How often will this be the case?
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Apr 17, 2009 
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This from the Associated Press from today’s game story:
The 1,800 Legends Suite seats in the first nine rows ringing the plate, which cost between $500 and $2,625 each, were more than half empty at the start of the game as dozens of waiters and waitresses filled the aisles serving those who were there. Others patrons lingered over meals on the second floor of the duplex Legends Suite Club behind home plate.
Not a single spectator was in the final 30 first-row seats down each foul line during the first inning, and only a handful of those seats were filled later, when the rest of the section was perhaps more than half full.
Just behind them, separated by a walkway and wall that resembles a moat, were padded field level seats that go for $325 as part of season tickets and $375 individually. They, too, were about half-empty.
There were many spots available in the Audi Club ($75 plus an automatic $65 prix fix meal) and the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar ($90), although the back of the bar was full. While the first row of the Bleachers Cafe seats ($125) was about two-thirds filled, the second row was nearly empty. And only the smallest of the seven party suites in right field appeared to be in use.
Other than that, the rest of the stadium was packed.
good.
wow….if this is the case for just the first few days of the opening…
Hopefully it gets worse so they can lower prices.
Stubhub
Oh. That looks like an excerpt of what I read on the espn recap. It was horrid. Sure they mentioned the 5 solo dingers and the pitching lines, but they spent a inordinate amount of space going on and on about the lack of booties in the seats.
Supply and demand folks, supply and demand, good, hope it stays that way and other folks can at least have an opportunity to at least have access at some point over the season. We all know these big rich folks are flakes. They aren’t the real heartbeat of the fanbase and never will be with the exception of a few.
The big shmoozers are there for show and nothing else, its the blue collar fans that in the end ride on the Wins and Losses of the games, not these champagne sippers.
Awwwwww. Poor wittle Steinbwenners with their spweadsheets in tatters. So sad.
They should randomly pick out people in the bleachers and upper deck after the 1st inning and give them those seats..
Uh, it’s a weekday game in April. I remember in 1998 walking up right before first pitch and buying a prime seat behind home plate in UR. No one talked about only getting 35 K for a weekend game then. I’d like for tickets to be cheap. But they’re going to draw 4 million. And the economy will pick up either this year or next and the same “Champagne” sippers you disparage will be back in the expensive seats to pay Teixeira’s salary. Cause that is how it works, you know. If you want $8 tickets to stand behind the plate at field level, you can root for the Pirates.
It was a Friday afternoon game. Most of those seats are guys who went to the game yesterday and couldn’t take another day off. 45,000 people on a Friday afternoon after Opening Day isn’t so bad. The Yankees will do fine, no need to try to make this some big story.
The Steinbrenners are making more money with this than they did with full crowds in the old stadium – their spreadsheets are just fine.
I don’t think people are clamoring for $8 tickets behind home plate. That’s not the point.
ive beena die hard fan since 1985. the yanks are making me so angry these days. its a freaking baseball game and theyve sapped of it any purity it had left. freaking greedy bastids.
They were less than half filled. I’d say maybe 1/4 of them were (not counting the sections mentioned that were entirely empty). It was disgraceful how many of those seats were empty, and it was an embarrassment.
Do I feel bad? for the real fans yes, for the Steinbrenners no. A single seat for a ballgame should never cost 3 grand, what were they thinking? really.
Just a warning, anybody caught impersonating one of the regulars in here will be banned. I will not stand for crap like that.
So, I was thinking of seeing Nationals Park tomorrow. It’s like $45 or $50 for non-prime field level seating (Not club or anything fancy). The Nationals are terrible. Wretched. I can’t find anywhere in MLB now where I can find a decent close seat for under $60 (with the exception of Detroit and Pittsburgh). The seats I’ll always be more concerned about, price and availability wise, are those right above and below the press box. There’s a reason they put the press box where it is (even if Sterling, Kay, Waldman et al seem not to take advantage of it).
I’ve sat in the box next to the tarp at Shea for NYY-NYM. And while it’s pretty awesome to see A-Rod and Wright from about 15 feet away…or to have Soriano throw a warmup toss into your kid brother’s lap (and have Jeter come over and say something to your awestruck brother about it), it’s harder to actually watch the game. Anything in right or center, or on the right side of the infield is pretty distorted.
