Affordable (maybe) tickets at the Stadium
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By now you know how much trouble the Yankees are having selling the best seats at the new Stadium. People are laughing at the idea of dropping $2,625 a seat along with a “convenience charge” of $59.70.
Through no fault of their own, the Yankees built an expensive new ballpark that opened in the middle of a recession. As financial firms crumble, fat cats are worried about going to jail, not to a baseball game. The Yankees are staring straight in the face of having empty seats in the background of YES camera shots. That would be pretty embarrassing.
Just for kicks, I went Yankees.com to look for seats on April 22, a Wednesday day game against Oakland. After being offered $900 seats, I hunted around and came up with two $90 field level seats (plus a $6.45 charge) in Section 107 in right field.
Not a great seat, but certainly a decent one. Two tix would cost me $192.90.
I’m not suggesting that is cheap because it isn’t. But I’ve spent more on a concert ticket or an NFL game plenty of times. The Bruce Springsteen seats I purchased for the show at the Izod Center in May were $107 each.
If you got those two seats, took the subway or MetroNorth to the park and didn’t get carried away on $6 beers, you can have a pretty decent time for $250.
There are also an assortment of other deals on the site for families, kids, seniors, etc. If you look around enough, you can find a game you can afford. It may be a Tuesday against Texas instead of a Saturday against Boston. But a game is a game.
Now before you e-mail to call me names, I understand everybody can’t afford $250. But I think a good portion of people can.
I guess what I’m saying is don’t give up on the idea of going to a game at the new Stadium. If you have some flexibility and work at it a little bit, you’ll find a way in that you can afford. I guarantee you all 81 games won’t sell out.
What will be interesting to watch is whether the Yankees lower their prices on the insanely expensive seats or find some other way to fill them.
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on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 4:57 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Or you can just go to Stubhub and buy many seats for many games at (or even below) face value.
Unrelated but:
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/29866796/
I don’t know who saw this but I gotta say there’s definitely something to be said there.
“Through no fault of their own”?? Are you kidding??
I just bought 4 seats in section 107 for 90+ the convenience fee (yea right, convenience of filling out those cryptic sign-ins every time?) and the total was 389.05 or something. Needless to say, I have a nice view of the foul pole but I’m hoping that we will be able to scoot over a few rows and not have anything to worry about. Still, 90 dollars a ticket to be looking at a yellow pole half the game is insane. Love will make you do some crazy things…
Re: the expensive empty seats –
I suggest cardboard cut-outs of famous people. It will give Kay something to chat about.
Look- there is Sarah Jessica and Matthew B. behind the plate! What a cute couple.
Wow- Henry Kissinger looks kinda stiff tonight. Is he ok?
Quick, someone prop up Spike Lee, that was some gust of wind.
That Jeter is a nice guy, he’s in the on-deck circle, talking to some rich cardboard kid.
Bought seats on stubhub for the same April 22nd game you mentioned (its a day game not a night game) for 20 bucks each on stub hub. Upper deck behind home plate. Will never complain about a deal like that.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/p.....to=9379048
John Cena SHUT THE HELL UP ! You have to be the worst most fakest promoted wrestler ever infact somebody give him a damn cup so we can compare hypocrites.
Pete –
I agree with you that $250 isnt unreasonable. Where it becomes unreasonable is when you have 2 or 3 kids that want to go and that $250 suddenly ballons to $500+ for a night out.
Anyway, I think this is the first time in a long time where one will be able to use stubhub and craigslist on the night or week of or before the games they want to go to and actually buy tickets at a discount to face. As the saying goes, something is better than nothing and I think, given the economic constraints in this environment, a lot of season ticket holders, myself included, will be willing to take a discount to their face value seat as opposed to eating the entire thing.
That said, I have a bleacher seat so no discounts here! $12 is the price!
insane even for NYC
I should not be allowed to complain. I have a Saturday package and even though I’m up in the Grandstand area now I’m still in the infield. But in the old Stadium I had really nice seats in the Main Reserve between home and third and I know that I will never have the chance (due to availability and/or price) to see a single game in the new stadium in such a good seat.
I’m afraid the only way to make good seats available and affordable is for the Yanks to go on about a ten year losing streak and I would just as soon avoid that.
