Old Stadium seats: $1,500 to $1,950
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on May 12, 2009 
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According to several e-mailers, there are the packages the Yankee and Steiner Sports will be offering that include seats. They range in price from $1,500 to $1,950.
Each packages includes “a generic pair of Yankee Stadium seats.” The add-ons include autographed items from Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Yogi Berra, a collage, a $100 gift certificate and a “Yankee Stadium free gift.”
There also is going to be an on-line auction of “unique items.”
Meanwhile, Lonn Trost says the Stadium is fine and no changes are planned for this year. Sam Borden has the story up on LoHud.com.
On the issue of allowing regular fans and kids to watch batting practice from the field level, here is what Trost had to say: “If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite? If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
Wow. That’s pretty much all the evidence you need about the caste system at the new Stadium. There is a Stadium for the wealthy and there is a Stadium for everybody else.
You know what is really sad about the whole thing? None of those people even watch BP. The entire area is largely empty before the game.
I detest this man. Lonn Trost and Randy Levine are two genuine A-holes.
Trost is a disgraceful person and an embarassment to the Yankees. He should be fired.
Wow, what a genuine ****head.
“If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
==========================================
this is one of the most classless statements ever… i cant believe how Trost says something like this !! Hal needs to show his true colors, does he support the fans or is he inline with the statements of Trost… they are making it increasingly difficult to call yourself a Yankee fan… utter shame
“I detest this man. Lonn Trost and Randy Levine are two genuine A-holes.”
That statement is so true…Im more disappointed with the product off the field(management)then the product on the field (team)
what a f***head.
““If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?””
umm, what about the 100 level seats in right field?
i don’t think anyone was complaining about not being able to watch BP from Monte Burns’ suite
Just an incredible display…Wow. What a jerk.
You know, I love the Yankees team, but I really am starting to hate the organization.
Torst and Levine – jerks of a feather flock together
So I can own a seat forever, for less then the price to rent one for one game?
My nickname for Randy Levine is Krusty the Klown. I’ll have to come up with one for Lonn.
The Yankees should read this blog to see what people think of the caste system they have set up.
I understand them not wanting people behind home plate or on op of the dugout, but why not past that area?
Bob-
I am totally with you brother. I wish George was still ticking like the old George.
Sounds like Marie Antoinette’s famous “Let them eat cake.” line. And you know what happened to her. Let’s just say she had no further need for shampoo.
Pete – Not only do the people in those seats not watch BP, they barely watch the game. On YES I find myself checking out the crowd behind the plate once in awhile and alot of them are oblivious to what is happening on the field. It’s embarrassing.
Trost is a First Class DB.
Check out the listings over on Steiner sports:
Maybe I should buy this phone to voice my complaints about the outrage they are causing.
http://auction.steinersports.c.....=105409232
“If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
=============================
Just a big old yuck.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=4161131
wow…basically saying theres no problems. just wind and rain. everyone else can see the problems besides the yankees brass?
1. Seats
Anyone willing to pay that amount for a plastic seat added in 1973-1974 is a fool. You want authentic? Pay less for an original wooden slat or curved back seat from the original stadium at memorabilia auctions – they are constantly available.
2. Trost/Levine
Just no words to express my disgust with these two buffoons. They clearly have no clue. Can we just have a ballpark where REAL fans can get in on the action? Watch a Fenway broadcast – they are stacked like cordwood behind home plate. It’s embarrassing.
“If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
Wow…I really think this is where Fenway has it over the Yankees in Spades. Scr.ew the fans and kids…cater to the rich and fairweather corporate types. How has this worked out so far?
I am bringing my kids to the new stadium on the 18th. First pro ball game ever. First Yankee stadium trip ever. It’s nice to see that the Yankees don’t care to grow new fans, young fans but only swoon to the biddings of wealthy.
“Gee daddy how come they let us go right top the field in Fenway! This is cool. I like this place.” That’s all I need to hear.
I really feel these pompous a-holes have no idea about what the fan base wants. What a huge detachment.
Better get some PR guys on this Yankees…you better start listening…
I am so mad I am beyond words.
Lonn Trost – “FU Yankee fans. FU unwealthy fans. Lick my shoes. Don’t forget to buy that $20 beer on your way out.”
Denial isn’t a river in Africa.
Its currently residing in the Yankees organization.
What a shame.
I’m think I’m going to have to create a “I hate Lonn Trost” Facebook page.
