Braves become motivated sellers ($39 per month, $2.17 per game)

There are two ways to look at this.

• The positive way: "Wow, look at what the Braves are doing for me!"

• The negative way: "Wow ... are the Braves that desperate to sell tickets?"

The answer to the second question: Kind of yes and no.

Obviously if Braves' games were a tough ticket right now, they wouldn't be doing this. Similarly, when Arthur Blank purchased the Falcons, his first goal was to get fans back into the stadium so he offered a $10 ticket. It worked. It should be noted that a few other baseball teams have announced similar monthly pass plans recently. The Oakland A's announced a $19.99 pass two weeks ago. The Braves also offered a similar plan late last season.

The Braves averaged 30,135 through the first 20 home games, which ranks 13th in the majors. Their crowds have been significantly higher on weekends. Follow the averages: Mondays 22,697; Tuesdays 22,744; Wednesdays 24,350; Thursdays 26,458; Fridays 36,994; Saturdays 39,724; Sundays 36,747.

One other thing to consider, and this is as important as it is obvious: The Braves can make a lot more money if you go to the game than if you don't. It's no big deal if they let you through the gates for $2.17 because that means you're going to pay significantly more than that on parking, food, beer, peanuts and souvenirs.

Also, as a reminder, the Braves are commercial real estate landlords: They benefit financially from all of the restaurants and bars that sit in the Battery area that surrounds SunTrust Park. The Battery is the Braves and vice-versa. The development as the biggest carrot to luring them to the suburbs (well, that and Cobb's generous public donation).

So in that sense, that ticket price isn't that big of a deal -- or at least not as big a deal as it normally would be.

So knock yourself out. If you can find a free parking spot in the Galleria area and are willing to walk to the stadium and you're able to sneak in a sandwich, you can get away pretty cheap. But you didn't hear that from me.

EARLIER: Hawks hope Warriors' Schlenk ready to be big-picture guy

Subscribe to the, “We Never Played The Game” podcast with the AJC's Jeff Schultz and WSB’s Zach Klein on iTunes. Episodes also can be downloaded from on-demand link on WSBRadio.com.