Right on Pete. I’m broke as a joke, I’m so poor I’m po’ cause I can’t afford the “or,” money’s kinda funny, and all that other stuff, $250 for one night of baseball is so far out of my price range I can’t even see it, but I had no problem finding tickets for several games at affordable prices. It may not be the games or seats that are first choice on my list, but after having lived over 1,000 miles away from Yankee Stadium for a couple of years, these seats are more than good enough for me. I think people tend to complain too much! Although I know I’ve done a lot of kvetching about stuff like the Martini Bar, that’s different! It’s for the good of the sanctity of baseball!
The economy is terrible and if the Yanks don’t lower ticket prices, there WILL be empty seats.
And I see Gannett has asked their employees to take another week’s “furlough.”
Oy.
“convenience charge” – are the freaking serious?
$2,625 a seat along with a “convenience charge” of $59.70.
For the cost of one game ticket you could buy a wife and fly her in from Russia.
Brandon – wow, holy hypocrisy! Shouldnt we put him in jail for deliberately decieving thw public into believing wrestling is real?
$6 beers? Are those the one in the 7 oz. Dixie Cups?? Last year beer was $9.50.
Lo Greca teased that Ian O’connor was going to come on the show and diss the new stadium – if anyone cares.
Yes – $6 for a beer would be cause for celebration. Maybe there was some confusion and it is actually a $6 “convenience charge” for the vendors to open your beer on top of the $12.75 the beer actually costs
“$2,625 a seat along with a “convenience charge” of $59.70.
For the cost of one game ticket you could buy a wife and fly her in from Russia.”
Check with Tabata first, you might get a better deal.
Prediction -
Ron Trost and Randy Levine will walk through mid-town Manhattan on the morning of April 16th with a megaphone and announce there are tickets available for $1 dollar.
a hd tv and some pizza and works for me
Anyone see the pic of Tabata’s wife? She makes A-Rod’s madame look like Jessica Alba lol
“Maybe there was some confusion and it is actually a $6 “convenience charge” for the vendors to open your beer on top of the $12.75 the beer actually costs”
LOL… Anyway, I don’t know how a $250 night out as a bachelor or a $500 night out for a family is “reasonable” unless you’re making quite a lot of money. But whatever, I guess that’s subjective. All I know is I’ll be enjoying games from my couch with my $1 beers from the grocery store.
O’Connor likes the new Stadium
Just lamenting the passing of the old
Misleading tease by La Greca
They could fill those seats with the same clientele if they designated them a minimum security prison seating zone.
The best deals for seats might come from ticket brokers/’investers’ who might have to sell low as gametimes approach.
250 bucks for a baseball game? I don’t mind spending money on concert tickets or Broadway shows, but a baseball game?
Hire the unemployed to be seat fillers.
‘Brandon – wow, holy hypocrisy! Shouldnt we put him in jail for deliberately decieving thw public into believing wrestling is real?’
Look I can take it if a ball player said it, but OH … NO A WRESTLER ?! AND IN THE WWE ? HOME OF THE MOST YOUNGEST DEATHS PER ‘HEALTHY’ ATHLETE IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT.
CENA SUCKS !
Frankly, I think it would serve the Yanks right to be embarrassed by hoards of empty seats close to the field. I certainly won’t feel bad for them.
I know a lot of folks dont like hearing from season ticket holders who spent thousands on weekend tickets over the last 5 years and were thanked for our money and loyalty by getting offered a take it or leave it Weekday Plan.
Can’t tell you how proud I am of the way the Yankees treated their partial plan holders. Those Saturday and Sunday games that thousands of us got screwed out of have been replaced with such desirable dates that 6 of the 12 weekday games in our plans are now selling at the discounted $5/game rate. Contemptable is the only adjective that comes to mind.
Here’s hoping the House That Greed Built is empty more times than it is full. Recession or not, the Yankees used bait and switch tactics with their most loyal fans. I was lucky enough to get face value for every ticket when I sold off 9 of my 12 games. You can go to StubHub and buy at below face tickets for every game offered in the weekday plan (except for the 1 Boston game).