This is my first post because this just makes me so angry.
His argument makes no sense. People want to watch batting practice from those sections because it’s close to the field obviously so the comment about the suites doesn’t make any sense. Even more idiotic is the comment about not wanting someone in your house.
Get real. This is a baseball stadium and a baseball game is a communal public event. Allowing a few people to come down and watch BP is going to hurt no one.
Surely if some of the players knew about this (how could they not though) they might be upset as well.
The other night my friend and I were hiding from the rain and we were in left field having come to the bleachers and almost an entire section under cover was free and I asked a woman if we could sit there and she just stared me down and said, “No.” What is wrong with these people?
Yikes long first post.
You have to wonder if these clowns are even looking at the big picture here.
They may be making money now, but the more and more they alienate the real, normal income fans, they run the real risk of driving people away from the team.
The rich are only there, because it’s the place to be. That may not always be the case.
Meanwhile the real fans are being treated like they all are swine flu infected convicts.
I don’t think I’m even gonna make one trip up to the new place this year.
I’m perfectly content to watch on TV and go see them in Baltimore when they are there.
New Rock Mike
That phone looks disgusting. So because it was sitting on someones desk in YS someone will buy it?
I could see buying the bullpen phone, or dugout phone. But this is gross.
Will the fan revolution be televised?
“If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
In other news, Mr. Trost will be receiving the 2009 Great Humanitarian Award at the Leona Helmsley Foundation’s Annual Dinner.
here is what Trost had to say: “If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This and the comment about nothing being wrong with the new stadium about sums up all one needs to know about Trost. I wonder what, if anything, Hal has to say publicly about these comments. They really show an incredible disconnect between the Yankee front office and the fan base.
I hope Hal fires Trost and Levine…they are incredibly insensitive.
SoCalYankeeFan
I have no problem with there being a stadium for the wealthy and a stadium for everyone else as long as the wealthy are filling up their part of the stadium, but they aren’t. I don’t care if they charge a million a ticket and don’t let the kids run around their section and assign everyone a personal foul ball catcher, as long as the stadium fills up, but they arent there, so to cater to them the way they do should not last much longer.
“My nickname for Randy Levine is Krusty the Klown. I’ll have to come up with one for Lonn.”
Same show Jennifer. Trost is Montgomery Burns. I can see it now:
Smithers: There are people watching batting practice at field level who appear to be at or around median income for the tri-state area, Mr. Trost
Trost(Burns): Riff Raff? At the field level?
Smithers: Yes sir. Kids. People who know about baseball. I even saw one guy who drove himself to the Stadium.
Trost(Burns): Release the hounds!
Peter -
Is there anything Yankee fans can do to get some attention on this issue? Do you have access to Zillo or some PR guy that would be willing to accept a petition of sorts?
I’m serious, here.
Rumor has it Mr. Trost’s initial response to the question was “LET THEM EAT CAKE”…but then he quickly retracted. Pete, can you confirm?
Wow only one thing has a bid. $200 for a sign! insane!!
Did Steiner give the Yankees a package price? Or are they making money only Steiner does?
Yeesh @ the attitude.
Would love to take the series from Toronto. Even if just to prove that the Jays’ record is more of a product of their schedule than their realizing their potential.
Good preview that focuses on the view from the top.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05.....f=baseball
Steve B May 12th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
“My nickname for Randy Levine is Krusty the Klown. I’ll have to come up with one for Lonn.”
Same show Jennifer. Trost is Montgomery Burns. I can see it now:
Smithers: There are people watching batting practice at field level who appear to be at or around median income for the tri-state area, Mr. Trost
Trost(Burns): Riff Raff? At the field level?
Smithers: Yes sir. Kids. People who know about baseball. I even saw one guy who drove himself to the Stadium.
Trost(Burns): Release the hounds!
**********************
Oh my god, too funny. I am dying laughing here. People in my office think I am nuts!
But who is Smithers? Pick someone from the Yankee Org.
Hey this is not so bad. These seats cost the same as the new stadium, but you don’t just have them for one game!
I love the outrage. Make sure you get your comments in before the gamethread goes up- because that’s how long it isgoing to last.
With these ticket crap and the whole Stadium situation. I sometimes feel ashame to be a Yankee fan….
What a piece of crap Trost is. Absolutely classless and disgraceful. He should be fired for that quote alone.
This whole new stadium thing and all the problems that have come with it is a total joke and something needs to be done.
