was no way we could go back. I bet my wife called them 50 times and all she ever heard was, that is our policy. We just lost the $. We still love baseball and support out local minor league team but I will never spent another cent on a MLB game.

[Chicken Dinner]

I agree that would piss me off. I know the Nats have fiddled with their policy over the last couple of years and gotten a little bit of heat over it. This hasn't been my experience though. The couple of of times it's happened to me, I've been able to trade my tickets for the rain out for equal valued tickets (subject to availability) to any other game I wanted. The season before this past one was the last time it happened though.

[Thumper]

Well Coach, although my experience wasn't with baseball ... I think the problem was VERY similar to yours. It sucks big weenies IMHO.