I just think it’s crazy compared to other baseball teams. In 2006 I was at a Diamondbacks game and paid 40$ for field level seats behind the plate like 10-20 rows back. Prices are not that different for Padres, Giants or Dodgers games…
So you’re getting screwed out of more money just because you live in New York?
i have my season tix in section 111 row 6 which are 100 face value. I think they are as Pete says affordable and you get great value for the seats. (2 seats over are 500)
I just bought two tickets for the game on 3 April for $42 ea. on stubhub. Certainly more than face value, but all things considered, not a bad deal.
I love the Yankees, but this is where they really flex their greed and hunger for money.
A Yankees home game, which occurs 81 times a year, is now comparable to a Springsteen concert and a football game, both of which occur less than 10 times a year, if that for the concerts specifically.
Not to mention, all concessions have gone up, except for those $3 dogs, which will probably be available all of 3 places in the whole stadium. They have restaurants, merchandise, charge for monument park and other activities, and they need to jack up prices this much?
They are a sports franchise worth $2.3 BILLION. the revenue from their merchandise alone could cover costs for other teams.
The billion dollar stadium excuse doesn’t hold much water either, being that most financing came through muni’s and city loans, which won’t be completely paid off until probably 2015 at the earliest.
I’m sure many will disagree and argue against my point, which is fine. But it would be nice if the Yankees showed their appreciation for their fans by lowering the price of things, instead of just hiking it up and adding ammenities.
Cause when it’s all said and done, the Yankees will probably profit more at the end of this year, including whatever cash outlay they made for the stadium, than any other previous year.
let the “tourists” enjoy the stadium at their high prices. most games will be like playoff crowds going to their 1st games. the place to be seen. watch the corporates “sell out” the stadium but look for the empty seats on tv. you might not see them, red barber got fired for that sin. just remember camden yards.
The Yankees have never treated their fans good. Between these ticket prices and blacking out games on the MLB network, not improving the YES programming etc.
They only care about money, not the fans
$250 for a couple seats isn’t so bad if you’re trying to impress your new Russian wife.
In Soviet Russia, overpriced ticket buys you.
If you want a direct and fair comparison, compare the Yankees to the Mets.
Both teams are New York based, high profile, just got new stadiums.
I could get Mets tickets for practically nothing at last minute, and still have a great time in great seats.
No other team consistently hikes up prices in basically every department per year the way the New York Yankees do.
a charge for monument park? ive been a yankee fan all my life and have always rooted for the team, management be damned. their lousy businessmen.
Are you kidding? Getting offered the $2,625 seats to Opening Day on Ticketmaster last night was the best laugh I have had all week
Just an FYI…For the past 5 years i’ve been going to “The Stadium” with 0 tickets… I wait until the middle of the 1st inning, and then negotiate with the scalpers…I usually get the tix for UNDER face value.. It hasn’t failed me yet. Try it, it works
haha John Cena condemning ‘roid users? Well, there goes 3/4 of the WWE, so now you’re out of a job John, you idiot.
in other news, Elliott Spitzer has created a task force to crack down on congressman facilitating prostitution.
Talk about a “Bubble.”
those seats behind home plate where $400 last year. Jacking up the price 550% in a single year is a bit rich, even for the rich
O’Connor doesn’t love the new Stadium. When I saw the headline on his article this morning (about the new YS never having any soul – or something like that), I knew it was a piece I didn’t want to read. I heard him for a minute on with La Greca. He thinks YS is magnificent, but he in essence said it’s a shell – he said it will never feel like “home” and those are his exact words. I think he’s (a) being completely premature and (b) presumptuous. If he’s not even willing to give the new stadium a chance, that’s is issue, but other people will love it and it will feel like home to THEM. This new place needs time in order to build it’s own history, but it will eventually do just that.
How much did the Yankees pay you to suggest that $250 is a decent price to watch a baseball game? Bruce Springsteen tickets cost a lot cause there are only so many concerts in your area. Football games cost a lot because there are only 16 games (and not all of those are home games). There are 162 baseball games, 81 home games. To pay $250 to see ONE of them is absolutely absurd. There’s really not argument. It’s ridiculous.
Baseball is not about a $250 Wednesday game, it’s about getting in at prices you can afford to have a good time that you’ll never forget. Yankee Stadium is a mockery of baseball and everything it stands for.
