Videos: Frank Coonelly Interview; Will Ticket Prices Finally Be Competitive?

The Pittsburgh Pirates

allowed bloggers access last evening to interview Pirates President Frank Coonelly. The well spoken Coonelly looked in great physical shape, refreshed and was forthcoming. A few times in the videos below you see him grabbing his neck, maybe the shirt was just too tight, because he had no trouble answering the questions Pirates bloggers asked him.

He covers the NL East and has an interesting take. He talked about being in favor of a hard-slotting system and defended his reasoning with well thought answers.

The inevitable thought of raising ticket prices is also discussed. You probably recall our take on this over the winter. It’s covered in the article below.

The Pirates weren’t courageous when they should have been. That’s the bottom line. When Coonelly mentions the team is ‘well behind in terms of gate receipts,’ the ballclub needs only to look themselves in the mirror for that move.

Coonelly didn’t say ticket prices would rise. But we think they will.

On January 21, we pleaded for a bump in pricing, it was long overdue. You can make an argument that it wouldn’t have been popular, but sometimes being popular with decisions overrides common sense.

It looks like those days are in the rearview mirror for the Pirates.