Krusty the Klown- Randy Levine
Burns- Trost
Smithers- ??
Appalling.
@Jennifer- LOL
On Sunday I sat a few rows behind the Orioles dugout. I got there early and amazingly enough, I wasn’t bothered at all by the interloping scum of the earth indigent baseball fans, who were shocking allowed in my house to watch BP, take pictures and get autographs before the game.
It was shocking to see that as game time approached, people without tickets in my house, left the area without having to be tazered, hosed or chased away by rabid dogs, and the game started without incident. For the rest of the game, we enjoyed ourselves as if that unbearable display of fandom had never taken place.
I can only assume that we were very lucky and I hope the Orioles install a moat or something that extreme to prevent that from happening again.
Excuse me, but eff Lonn Trost.
Look, the Old George was a creep, too. See, “Nixon, Committee to Re-Elect, election fraud.” Trost and Levine are nothing more than his flunkies. The Old Man only became a benevolent figure when he got kicked out of baseball, clearing the way for Gene Michael to build a real baseball team, and came back finally understanding that it was better to keep his mouth shut in public. Before that, he drove the franchise into a ditch and threatened like a spoiled child to move the team to New Jersey if he didn’t get a new Stadium. Now we have a franchise that is headed for the ditch and an absolute embarrassment of a Stadium.
The new Stadium is 100% George’s mess. The true face of a man who never could control his worst instincts and has lost whatever basic understanding he may have once had for the public. The Old Building gave him a touch of class that he will never have again. Neither him nor his underachieving spawn. Way to go, old fool, I always knew you would self-destruct in the end.
Pete:
Can’t the players put their foot down and finally say something? You would think that they would miss the hardcore fans and children asking their idols for their autographs.
But I digress, the deed is done. Now is the time the PLAYERS need to stand up for the FANS.
The Yankees should give the old Stadium seats to the multiple seasons ticket holders who sat in those same seats for many years.
Also, they should give several pairs of seats to the current season ticket holders who overpaid for their current tickets.
Then they should let every fan who comes to a game this year have a tour of Lonn Trost’s personal residence.
Levine and Trost represent everything that is wrong with America
“Rumor has it Mr. Trost’s initial response to the question was “LET THEM EAT CAKE”…”
LOL. Is there a home game on July 14?
If so, it could be Bastille Day at the Stadium. Real fans can storm the empty seats beyond the moat and Trost can play the role of Louis XVI with his “closing” ceremony being held during the 7th inning stretch.
I am so done with this organization. I have had season tickets for 5 years and this is the last year. There is not a chance in hell I am renewing next season. I can’t even bring myself to attend a game this year! I am totally embarrassed by what the Yankees have become!
“On the issue of allowing regular fans and kids to watch batting practice from the field level, here is what Trost had to say: “If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?””
Makes me hope attendance plummets.
Well, I think he’s right that they don’t need to allow people to sit in other peoples’ seats if those people show up, but there is no reason why they can’t allow access prior to the game and if they are sitting in taken seats, ask the people to move. Hell, that’s what happens in the other sections when people move down into your seats.
“Krusty the Klown- Randy Levine
Burns- Trost
Smithers- ??”
Hate to say it, but Cashman.
Trost’s analogy is laughable.
The fans do not “own” the seats. They own a right to sit in those seats during the event. But the organization can define the event as it wishes. If the Yankees ruled that those areas are open to fans up to one hour before the game, that does not in any way interfere with the rights of the ticketholders for those seats (even in the unlikely event that they are in them).
A side note on the subject–a friend of mine claims that while at the old stadium he noticed a guy move from the field-level seats up to the grandstand, apparently to take pictures of the full stadium. Knowing how vigilantly security would have acted if my friend had tried the reverse move, he complained vociferously to a guard that this guy didn’t have any right to be in their section and that he should be asked to leave and return to his non-panoramic-view seats.
My friend says that the usher looked thoroughly confused and just mumbled about there being no policy against moving from better seats to worse.
No idea if it really happened, but I always found it amusing.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....ml?eref=T1
Top 5 owners in baseball.
Do you know what is really sad… I grew up going to games with my dad and tried to get to the ballpark a little early because I knew that you could go down to the wall and see if you get an autograph or two. I remember Joel Skinner, then playing with the Indians, tossing me a ball during BP. I remember getting a close glimpse of Rickey, Winfield, Mattingly, etc stretching and getting loose.