The first rule of economics: If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
Let me see $1800 and change for 2 tickets (Yankees vs Nationals)in the middle of June or airfare to Hawaii or a cruise to the Mexican Riveria….. Tough choice…. NOT! I am a lifelong Yankee fan that lives and dies for the Yankees, but come on! For once the Yankee fans that surround me here in New England are right “The Yankees should be ashamed”.
We’re going to try and take in a game this season. We’ll try out stub hub for the first time ever and get what we can get. We’re more interested in having the stadium “experience” than getting a great seat – of course knowing that even people who are in fairly good shape economically cannot even think about affording “good” or “great” seats. I want to experience the new stadium. We also prefer day games, so we’ll probably be able to get a seat at all.
We’ve been trying to (slowly) get to see games at as many different stadiums (stadia?) as we can. If it’s the Yankees out of town great, but, if not, that’s okay, too – sometimes better because you have nothing invested in the game emotionally and can just enjoy the experience. ANYWAY, it is amazing the price differential between almost every other stadium and Yankee Stadium. There truly are no words.
For most people, going to multiple Yankees games is not an option. Heck, for some people, going to even one is out of the question.
It’s a shame.
It was awfully bad timing, as it turned out, for both the Yankees and the Mets. I would not be surprised if there is a new pricing plan next season and a whole lot of creative promotions this season to fill those empty seats. Though, while it may have been bad timing, especially in terms of selling the luxury seats, I think it was a mistake to go that route to begin with. Although, one could argue not so much – the Yankees have filled their stadium for years now, and many people paid way over face value for their tickets.
I just think – in hard times, it’s the true fan who’s going to want to be at those games – so why make it so difficult.
But, Pete, you are right, it is not undoable for many people to get to ONE game this season.
Check that “Red Sox” fans in New England… Even scalped tickets at Fenway are a steal compared to what the Yankees are asking!
No doubt… the Mets handle these things much better than the Yankees.
Do the Yankees realize we’re in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?
i see someone already made my point. Glad to see we’re on the same page.
The Yankees can get away with this because the Yankees have been selling out or close to it for several years now. I don’t think you can say the same about the Mets. You could always get Mets tickets, right?
Still – it does feel a lot like biting the hand that feeds, and I don’t mean to imply I’m defending the Yankees.
Try craigslist too!
I had good luck with it last year.
If I go to 2 games this year that’s enough.
$250 for a ball game is a little ridiculous.
What I usually end up doing now is waiting for the $5 games or the $8.50 games via ticketmaster and sit up top.
I think the prices are nuts, but why let the scalpers get all the fun? If you’re going to get screwed on the tix at least now the money might go into the team.
As an aside, there is an interview on salon.com with Allan Barra about his Yogi bio, which I will have to order soon.
Your comparison of the Yankees to a concert isn’t remotely fair.
Your favorite concert act may play once or twice a year, or once or twice every few years. A NFL team plays less than 10 home games a year.
The Yankees play at home 81 times.
The Yankees ticket prices are insultingly high. I’ll watch the games on TV instead.
I don’t mind defending the Yankees for trying to capture as much of the market value of their seats as possible. If seats were often going for more than face value on the secondary market, the price equilibrium for the tickets was off.
Expensive new stadium + smaller number of seats = higher prices. The new wrinkle of economic calamity does mess with the equation, though.
Trying to snooker previously-loyal fans with lame ticket packages, though, is a no-no.
The new Yankess stadium will overtake the highest avg ticket price however this has not been the case the last several years. Here is 2008 as an example.
1) Boston avg ticket price: 48.80 fan index: 320.71
2) Chcago(NL) avg ticket price: 42.49 fan index: 251.96
3) NY (NL) avg ticket price: 36.58 fan index: 259.84
4) NY (AL) avg ticket price: 34.05 fan index: 251.19
5) Chi(AL) avg ticket price: 30.28 fan index: 214.61
In 2007 the Yanks ranked 6th in ticket prices.
Fenway has been the most expensive the last 8 years with a fan index well above everyone else. 2009 is a new deal wth the new Yankee Stadium. The prices are stunning.
I send this a season ticket holder of the rival that feels the same pain.
-dennis
I have to laugh at the security word I just got when looking at buying tickets.
“Steep”.
auction the tickets off and donate a % to charity
I have a bigger problem with Ticketmaster and these resellers that charge ridiculous fees.
