3.8 million fans and counting
-
- March
- 24
Just received this press release from the Yankees:
YANKEES REACH 3.8 MILLION TICKETS SOLD FOR THE 2008 SEASON; MARKS RECORD PACE IN FINAL SEASON AT CURRENT YANKEE STADIUM
The Yankees announced today they have exceeded 3.8 million tickets sold for the 2008 season, marking the earliest the club has ever reached that level. With one week until Opening Day, the current tally is 400,000 tickets ahead of the Yankees’ total on the same date last year.
“Even with historic advance sales, tickets remain available for most games,” said Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost. “I encourage fans to join us at Yankee Stadium throughout 2008 to celebrate the 84th and final season of Baseball at The House That Ruth Built.”
For the past three seasons (2005-07), the Yankees have reached the 4 million mark in home attendance, joining the Toronto Blue Jays (1991-93) as the only other Major League team to accomplish the feat in three consecutive years. The Yankees have also seen their home attendance increase in each of the last seven seasons (2001-07).
————
The Yankees drew 4,271,083 last season. They’ll blow that away this season. Think of the average ticket cost plus how much money the average fan spends on food and souvenirs. It’s a staggering amount of loot.
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 6:10 pm by Peter Abraham.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Peter Abraham
“tickets remain available for most games” — that is, most games against the Rays and Royals.
Congrats to the Yankees.
This is why The Boss spends around 200-mil per year on payroll. Thanks to all the fans that go to games and spend their hard earned money.
The amount of tickets sold is not surprising. The Yanks have gone over 4 million the last three seasons when they weren’t about to close the stadium. While the Yankees make an exorbitant amount of money (tickets, parking, food) at least they put it back into the team unlike other teams.
All I can say is Wow!
Maybe we’ll actually get to a game this season. In the last 4 seats available for whatever game at whatever location!
Steinbrenners make the Forbes 500 yet?
All I can say is the “average” scalper is going to make a killing this year. I see the sales of Mercedes Benz and BMW going up this year in the NY area.
The agents for C.C. Sabathia (Greg Genske, Elgin Lowe, and Brian Peters) are well aware of the Yankees financial picture opposed to that of the Cleveland Indians.
They’re as happy as anybody to hear the turnstiles clicking.
So, I wanted to figure out maximum Yankees attendance for a season and then how many more seats than last year would they have to sell per game, and then, how many more seats from what they’ve already sold.
Seating capacity is 57,545 times 81 games would be a season attendance of 4,661,145, which is 390,062 people more than last season’s total. Over 81 games, they would need to sell 4,816 more seats per game than least year to sell to a season capacity.
So far they’ve sold approximately 3,800,000. So they need to sell 861,145 more tickets to reach season capacity, or an average of 10,631 more tickets per game.
First, that’s a lot of tickets still available (albeit, it IS probably for weekday games or games against the Royals), and second, I bet they can do it!
(It’s a slow night here.
)
Doreen - I am impressed. I bet that Lonn Trost couldn’t have figured that out that quickly.
Fran -
I’ll bet not only has Lonn Trost done that, but that he’s already done the next step - how to get the same or more money from the 5,745 few seats per game from 2009 on!
**FEWER seats, not few seat. Yuck.
And here there was people complaining about the ticket prices this week. Supply and demand is the name of the game.
Only thing I remember from my economics class:
When in doubt, supply and demand.
Doreen - I think the Yanks anticipate getting more money in the new stadium with less seats because of all the luxury boxes. I believe those are paid for by the season so that the money is guaranteed up front. That’s why clubs will sacrifice seating space for luxury boxes.
the question i’d like to have answered is how many seats they hold back as comps every game
With a seating capacity of 51,800 in the new YS, they would have been way over capacity sell-out last season. 4,195,000 versus 4,271, 083. It would seem that if all continues to go well, the Yankees will be selling out their season in the foreseeable future.
Of course, the big question is, how will the economy affect game attendance from 2010 forward (assuming 2009 is the first year at a new stadium and EVERYONE will want to go, and will save up to go if necessary)? And what if they can’t sell out the luxury seating? Of course these are downer questions, so no need to answer. Besides, if the country is in really dire straits, baseball will be the magic elixir that will enable all of us to transcend our shared woes. Either that or we’ll all want to take pot-shots at the millionaires on the field. (j/k!!!)
Isn’t that 57,545 assuming that the luxury boxes are filled to capacity?? I kind of remember an actual sell out was 56,500. If you check out last year’s attendance, you will see the most they drew on any 1 game was 56,438 against the Mets
Doreen-
If you factor in 11 possible post season games & the All Star game, you get upwards of 5.3 Million.
Fran -
So, with the luxury boxes, one purchaser pays for an entire box, or suite or whatever, for all the games for the entire season? There are no “plans” with multiple owners? Like one company buys Game Plan A, another Game Plan B, so the luxury seating is shared?
Not to second guess the No Santana decision (which I agreed with)but, with all the cash the Yankees generate. why is cutting the payroll by switching to a strong farm system a priority?
Hmmm. I’m a little disappointed. I thought you were talking about LoHud Yankees Blog fans.
The first rule of consumer economics : if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
Doreen - I know that at Madison Square Garden companies buy it for the season. I don’t know if companies will be able to share at Yankee Stadium but most companies buy the box and use it for client entertainment.
Doreen-
Re: Luxury Boxes, I don’t believe that a company has to buy for all games during the season. There probably are different plans available just like Season tix.
Interesting history of Yankee Stadium attendance statistics:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/attend.shtml
2008 Yankees — So far I could not find definitive actual sell-out number.
you guys listening to the game?
Doreen: I know…I can’t find anything definitive either, other than what Google says…lol
Last year’s 2 playoff games has totals of 56,358 and 56,315 though. So I don’t believe that had 1200 extra seats available.
2008 Yankees –
The best I can find is individual articles citing a “sell-out crowd” at Yankee Stadium, and then giving a number anywhere from 54,000 up. I didn’t look into post-season numbers, just regular season. Last season, they had several games of 55,000-plus.
I even tried typing in the question: What is a sell-out crowd at Yankee Stadium? and got no help!
I’m thinking that if the investment banking firms (ahem) can no longer afford to buy the luxury boxes for a season, then there will probably be a plan B, C, D and E for not losing money on those seats. Unless the Yankees turn into a N/C team (perish the thought), I can’t imagine things getting that bad.
Doreen - Isn’t there standing room available? Does that count in the game totals?
Fran -
It is impossible to find definitive information on exactly what constitutes a sold out baseball game. Nothing I’ve found so far distinguishes among regular seating, standing room, or luxury seating. Capacity seating is listed as 57,545, yet games are called sold-out with a mere 54 thousand and change in attendance. So your guess is as good as mine at this point. I even looked at the MLB rules site. There must be someone who knows this. Pete?????
Last I checked, King George was towards the bottom of the Forbes 400