Although baseball’s popularity is generally decreasing, especially among younger fans, there is still a very American mythology around the sport that brings families together. As part of that, and also likely as a ploy to get younger fans to games from early age, the Baltimore Orioles announced on Monday that they will make upper deck seats free for kids 9 and under.
The initiative, called “Kids Cheer Free,” will run through April 29 – excluding Opening Day – and will give adults who buy an upper deck seat two extra tickets for their kids. While it’s only for the opening month season for now, the Orioles did point out that it will be available at certain times later on in the season.
The Orioles have previously tried to appeal to kids and families with programs like “Kids Opening Day,” which will randomly select 10 kids to participate in pre-game festivities with the team, and the Kids’ Corner at Camden Yards, which houses a batting cage, speed pitch, and other kid-friendly activities inside the park. The “Kids Cheer Free” initiative is taking that one step further by not only making the experience at the ballpark better, but also easier for families to afford. That can’t be overstated, as ticket prices have continued to climb past “not cheap” levels and into “prohibitively expensive.”