Fans of all events need to boycott this garbage.
My 10 year old just said maybe if they lower the price a few thousand dollars a ticket people would buy them. Hmmm, $2,625 down to $625 a ticket. What a bargain – he may be on to something.
It would cost about 1/3 of the average after-tax weekly wage of someone living in the Bronx to enjoy a $250 night out. Explain how this is reasonable again?
the yanks were hoping to flush out the average fan, bypass them for the corporate market, but guess what? even the corps see the tomfoolery. good economy or not its a rip-off.
just wait til the novelty of the new stadium wears off next year, prices will come down, after this new version isn’t so “special.” like i said before let the “tourists” enjoy it now.” isn’t that special.”
All you need to do to see cheap ballgames is be flexible on your dates and where you want to sit. who wouldn’t want to see opening day? nobody. alas, not all of us can. you can go 6 days later though for next to nothing. I’m going to that day game pete was talking about. I’m sitting in 100 dollar seats a few rows behind the left field fence for 30 bucks each. just go on ebay and see which low demand games the scalpers are trying to cut their losses on.
also to the guy who thinks it’s easier to get tickets to fenway: you couldn’t be more wrong. to see yankees vs red sox I just payed 45 bucks each for grandstands at yankee stadium. at fenway bleachers and grandstands go for around 100
I hope the Stadium’s half empty on opening day. I have no pity for these greedy Sob’s. A family of four should be able to get decent seats for 25.00 per person, and not get clobbered by convenience fees. They should also offer deals for kids. It’s just greed, greed, and more greed. Let them S**K a fat one.
I can afford $250 for a yankee game but I cant get myself to spend $100 on a seat for a regular season game. I’ve been lucky enough to go to so many games, many of them big and never paid $100 unless it was the World Series. Last year I went to Baltimore when the Yanks played there and scored front row seats on the tarp down the right field line for $45. It’s just amazing how high yankee tickets have gotten in recent years. I’ll enjoy most games on my 56 inch high def toshiba with $1 beers. God only knows how you find those $6 beers…..they are probably being served in the parking lot or on the Macombs Dam bridge.
I kept waiting for partial ticket plans to open up for affordable seats and they never did.
So I went to stub hub and bought tickets in the same general area for 10 games. I go with my father, uncle and best friend. I usually buy a partial holiday package for them for Christmas, but that was not offered this year. After selecting my 10 games from stub hub, I paid less for the 10 games this year than for similar seats last year.
If you want to purchase a partial ticket plan for affordable prices, I recommend going to stub hub, looking at games that are not premium games (NYM, BOS) and selecting your tickets. I guarantee it will amaze you what you can find.
I went to see the Yankees play in Pittsburgh last year… I sat in the front row of the outfield for 9 bucks!!! and beers were 4.75. I might have to become a Pirates fan
The past few years I’ve gone to minor league games. The prices are cheaper, and it’s geared towards families.
It’s amazing how many tickets are on Craigs List and Stub Hub. I guess speculators bought season ticket plans and banked on everyone wanting to see the stadium this year allowing them to make money. My experience has been to wait until the last minute and you will get the best deal. Time is on the buyers side unless its a HUGE game. The Yanks blew it with the prices of the old Field Championship seats, they arent going to sell them and when they lower the prices people that paid the original price are going to be pissed.
If the Yankees have already sold 36,000 (out of 52K) full season equivalent of their seats, that means that would put them at roughly #10 or #11 compared to 2008 MLB attendence. And this is 3 weeks before the season started. Also, if you checked out stubhub last year and wanted to buy a solid ticket in advance, you had to pay a premium above face most of the time, so of course the Yankees were going to jack up the face value with a $1-2 billion new stadium and collect on that extra demand.
Considering how bad the recession is, the Yankees haven’t done THAT bad a job pricing their tickets. At the end of the year, they will lead the league in attendence and YES will be highest rated.
Bruce Springsteen tours every 3-4 years and may play 2-3 shows in NYC – so it’s rare to see him (his concerts are not televised live either) therefore I can understand pay big bucks to go see him – afterall you may not have another chance for a long time.
Yankees, on other hand, play 81 home games spread out over 6 months every year… no urgency to run out to Yankee stadium to watch game – I’ll sit home and watch YES.