I didn’t mind in my first few trips to the new stadium that you can’t go down by the field. It’s a pretty stark constrast to Wrigley Field. I went to my first game there with my wife and brother-in-law. I was absolutely amazed that the stadium pretty much cleared out at the end of the game and you could go all the way down to the infield. Jon Lieber had his kids come out with after the game to play catch, hit baseballs and mess around a little.
I expect this is the case too, save for Jon Lieber playing with his kids, before the game at Wrigley. Unfortunately, you can’t get by the Iron Curtain without forking over a couple hundred bucks.
I don’t remember in all my times at Yankee Stadium getting pissed about people being around seats prior the start of the game. I doubt they would be that bent out of shape today if a couple of 7-8 year olds (or older or younger) were with their mom and dad hollering out, “hey, Mr. Jeter, can I get your autograph?” Or even just soaking it all in…
Oh, the part of Waylon Smithers will be ably played by Yankees PR bootlick (c’mon, it’s his job) Jason Zillo.
Moe Szyslak…Hank Steinbrenner
Barney Gumble…Steve Swindal
Homer Simpson…Nick Swisher
Marge Simpson…Joe Girardi
Bart Simpson…Johnny Damon
Lisa Simpson…Derek Jeter
Maggie Simpson…Ramiro Pena
Grampa Simpson…John Sterling (“Big deal! When I was a pup, we got spanked by presidents ’til the cows came home! Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions!)
I hope the ny media rip apart Trost and Levine, much like how the papers rip apart James Dolan and his cronies.
Hal better step up to the plate and tell Lonn to go see the door and don’t come back.
Didn’t Jeter say that one of the reasons the old Yankees’ Stadium was so great is because they played in front of the Number 1 fans?
I’m digusted with the brass of this organization!!!
If I owned one of those seats, it’s not hard to imagine I would be annoyed if every game I showed up early to I had to navigate kids and adults seeking autographs and couldn’t just relax and have drinks and food with my guests down there.
That said, I go to all the games I can when I’m on the east coast and I have not yet seen enough people in the prized seats before gametime that this would ever be an issue.
What the Yankees are doing is protecting themselves from the fact that one of their heavy hitter ticket owners gets into a tussle or has an incident with people who aren’t supposed to be in the section ever.
I understand it, but I don’t agree with it.
The Yankees should open up the sections from the dugout to the foul pole under the proviso that 1 hour before game time everyone must leave.
That would give the stadium personnel enough time to clean the area for the ticket holders who may or may not be showing up and give the young fans a chance to snag an autograph.
They should even alert all season ticket holders to enjoy themselves in one of the many private club options before gametime since they are allowing young ones a chance to go into the section and get autographs and pics.
I would also not allow adults into the section unless they are accompanied by a child.
I used to have seats in that section at the old stadium (couldn’t afford them at the new) and it sometimes got annoying to me to be surrounded by autograph seekers if I decided to come early to a game.
That said, I never complained about it and always anticipated it when I had those seats. It was just understood that happened before gametime.
I think what the Yankees are fearing is they don’t want to possibly piss off what’s left over from their projected highest paying customers.
I do understand it, but I don’t agree with it.
There are common sense solutions here to keep everyone happy.
And then who is Hank?
Pete – How come none of the reporters ask the players about what they think of not allowing kids to watch BP. How come all they ask about is A-Rods Steriods. Do you think its time for journalists like yourself to ask the players these questions and find out if they are willing to stand up for their fans?
Whining about the new stadium has gotten more boring than talking about steroids.
eff Lon Trost, but he has a point.
if i spent that much money for premium seats and a premium experience, i wouldnt want some schlub and their kid spilling hot dog mustard all over my seat.
it sucks for the normal fan, but its the truth.
gotta respect that fact that he doesnt sugar coat it with a “we’re looking into it,” BS story.
the man is a businessman, thats for sure.
he just doesnt realize yet the damage he’s doing to his product…
Wow, Trost has become the A-Rod of the front office: always saying the stupidest thing possible.
It’s hard to believe some of the comments made by Trost and the Yankees recently, it’s hard not to shake your head in disgust and pure disbelief. From a fan’s perspective, there must have been about 100 things said and done wrong in the last year during this transition to the new stadium. The Yanks could have done so much to make this a special moment in Yankee history, instead they opt for maximum profit and pure idiocy.
