A 15-win jump equaled an average 12% spike in Rockies’ season tickets for 2027.
That’s right. A fourth consecutive 100-loss season demands fans reach deeper into their wallets.
The optics are awful. The reaction is anger. And the reason is only defensible if the Rockies show they want to microwave their rebuild by adding a few free agents.
The fans’ annual frustration shifted from the starting pitching and managing over the last month, landing loudly in president Walker Monfort’s email box.
With his father Dick stepping away from the daily operations, Walker received credit for eschewing the franchise’s silo approach that featured loyalty to incompetence. He hired president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes, while signing off on 20 new baseball staffers from outside the organization.
The team also left the Stone Age and embraced technology, building up its infrastructure.
Year over year, the Rockies improved their record from 43-119 to 58-104. But a 13-37 skid after the All-Star break left a sour taste in fans’ mouths, which coincided with a late August email about the spike in season-ticket prices.
I called Walker Monfort on Wednesday and gave him an opportunity to address the issue.
“The timing is never right. We care immensely about our season-ticket holders. We understand their frustration. But we needed to play catch-up,” Monfort said. “It had nothing to do with our record. When the email went out, we were on pace for around 66 wins. Our goal is to grow the team on and off the field. In order to compete we have to narrow the gap between us and our competitors.”
Tell that to the season-ticket holders whose fingers are pointing and wagging at ownership.
While understanding small increases — from 2022-2026 the club’s average price increased at an annual rate of 1.6% compared to 5.3% for comparable mid-market teams, per the Rockies — the latest jump left one season-ticket holder irritated.
The communication to me read, in part, “While I understand that the team has added staff to help improve the team, I believe that these are management decisions that were long overdue. It means that management has been saving money since 2021. The decisions to add a good amount of staff should be paid by management, not dumped on the backs of season ticket holders.”
The “why” for the bump is not going to placate boosters who have endured eight straight losing seasons. But Monfort laid out the reasons.
In 2025 and 2026, he said the Rockies ranked 29th out of 30 in lowest season ticket pricing in Major League Baseball. According to the club, mid-market teams will feature season ticket prices 40% higher than the Rockies in 2027, though uncertainty exists with that number because of a potential work stoppage.
With Colorado having one of the highest minimum wages in the country, operating costs also have increased, according to Monfort.
And in 2023, the Rockies lost their local TV deal with AT&T Sports, leaving them as partners with MLB local media. It slashed the team’s TV revenue “by a third of what it was supposed to be in 2026,” per Monfort. The loss was in the millions.
But even diehard Up with Purple folks are saving their Kleenex for more worthy causes after watching the franchise finish last 11 times and never win a National League title since its inception in 1993.
Besides, why not just hit up the Broncos for more money after Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner bought a 40% stake in the Rockies, valued at roughly $672 million, on April 10?
“The investment Greg and Carrie made was a big business move. It put us in a much better financial position to help us clear off debt (created by the COVID pandemic of games without fans and the loss of local TV revenue),” Monfort said. “Rather than survival mode, we are in growth mode. With (the ticket increase), we are trying to create revenue that makes us more competitive over a long period of time.”
My take? The Walton-Penners are an available resource, but they are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the team. While their investment in the Rockies paid down significant debt, it doesn’t solve all of the club’s issues to compete at a championship level. The Walton-Penners continue to remain bullish on their investment with no timeline for an increased role, for those asking (and they do everyday).
Multiple season-ticket holders sounded off on season-ticket deadlines, saying in the past they were required to begin 25% payments in December to receive the perk of 20 free tickets for certain games. A new six-month structure demanded the initial payment on Sept. 16 or half of the invoice paid by Nov. 19 to receive the comp tickets.
The September date comes before the collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, with current forecasts believing a lockout over a salary cap could lead to missed regular-season games and refunds potentially delayed.
So, you can see why some of the most loyal fans are annoyed.
Monfort agreed that investing in free agents could help soothe the frustration with the ticket price increase more than any email.
“We didn’t feel like this was going to be like flipping a switch to turn where we were in 2025 to the playoffs in 2026. We want to try and capitalize on the progress we made, and the way the season ended — (8-30 and an active 29-game streak without a starting pitcher posting a win) — has provided a clear road map at what we need to fix,” Monfort said. “Paul and I met earlier this week. We will be finalizing the budget. But it should give us more flexibility than we had in 2026.”
The reality is that the Rockies must prove that they are not satisfied with an uptick in their hitting — their WAR jumped from -0.3 to 8.5, including top-five finishes in multiple categories, most notably with a .322 on-base percentage, the highest since 2018.
They must dramatically improve their defense and show they are willing to write an extra check to land a free agent or acquire pitching help through a trade.
“We share the same goals as the fans. We definitely make note of how they feel,” Monfort said. “In the end (the ticket price increase) decision was made to make the Rockies better. We feel like we have put a lot of right people in place, and hopefully we reward the fans by turning this around in a much quicker fashion. It is on us to give them a reason to believe in what we are doing.”
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