Giants' 'dynamic ticket pricing' not so dynamic for fans

The San Francisco Giants are doing something a little different with ticket prices this season, and it doesn't look like it will benefit the team's fans.

The team is instituting what it calls "dynamic ticket pricing" that is a form of variable pricing where the most popular games, such as against its neighbors the Oakland A's and the rival Los Angeles Dodgers are more expensive to get into than other games.

The difference with "dynamic ticket pricing" is that ticket prices will fluctuate daily depending on the perceived demand for seats -- but only for 2,000 seats that are the hardest to sell -- in the upper deck beyond the outfield, according to a Sports Illustrated article. Those seats are difficult to sell because they're lousy seats that are so high up and so far from home plate that you need an oxygen tank once you reach them, and a pair of binoculars to see the outfielder, if you can see him at all with the Giants' odd-shaped outfield walls.

The algorithm that sets the price takes 20 variables into account -- including the day, opponent, scheduled starters and weather forecast. So on a cloudy Tuesday night against the Pirates, for example, those 2,000 seats would cost less than on a sunny, Saturday afternoon game against the A's. And the price will increase when the Giants' top pitcher, Tim Lincecum pitches.