I LOVE Steve B’s idea!! Bastille Day at the Stadium!!!!
G. Love, exactly… i dont agree with it, but i understand it.
Unfortunately, the dye has been cast and the Yankees organization will not move to make the new stadium more “fan friendly” until something catastrophic happens.
I would imaging that would either be an enormous drop in advance sales beginning in 2010 … especially their premier field level “suites” due to the high prices, coupled with the sagging economy … OR … the Yankees are beginning another period of futility like the early 1990′s where they stink every year and people will begin to stop going to see a team that is losing.
Once that happens, then I would imagine the organization will be forced to make changes to continue to lure people to the ballpark … i.e. allowing anyone with a ticket to watch BP from the field level.
However, I dont see the Yankees tanking as a team for any great length of time … even though they may very well have 2 straight seasons missing out on the playoffs, the front office will continue to push ahead with making them a contender each year … they will never tear it down and rebuild like they did in the early ’90′s.
As long as the Yankees are at least contending for a playoff spot each year and keep bringing in high priced talent to show their fan base they are commited to winning year after year, I think the fans will still come to the ballpark in droves. I dont think as bad as things get, you will consistently see only 15,000 people at the ballpark … even if the ticket prices remain high.
What a marketing genius!
Hate to say it, but thinking of Trost and co. looking out over a sea of empty seats really takes the sting out of
watching 22-4 losses.
Think I’ll stay home this year and listen to the radio.
Face it – if the team had a better record, there would be a lot less whining about everything else. This place attracts some very unhappy people.
Whether the organization admits it or not, they are trying to work out the kinks.
How about giving them more than a few months?
Geesh.
Was at Tropicana Field a couple of weeks ago. They will let you go anywhere for batting practice except the First row. The staff there was very friendly.
“Face it – if the team had a better record, there would be a lot less whining about everything else. This place attracts some very unhappy people.
Whether the organization admits it or not, they are trying to work out the kinks.
How about giving them more than a few months?
Geesh.”
You are so wrong man. Trost isn’t going to change. Since the strike, baseball has tried to be more fan friendly. Trost and company are a** holes and don’t care about the common fan.
betcha pete was the rabble-rouser who asked about the concrete moat
Wow…despicable! That comment makes me embarassed to be a Yankee fan.
I will never again buy tickets to Yankee Stadium.
Dang, July 14th is the all-star game…perhaps Bastille Day at Yankee Stadium can happen another time???
‘You are so wrong man. Trost isn’t going to change. Since the strike, baseball has tried to be more fan friendly. Trost and company are a** holes and don’t care about the common fan.’
I’m not wrong – I’ve been to two games and thought the ballpark was extremely fan friendly. I just loved it. I think that’s what depresses me the most – for me, I’m just happy to be there…I don’t get the bitterness around here.
Trost and Co. are businessmen. They will adjust. I promise. Don’t give up on a franchise that will be around a lot longer than they will. Ride it out.
how was the dimensions not part of sam borden’s story. tell me somebody asked that. The only place i’ve seen it in print is up here in boston in a tony masserotti article.
Why can’t this organization just be normal? They are so arrogant, it is unbelievable.
Francesa talking about this now
How many of you people have sat in those seats and realized how annoying it is not to be able to sit down because you got 100 people in front of you trying to get an autograph. Keep them out of those seats unless they belong in that section….
d*** filter’s got my post……why?
SoCalYankeeFan 8(
Hope Trost enjoys all the empty seats, church-like atmosphere, no buzz, launching pad he created. Going to be a punchline of jokes for everyone.
An embarrassment to the pinstripes. We’re not a baseball team anymore.
You know, I understand what Trose and the Yankee brass wanted out of this stadium. They wanted the perfect venue, and they got it, I mean, it’s gorgeous. But, they don’t have a clue when it comes to what the FANS want. Yes, the Yankees are the cream of the crop when it comes to class, and many times they’re treated like rock stars no matter where they go, but at the end of the day, the Yankee fan wants a team they feel close to. Fans in Cincinatti or Seattle probably don’t have a problem getting down to field level for BP, but we can’t see our favorite players up close. It’s like the Yankee brass are making them out to be un-touchable, god-like so to speak. Maybe that’s what winning breeds, but I remember not too long ago being able to go down to field level and meet players who were signing balls-and this was during thr 96-2000 run. I don’t remember the Yanks winning anything in terms of titles since then, so why the restrictions?