Can’t they auction these off the morning of each game? Even getting 10% of their face value is better than getting zilch.
Pete,
There’s a post in the last thread by “SJ44″ something about small children.
But, Travis, what’s the point? It’s not sour grapes to say that I’d rather not sit in most of these primo seats. They could charge $10,000 a seat and it wouldn’t bother me. And they could price them at the same level as they do upper reserve or main, and I’d still sit in Main or Upper Reserve. As long as I could get into UR 1 (or whatever the new numbering system is) for under $20. That’s where they’re failing, and that’s what concerns me more than garlic fries and kobe steaks for the banker boys.
Ryan:
You can’t auction off seats that are sold. They could, I suppose, have a system where corporate types who didn’t intend to use their seats that day could voluntarily notify the Yanks. But logistically, that’s kind of a hassle, no?
Every time I sat in that Shea box, I had room to spread out. At most, 8 of the 12 seats on either side of us would be occupied. But they were all accounted for, sales wise.
The yankees need to address this. On TV it looks horrible seeing those empty seats, and I believe those empty seats add to the “quiet” feeling the stadium has.
I also think people are in awe of the stadium and are too busy looking around and not paying attention to the game
How can you address it? Can you compel people who have seats to show up?
Peter- Thanks this is why we need registration.
Pete -
I think a little bit of “wait and see” is in order once the schedule is predominantly night games
But when you sell season tickets, I guess you run the risk, especially on day games, that people are not going to be able to use every ticket, nor are they going to be able to re-sell or gift every ticket they don’t use. There can’t be much of a market for those $2,600 seats on the re-sale market.
It does look horrible on TV. Just wait for this to happen on a nationally televised game.
The one time in my life that I sat in a suite at Yankee Stadium, I don’t think there was a single person in the room or in the suite who actually held the lease to that suite. They were given away as work perks. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in July, they couldn’t give all of the tickets away within a large branch of a (now dissipated) banking firm. So friends turned to friends. I wouldn’t have gone if I’d had to pay. Best seats of my life, though.
That’s the basis on which a lot of these big $ seats are sold and used.
Pete.
Its already starting. I have had one today and I believe DT, Jennifer and GB7 have also had them in the past day or so.
Mine was in the Nady thread.
Today may not be an accurate indicator with those seats seeing that it was a Friday game.
I do think though, you will see some “deals” on those seats if its June and they are still unoccupied.
If for no other reason, to give the TV view a better look.
Glad to see those seats empty. How much does that add up to in unsold tix? Quite a bit I guess. Hopefully they won’t want to keep those seats empty for long and the prices come back down to earth.
It is pretty disheartening to see all those seats empty. They really should just do a lottery from those who paid to get into the park and fill those seats. If viewers see empty seats around the PRIME seats, it really does scream of a problem, which the Yankees have addressed but not resolved. Now it’s time to fix the problem. Drop the prices on remaining home games for those seats, give credit to those who paid for those seats and fill the stadium. For THIS stadium not to be sold out for each and every game is an insult. Camden Yards sold out for 3 or 4 YEARS straight when they first opened, yet the 2nd game of the season had VERY available seating here in the Bronx. Helllllooooo???
I, also, have been trolled against…
I’m going to my first game tomorrow. I can’t wait to check the Stadium out for myself. From what I’ve seen on television, I’m very mixed about the new place.
Some of these seats seem to be priced ridiculously high. $125 for the Bleacher Cafe? $90 for the Mohegan Sun Bar? Those seats are in freaking CF.
John,
I think day of game those tickets not sold should be made public at a very reduced rate. Or at least have someone inside the gates stop people and give them a free upgrade.
Perhaps a different colored wrist band given out to the free upgrades that would be sans food/beverage.
Sec 29 and sec 11 on the field were completely empty. Not a soul. There were whole swaths of empty seats behind the visitors dugout. I’ve never seen that.
It used to be you would check the last sections of the upper deck and left field bleachers to see if it was a sellout.