There will be a lot of empty seats this season as economy is still in freefall.
There are certainly valid complaints for how the Yankees have treated longtime customers, and its definitely not the right way to treat those people, but there’s one point everybody is missing: how many other teams’ fans get treated SO poorly that their team signs CC, Tex, and AJ in one off season?
Take a look at this link:
http://bizofbaseball.com/index.....;Itemid=39
The Yankees spent over 40% of what the entire MLB/industry spent on FA this offseason, and over 4x any other team. The same people who advocate them signing the best players to the biggest contracts are the same people calling them greedy. That money has to come from somewhere so quit complaining. If you enjoy getting good seats for cheap and having a great time going to Mets games, become Mets fans and hold up “Ya Gotta Believe in lower ticket prices” signs at every game
The only quibble I have here is “through no fault of their own.” Cmon Pete. If the design and budget wasn’t in the Yankees’ hands, whose was it in?
And you too Harold. Sure we fans want the best players, but don’t act like the Yankees are just staying out of the red! The money comes from the YES network, sponsorships, advertising, merchandise, investments — and local taxpayers! It doesn’t HAVE to come out of the fans.
I just bought 2 tix for 4/18 in the Grandstand…$55
CT,
To put the $55 in perspective though, in 2007 our season tix in Section 2 ( directly behind home plate) cost $19.
I hope you enjoy the 4/18 game. May it be as exciting as the first Saturday game in ‘07 when A Rod hit the 2 out walk off grand slam in the 9th.
With the convenience & orderprocessing charge it came out to $55 for 2 tix. Not that bad considering it is a new stadium.
I hope it is a good game. Thanks!
face value for tickets outside of the ultra premium seats really isn’t that bad 12 bucks for bleachers 25 for grandstand and 40-60 for terrace(loge).
The problem is that there just isn’t much left after people buy up a bunch of seats strictly to resell for profit and then the tickets from third parties skyrocket.
Yankee2123: I agree, Minor League Baseball is awesome.
“But I think a good portion of people can.”
100% False
No way a “good portion” can afford $250 for ONE game….
Unless by GOOD PORTION you mean 5%
Nice on Peter
Sorry for the screw up, but when you buy bleacher seats do they make you buy three tickets?
youngtimer,
First of all, if you know how to read, Pete’s “through no fault of their own” comment didn’t refer to the Yankees design and budget for the stadium. It referred to the fact that they stadium they built is opening during a pretty severe recession.
I never insinuated the Yanks were barely profitable. But ultimately, the success of YES network, sponsorships & advertising, merchandise sales, and their investments comes from the end consumer (i.e. THE FANS). The local taxpayer financing the stadium has nothing to do with profitability since the Yankees have to pay the city back. You can say they got a sweet deal with tax-exempt bonds but their presence in the Bronx probably helps the local economy immensely.
Do you also not understand basic economics? If somebody wants to pay $100 for a seat and another person is willing to pay $95 for that seat, who do you sell it to? Who are you to say that the person who pays more is less of a fan or values that seat less just because they are wealthier than the other person. The Yankees have every right to charge whatever they want for a ticket and maximize their profit, and its their problem if people don’t buy their product because its too expensive.
Two kids and wife, $500 for a foul pole view. Insane. Thank god for HD, at least I can feel like I am there. I just feel bad for my son who will not have the chance to see 10-15 games a year like my dad and I did when I was his age. This just goes to show that greed is a wonderful thing and thank goodness we signed A-Rod for 10 years! What the Yankees are doing is ruining their future. If Citi Field is a better bargain, folks like me will have no choice but take their loved ones there. It is simply more affordable and I hate the Mets!
The Yankees will give those $2,625 seats to business partners if need be. They will not be empty in camera shots — that I can assure you.
Ticketmaster are a bunch of theives.
i think the number of seats available for these games is being blown way out of proportion. One of my friends has already doubled his investment on a 4 ticket full season package through stubhub. and he’s only had to sell premium games so far.
the stadium will be packed out, trust me. the only reason it isn’t already is the shock value of the new prices. people will get over it. if you don’t have $250 to spend on good seats, guess what, you can’t get good seats anymore… too bad.
don’t you all see how this works, those $2600 seats are only available because they are trying to sell them, where any other year they would be given away to someone on a corporate/partnership deal. i’m sure the very same seats were available last year at the end of the season, because they were trying to capitalize on the final season, where again, the seats would normally have been given away.