Personally, I don’t really give a damned about the high priced seats. Since I couldn’t afford, nor would I pay $100-$200 to see a ballgame in the first place, I have no reason to complain about who sits where. If I did have the money to affird it, I certainly wouldn’t be overly happy being seated to squalling, snotty nosed kids or loud, obnoxious drunks. The point is, you wouldn’t do it, either…no more than you’d find it acceptable in a fine restaurant.
If I did have the money to ***afford*** it
Dear Lonn Trost,
Me and a bunch of other Lo-Hudders feel very bad for you and we would like to purchase several full price legends seats. The 2,500$ ones.
Please meet us Under O’Neill’s Banner where we will happily complete this transaction.
Thanks,
P.S.
Please bring your friend Randy Levine.
I agree with the policy on getting close to the field.
If you want an autograph, then spend $500 dollars and buy one from Steiner Sports. No need to bother the players. I imagine the players don’t want to be bothered by fans. If they sign for one, they have to sign for 200. Not worth it for them.
And is watching batting practice that big of a deal? BP-TV on YES will be shown on hundreds of plasma screens throughout the stadium.
Stadium is fine. Fan safety is first. Things should be orderly, not people moving freely through the stadium.
Can someone start an online petition with the URL FireLonnTrost.com???
Jonathan-you are what’s wrong with baseball. You’re putting them on a pedestal.
Wow. these comments are outrageous!
“If you build a stadium…do you want people in your stadium?” Can’t the Yankees just sell some batting practice add-on for like 5 bucks..or better yet tell the non existent fans on the field level to move the F over!
It would go a long way if the Yankees made a kid zone for the purpose of signing balls for a finite time period.
You would also think that whatever policy was in place at the old stadium would be in place at the new one. Logically speaking.
Years from now, all this won’t even matter. market prices will prevail and things will fall into place.
One thing we know is that baseball will be played year after year. If wars, luxury taxes, revenue sharing, expansion, and the mets couldn’t destroy Yankee baseball, what the Steinbrenners do or allow to be done won’t kill it either.
It seems we have a fascist in our midst. Jonathan, you disgust me.
Sic semper tyrannis.
So which venue is now the cathedral of sports? Sure as hell not Yankee Stadium anymore.
Pete, how about a poll
“What do you like least about the New Yankee Stadium?
- Monument Cave
- Home Run hitters Park
- No Batting Practice
- Concrete
- It’s perfect”
and when 95% of the people pick “No BP” a week from now, we can forward the results to Trost….
This year, the Yankees play in
Baltimore
Boston
Toronto
Tampa
Chicago
Cleveland
Detroit
Kansas City
Anaheim
Oakland
Dallas
Seattle
Miami
Atlanta
Shea Stadium
Go to one of those stadiums if you want autographs/BP
I hope Trost chokes on his lobster dinner tonight, that bastard.
Clemson, I think that Fenway, love it and/or hate it, can lay co-claim to that title with Wrigley Field. Not too many stadiums around now in ANY sport that predate the 1970s.
As an Islanders fan, I hate to admit it, but one could make a very strong case as well for Madison Square Garden.
The question for Lonn Trost is DO YOU WANT PEOPLE IN YOUR HOUSE???
Memo to Lonn: No one wants your overpriced seats. If you keep it up, no one will want the cheap seats either.
“Jonathan-you are what’s wrong with baseball.”
First it was the mound, then the DH, then specialized pitching, then pitch counts, then PEDs and now Jonathan.
I’m not as concerned about the lack of access to the fans as I am about the church-like atmosphere and no buzz at all. All the empty seats, sparse crowds… no longer a rowdy, intimidating Yankee crowd. It is like a Wimbledon crowd.
That must be fixed before anything else
What Lonn clearly fails to realize is that his analogy is total crap and built on a very faulty premise. Its more like saying, if you lived in a house and then, the government repossessed it to make some money and kicked you out, would you want to live in a card board box? Because thats basically what the yanks did – lonn, THE MORON that he is fails to see that the fans in the bleachers are not exactly your every day casual fan. Im pretty sure 90 percent of the people around my bleacher section on sunday are people that had sunday season tickets or some other day, and were forced (Not chose but forced) to take a bleacher seat(s) in fear that we would not be able to get season tickets again ever again if we didnt which was exactly what the yanks implied.