Now? Check the field level seats.
The Legends seats are a flop.
Let’s hope, as Carl said, this continues and the Yankees are forced to lower prices next year.
Let’s hop it gets embarrassing.
Haven’t been around much since the middle of the game… are people still barking about the TERRIBLE bullpen the Yanks have? You know, the one that gave up 0 ER, 0 BB in 4.1 IP. Maybe people can start realizing that you can’t re-analyze a bullpen after every single game.
“I, also, have been trolled against…”
As have I within the past week. I’m in favor of registration – even if it’s the type of thing where are unregistered users can still post, albeit under the name “Anonymous.” As long as people can keep their Name.
Most of those seats are sold. The problem is, Friday afternoon is a workday for many.
Teams are loathe to give rebates and discounts during the season. Teams don’t like giving back money once they get their hands on it! lol
One thing they can do though is get a feel for who is and isn’t going to games. If you have a bunch of the Legends Seat holders who aren’t going to games, you can call them and encourage them to Stubhub their seats.
Its one of those things the Yankees are going to have to let play out for probably 10-20 more home games. Two games, especially during the week day games while school is in session, is too small a sample size for them to make changes right now.
“The Legends seats are a flop.”
To use a Steinbrenner phrase, the Yankees really spit the bit on this one.
The new Yankee Stadium was designed to be an ATM and it has back fired. They have priced themselves out of the market place.
We have heard plenty of screams from year plus and decades plus season ticket holders getting the shaft and the New Yankee Stadium is nothing more than a video game dream.
It is not Yankee Stadium and with the home runs flying out of there, it is a joke.
Long live the House that Ruth Built and not this bad imitation of it.
My identity was stolen this week, too. It seemed particularly bad this week. It’s never good, but this week was among the worst. I figure if they’re stooping low enough to pretend to be me, they’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Relatively speaking, this was a slow week in NY business wise. Passover, lots of kids on vacation, just not a lot going on and the last best day to get out early until Memorial day weekend.
This game is most likely a sellout a year ago. If not, very close to it. Again, 2 whole sections of field level seats were empty. Not scattered attendees, just a ghost town.
Who are those people in the recliners behind homeplate?
This is a ball game not a Federal Reserve Meeting. Get me a dog I’m hungry.
empty =/= unsold
It’s the Economy stupid.
The elasticity of the pricing mechanism has snapped.
People apparently don’t get it Dogu. It doesn’t play as well in 2009 if, on a workday, you’re caught in the front row on MY9 or Yes. Remember the tempest in a teapot over AIG bonuses? All it takes is some overzealous Post reporter to do a little background. If that sounds ridiculous, I used to work in a job where regular interaction with the Post for quotes was part of the day.
I would guess that most of the seats down there are sold. With two back-to-back day games against Cleveland when it’s, yes, a nice day, but still only in the 60s, it’s a game many corporates miss.
Good point John,
I remember seeing my Church Comptroller at the Horse Track one Matinee ago “saying hey how ya doing?
He turned white and did one of those Jackie Gleason Honeymooners studders.
Remind me why we ever needed this bland and soulless monument to Old George’s ego again?
I had the opportunity to sit in one of the Legends Suite seats today. It was tremendously cool and there was an embarrassment of riches in the free food department. The consensus among the people I was with was that the seats were definitely worth say $300-$350 for a premium game and maybe $250 for a regular game. Not saying that I would pay those amounts, just saying that’s probably what they are worth given the price of getting the best seats in the house for a Broadway show and dinner afterward.
I was at the game today. The entire last section of legends seats at the far ends were empty! It looks awful! There were alot more than half of the legends seats empty. It was actually embarassing to look at
Didn’t catch the game today, but saw the highlights. On the Jeter HR in the 8th, there was literally nobody in the first three rows of seats. It looks so bad and the Yanks need to do something about it. So many good fans got turned down for season ticket plans, meanwhile, there’s dozens of good seats that won’t ever be filled.
I love the yankees I just think its funny that in the 2nd game at the new stadium the was filled to approx. 78% according to ESPN.COM. That is just ridiculous. Whats the point in having a brand new luxurious stadium if no one can afford to go. I always try to make it to a couple games every year but it will probably be several years before I go again.Its a shame too!!