There a load of the seats in the hundred dollar ranges that are left.
Bloated Salary’s = Bloated Ticket Prices. Baseball used to be America’s pastime where a family could catch a game get a coke and a dog and have a good time for not much money. Sort of the Field of Dreams notion. Pete you need to grasp the reality of the situation, the folks I know by far can’t afford $250 to go to a baseball game right now. $250 is alot money to most people right now in a disaster of an economy.
I have a slightly different take. First, I don’t think anyone but the Yanks really knows the status of ticket sales so far. All we can do is make an educated guess based on what we see on TicketMaster and StubHub.
I bought 12 games at $350 per seat. Don’t hate me. I’m not going with my girlfriend. This is a marketing investment so I’ll be taking clients and hot prospects. Given the nature of the services we sell, closing one deal will more than pay for all the tickets. I believe that many prospects will jump at the chance to sit in great seats during Season 1 at Yankee Stadium — and it will help me strengthen relationships and close deals.
All that said, I agree that even the cheaper seats ($100 per seat) are too expensive for many families, which is a shame. The only upside to the higher prices is that perhaps it will keep out the riffraff — the loud-mouthed rowdy drunks.
I wish attendance could consist only of business guys like me (I’m a big fan incidentally) and families. Maybe the secret is to not sell any booze. That would be fine with me.
Peter,
I enjoy your blog. That said, Yankee ticket prices are ridiculous. Every year a group of us meet in a different city to take in a Yankee series. Field Box Level seats just behind third base are usually $50 in Kansas City, Toronto and Seattle to name our recent trips. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to rationalize the cost of attending in the new Yankee Stadium.
Peter,
I would like to know why, when I went to buy Yankees tickets on tuesday at 10 AM (as soon as they went on sale to the general public) there was no tickets available to buy? I was trying to buy 5 tickets for almost any 1 PM game and I could not find any available that were priced less than $800. Although if I went to StubHub I could buy the tickets I needed for approximatly double the face value. How is this not scalping?
Pete, I love you man (and your blog), but this post is ridiculous. First off, the suggestion that a Wednesday day game against whoever is the same as a Saturday game against Boston is just crazytalk. Let’s put aside the obvious – that whoever is nowhere near as fun to watch as Boston, even for the die hard fan. Let’s just focus on the fact that the game is on a weekday, which would require the attender of the game to skip out on work. If they have kids, and the day game you are suggesting is in some month other than July or August, you are also suggesting that the kids skip school. The reason why people like to take their family to a ballgame on the weekend is because it’s a WEEKEND! No duh the one off weekday game in April is cheaper (provided you are willing to sit behind the foul pole). That’s because it’s a weekday…in April! I would imagine most of the population would disagree that the thing to do in this economy is skip work to catch a Yankees game. There’s no solution for this because the Yankees are in such high demand these days…but to defend the prices and tell people to go to a weekday game in April misses the point entirely.
Also, the fact that the Yankees would spend all this money to build a new stadium that doesn’t have a retractable roof is also ridiculous, but that’s for another post.
Last year tickets got much cheaper than face value on Ticketstumbler/Razorgator/Stubhub/Ticketsnow as the season went on. A lot of that probably had to do with the Yankees playing poorly, but I’m guessing the recession will have a similar impact.
“250 bucks for a baseball game? I don’t mind spending money on concert tickets or Broadway shows, but a baseball game?”
you are embarassing yourself as a yankee fan dude. broadway?
i don’t think i’d spend over 100 on any ticket, unless it’s playoffs. i’m a fan of the $5 seats and maybe a game or two of some nicer seats with friends. i got $40 tickets in the first row of section 420, right behind home plate. IMO, i’d rather sit there then first level outfield.
football sucks live. i was in the 2nd row of a Giant game, 35 yrd line, and thought it sucked. they even won.
the best bands play for under $40 (unless your middle aged and like going on the overpriced ‘greatest hits’ tours of artists from the 70s or 80s that really don’t get along but are getting paid well enough to tour) not really a music festival guy, but $200 for a weekend doesn’t seem too bad.