Extracting Every Last Penny

TW: There was a time when all sports tickets were priced the same for each game. Tickets closer to the field were more expensive than the upper deck but the prices were stagnant throughout a season. Over the past several years teams have started tiering the pricing, charging more for weekends and key games. Now with evolving technology teams are going to start dynamically pricing tickets to reflect many other variables: weather forecasts, how well their team or the other team is doing at that specific point in the season etc. In other words the teams are going to begin functioning like EBay or a scalper. This makes economic sense but is just another chapter in societies effort to end any hope of enjoying what economics call "consumer surplus" aka "getting more than you paid for."

And unfortunately I suspect the opposite will not apply. Somehow one will still not get a reduction if the weather turns foul or worse the guy next to you is drunk, fat and obnoxious.

From Economist:
"IT DOES not matter who's playing, I enjoy a baseball game more when the weather is mild and clear, than when it is wet and rainy. But I'll suffer through bad weather when the Yankees play the Red Sox. And if I can see that rivalry, under a clear blue sky, and in the midst of a playoff run—such bliss!

Yet the price I pay for a ticket is usually invariant to the weather and my interest in the opposing team. Also, the ticket prices are set in advance on the primary market, before weather and player injuries are revealed. So the consumer surplus I enjoy can be unpredictable. (Of course, my preferences are not unique. So there are often ticket shortages and I must pay a large premium on the secondary market.)

The San Francisco Giants have a solution to this problem (or a way to extract the most consumer surplus from its fans as possible). They already charge higher rates for games against certain teams and at various points in the season, but are considering a more complicated algorithm. They may raise or lower ticket prices right up until the day of the game depending on weather or other variables.

The secondary market already reaps the benefits of stochastic ticket prices, because scalpers can adjust their prices up until minutes before the game. Teams are now angling to take some of secondary-market premiums for themselves..."