I’m getting pretty fed up with the Dodgers management. My husband, a lifelong near-Luddite (also lifelong Dodger fan), does not own a smartphone, does not want to own a smartphone, and wouldn’t know how to use a smartphone if he had one. So Dodgers management say he’s not welcome anymore at Dodger Stadium, where we have been Season Ticket Holders for over a decade.
For a few years now, the fascists in charge of Dodger ticketing have forced attendees to have a smartphone and the Ball Park app in order to enter the stadium. It’s fine for me. I have all those things anyway, but my husband is set in his ways and bridles even more when told he HAS to do something (which will not only prove frustrating but also costly) by people already raking in many thousands of dollars from us every year.
I know, he could come with me and enter at the same time with my smartphone, but therein lies the rub. I love to get to the Ravine 3 hours early, go to the Gold Glove Bar, say hi to all the people around Dodger Stadium that I’ve made friends with over the decades. Get something to eat before all the lines. I usually spend $50 or more on cocktails, chicken tenders, the 50/50 Raffle, etc. My husband on the other hand likes to get to the game just in time for the “Star-Spangled Banner.” We’re just different that way. (We live in the neighborhood, so arriving separately is no big deal for us.)
Since the institution of the Ball Park app ticketing system, we found a workaround, as I would print a screenshot of my husband’s ticket before I left for the game. The barcode’s the same, and the scanners scan the paper tickets just as efficiently as my they do my iPhone. What difference could it possibly make to the Dodgers if we do it that way? I can do my own Dodgers experience (spending lots of cash at the park) while my husband can do his, and we’re all perfectly happy.
This year, they’re cracking down, as you can see by this ticket from a recent Giants game. “A screenshot of your ticket will not be accepted,” it says. Why not? What possible difference could it make to the Dodgers if my husband brings his stupid little paper ticket to the game? Apparently, they are serious, judging by the personalized email I got after the first homestand of this season telling me, “No more paper tickets!”
I’ll tell you what kind of difference it will make to the Dodgers. It will alienate two truly dedicated Dodger fans who spend more money than they should going to as many of the 81 home games a year that they can. I will no longer be able to get to the park early, enjoy my Dodger game experience in the manner I have for the past dozen years. I vow this now: I will not spend one more dime inside Dodger Stadium, not for an $18 beer or an $8 Dodger dog. I will no longer support the LA Dodger Foundation by buying exorbitantly increased 50/50 Raffle tickets, as I have at every game I have been to since they started selling them. I’m done.
I will come to the game just before it starts so I can get my husband in with my phone, sit in my Top Deck seat taking score (they can’t take that pleasure away from me) and root for my team, whom I still love even though their money-grubbing, inconsiderate owners (remember when they robbed us of watching the Dodgers on TV for years and years?) have no respect for True Blue fans.