Is anyone doing an April ballpark trip?

To get to the most stadiums the fastest, you've gotta start in Wrigley for Cubs-Cardinals on Sunday.

We were thinking about putting a contest together for our new app and wanted to get some feedback on the contest.

What do you think is a good number of parks to see who could finish X stadiums the fastest? Like 15? I think 8 would be too easy - SF / Chicago / LA / New York. But also thinking 30 is too hard.

Thanks!

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Hmmm....interesting. There are people who do 30 ballparks every year. That will never be me. I would never be able to take off work that long. My assumption is most "chasers" just try to get a couple of new ballparks in a year, and the "chase" actually takes 5-15 years, to reach all 30 ballparks. If you were going to put together a contest of who could get to 10 or 20 ballparks the fastest in a given year, clearly you would have to start on opening day, and also give up almost a month of your "normal" life. I'm not sure how many people could do that. Even college students, would still be in school then. So if you got 20 or 70 people competing to hit 10 ballparks fastest, don't you think you would have a few who chose the same schedule, same games and it could ultimately be a tie?!! What were your thoughts or intentions of running this contest/game? Is it to promote something new?

Thanks for the thoughts here!

We're launching gametime.co/app in all 30 ballparks in 2015. To celebrate the full coverage, we're trying to support fans who want to use it at all 30 ballparks (since you don't have to print tickets w Gametime, it's the best way to get tickets while traveling). The prize will be substantial.

Yeah, ties would be an issue. Maybe we'll split the prize evenly if people tie. Maybe we'll give multiple prizes.

A lot of tough calls here...
When to start? (earlier = colder and less student participation)
How many ballparks to set as a target to maximize participation but still make it a challenge?

Thoughts?

So...the gametime app is it like a stubhub where people can buy and sell tickets? Or is it more than that?

If you didn't start with opening day....when else would you start? Wouldn't it be weird to have a contest about who can make it to 10 ballparks first starting on June 1st?

If it's going to be a challenge with a huge prize why not make the goal be who can make it to the current 30 ballparks the fastest? 10 would be too easy, I think because both the east and west coast have 6 ballparks within minimal miles between each other. But if 30 is too many and would eliminate 99% of the baseball community, maybe shoot for half at 15 ballparks. Or have 2 winners, being who can see a home game for all American league teams as one prize and prize 2 the fastest for National League teams. That could be fun. But also pricier for the contestants.

I like the contest idea, but any way you go it'll be too easy with too many ties, or quite the expensive challenge and only a handful of participants.

What if you had an anonymous drawing giving 10 people a set amount of money, maybe $5,000 or $1,000 and see who can be the thriftiest and visit the most amount of parks in a given time period with only that money???

All awesome ideas! Thanks!

I really like 15 - hard enough but not too hard. Agree that NL and AL would be a good split - but prob 2x the traveling for most. Money up front might be hard to get back if they don't go. :)

Brad, you should reach out to Chuck Booth on here. He is seeing a game every day, all season long. He would have good feedback for you. http://www.ballparkchasers.com/profile/ChuckBooth

Good call. Will check him out.

My experience here is that most people aren't trying to finish a certain number of stadiums fastest. They're trying to get to 30 planning a trip or two or three each year. It's not a sprint. It's a quest to be savored. Once they go to a ballpark, they cross it off. My goal was to do 30 in two years, from August 2013 - June 15. I found that going to games 5 days in a row was my limit for enjoyment.

You do get some people trying to do 30 in a season, but they'll do it at their own pace, starting when it's convenient. Some wait until school is out and do it with kids.

Thanks for the thoughts. Yeah, we're going for the hard core fans here. Something fun to document on Twitter rather than the casual fan.

Consider factors like distance between parks and cities like NY/CHI with 2 teams. Then, weight each park (ticket cost, distance, how fast they got to the most parks) as tie breakers; or, have categories like newbies, experienced, students, etc. for prizes.
A cool prize would be tickets to playoffs or WS game, or trip to the HOF induction weekend.

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