San Francisco Giants: Baseball, Technology, and Dynamic Pricing

Google Tech Talks March 24, 2009 ABSTRACT Technology plays a role in baseball from the game on the field to the business and team operations in the front office. Find out how the San Francisco Giants use technology in game-related functions and business areas. Hear about the Giants plans to experiment with dynamic pricing during 2009. The Giants are trying something new with ticket sales in a few tough-to-sell upper-deck outfield sections of AT Park for 2009: cost based on demand. "We're going to experiment with this a little bit in a few sections of the park," team President Larry Baer said. "What this really is, is the ticket business is changing dramatically and quickly. There's a chance we might wake up 10 years from now and tickets will be priced according to demand, like the airlines. We'll see how it works and how the fans like it. This would be a first. We have innovative people in our ticket office." http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3740092 http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60741 Speaker: Larry Baer A fourth generation San Franciscan with impeccable credentials in the world of sports management, television, film and politics, Larry Baer has gained a national reputation as one of professional sports' leading visionaries. A limited partner of the Giants' ownership group who served as executive vice president of the team since December 1992, the 50-year-old Baer was named chief operating officer of the franchise in May 1996. In that same year, he was named president of the China Basin Ballpark Corporation (CBBC), a private entity formed by Giants investors to finance and build the new ballpark, which opened in April 2000. Baer is responsible for the overall day-to-day functioning of the Giants organization, both on the business and baseball sides of the operation. Baer serves on the Board of Major League Baseball Enterprises, which oversees national television and radio contract negotiations, national sponsorship and licensing programs as well as the overall marketing of the industry. Baer is a member of the boards of the California Academy of Sciences, the San Francisco Committee on Jobs, the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and the United Way of the Bay Area.