I was at the game today and the empty sections had nothing to do with it being a Friday afternoon game. Every other section in the place was filled, even the far corners of the upper deck. Everybody in my section was talking about the empty seats and laughing about it. It looked horrible live and on tv, to see all those empty seats in an otherwise full stadium. Somebody really screwed up, recession or not, those seats are ridiculously overpriced.
Somebody else mentioned that there were 2 entire sections that were empty, one down each foul line. That was really odd.
The field level seats are only half the story. Several of the luxury boxes were completely empty as well. I counted close to 10 on the 3rd base side of the field alone that were empty.
The 2 entire sections that were completely empty at field lvl were Sec. 11 & 29 (160 total seats).
“I will not stand for crap like that.”
Yeah, I usually sit when I crap, too.
Sorry, Pete. Couldn’t resist.
You know, it’s really kind of sad to read stories like this about the Yankees and their new $1.7B stadium. When I lived in NYC and Jersey as a kid, the only times I was able to get to the stadium was in the bleachers. Now that I’ve been in Baltimore the past 6 years, I’ve watched over 10+ O’s-Yankees games in affordable prime seats. I just went to the 2nd game of the season, and for $25 bucks I was sitting in some gnarly seats. And I gotta say, Camden Yards is still one of the best stadiums to visit.
Also, I love rooting for the Yanks at Camden Yards bc so many Yankee fans come here, probably bc it’s the closest in-division rivalry with affordable good seats.
The excuse that people couldn’t take a second day off… is that serious? You have a $2500 seat and can’t find a taker for the ticket when you can’t make it?
The prices on stubhub are already starting to plummet for these seats. Some games they can be had for $300-400. A friend of mine who actually owns a small share of 4 Legends season tickets said that scalpers are completely unwilling to buy them at any price.
Like I said before, at $250, they will move like hotcakes!
How come there weren’t media stories about how Citi Field had lots of empties on Thursday night in ALL sections? And this isn’t just a Yankees phenomenon. The games in KC and various others in MLB have the priciest seats behind half empty. But the Yanks are the story, of course!
guys – i sat next to the visitors dougout on opening day – and i was torn between going to my seat and enjoying the splendor of the accomodations.
the food was like you were at a wedding ( lamb, fresh lobster, chocolate-covered strawberries etc) all covered in the price of the ticket. I even had them deliver a penne bolognese to my seat later in the game. You felt like a Roman Senator.
The folks usually in those seats would go to dinner and rush to the game – now they can get to the game, relax and eat inside, and stroll to their seats during the game without pressure/stress. Those seats will never be packed-full because they Yanks have made the things in the Legends Suites very enticing. If i were there on business for the game, there would be no doubt I would be inside for some of the game, watching it on their 200 TV’s for an inning or two while we closed a deal, then made our way back to the seats.
Trust me – as someone who has been going to games for nearly 20 years, and who has taken pilgrimages across the country for most other stadiums – the stadium is something to behold.
Like I said before, at $250, they will move like hotcakes!
…………………..
They need to adjust for the economic conditions that exist – today.
The old business philosophy: some is better than none.
Robinson Cano is playing like an MVP.
How farfetched is it, if Cano hits .330 and hits 30 jacks that he is the MVP this year?
I’m beginning to think that this Cano might be one of the most talented and dangerous hitters/fielders in the league.
Has anyone heard from yankee officials what they plan to do about this problem, or if they even think it is a problem. I find it to be a big issue if the first nationally telivised game is like this it woudl be embarrasing. Any news?
Next year they’ll drop the legends seats to only about $1000! Who or what group of people signed off on this. Can you say fired? The whole thing is a disgrace!
Being a yankees fan from salt lake city, it was kinda like my mecca to see the yanks in the house that ruth built. that will never be taken away from me. but the ability to realistically attempt that again has been. So the contingency plan, go to another city to see them, for much, much cheaper prices. Toronto is fun, did it last year. Going to Seattle in August. Where there is a will there is a way my friends. The Empire will wise up soon enough.