Not only do they have an army guarding ever niche of the stadium that is NEVER even full but they enforce the seat policy like it is the yanks greatest mission. I know that a lot of fans around me including myself got tickets this year just in the hopes that next year, the yanks will see the error of their ways and we will be able to get a decent seat again. It took us 10 years to get a fantastic seat in the old stadium and it took the organization one off-season to demote us to seats that pale in comparison to the seats we received the FIRST season we bought sunday season tickets. I dont even think, I KNOW that the yanks are going to drop off a ton in attendance next season if they dont improve some of these absolutely ludicrous policies they have implementing so far. And lonn needs to work on his people skills. I mean, fine, you say no to the question but he didnt have to be a f&ckin’ d!c- about it. Forget about walking into his house right now, if I had the opportunity, I would piss all over his couch right now.
Unreal. We went to the game in Baltimore on Saturday. The highlight of the boys night was being close enough to the field to yell Joba’s name and he actually looked at them.
Kids were all over watching BP. Its important to them. I am disappointed in the Yankees organization.
“Steve B May 12th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
“My nickname for Randy Levine is Krusty the Klown. I’ll have to come up with one for Lonn.”
Same show Jennifer. Trost is Montgomery Burns. I can see it now:
Smithers: There are people watching batting practice at field level who appear to be at or around median income for the tri-state area, Mr. Trost
Trost(Burns): Riff Raff? At the field level?
Smithers: Yes sir. Kids. People who know about baseball. I even saw one guy who drove himself to the Stadium.
Trost(Burns): Release the hounds!”
Post Of The Year.
THEY ARE COMPLETE CLOWNS
And it’s sad really sad that the Yankees have turned to that, money sharks, and we’re the villagers w/ no Robin Hood in sight.
“How many of you people have sat in those seats and realized how annoying it is not to be able to sit down because you got 100 people in front of you trying to get an autograph. Keep them out of those seats unless they belong in that section….”
——
i sat out there in right field HR land during a playoff game. i thought it was pretty cool that i didn’t have to go anywhere else for BP. try again.
Toronto has hit 44 HRs in 34 games
No – worries. I will just continue to see the Yanks play at Camden Yards. Very Nice Ballpark. Yankee Stadium South.
Calm down – this is turning into a game thread!
Lonn Trost and Randy Levine are ruining the Yankees. It sucks, plain and simple.
lololol, clemens brings up his step dad
Is Jonathan really Lon Trost in disguise?
m
May 12th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It would go a long way if the Yankees made a kid zone for the purpose of signing balls for a finite time period.
You would also think that whatever policy was in place at the old stadium would be in place at the new one. Logically speaking.
————————————————————
I’ve mentioned that before. The White Sox used to have an on-the-field Camera Day. It was supposed to be for the kids to have pictures taken with their favorites. The only problem was that adults got involved and started shoving the kids to the rear and then wanted the polaroids autographed and when that was denied, they called into the radio hacked and then wrote letters to the “Knights Of The Keyboards” about how “shabbily” they were treated. One it involves adults, they’ll screw it up for the kids. Kids want autographs to keep…so-called adults want them to sell.
As a big Yankee fan I am so disappointed in Trost and the entire organization for the way they have set up the new stadium as well as ticket pricing. As excited as I was to have a new stadium I now wish they would have just renovated the old stadium. I’ll be going to minor league games with my son this summer and screw Yankee Stadium and Trost.
I just saw Kevin Arnold’s dad (Dan Lauria) outside my building. Any Wonder Years fans?
I don’t understand why this surprises anyone. The Yankee organization never missed the chance to soak us for every last nickel at the old Stadium; the new Stadium gives them vastly more opportunities, but the greed is the same, just more liberally applied.
It should be crystal-clear at this point that the Yankee brass doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about the fans or the fan experience; it’s a business with a profit motive for them. They want butts in the seats and cars in the parking garages and lines at the concession stands. The product on the field? Strictly ancillary.
Is this a New York attitude? Or is this guy just out of touch completely? I’ve never been to New York, but this guy seems very insensitive to the needs of his customers, only interested in how to make his job better. Just wondering if this is a business style common in New York. Either way, it won’t work, and the business will fail. But it’s not like nobody told him to get his act together.
the problem with you people is that you are there for bp homeruns and not the game, maybe that’s why it is so quiet during the games
“It is like a Wimbledon crowd.”
Sadly, it is also like the US Open crowd at Flushing Meadows. I used to go frequently, but the new Tennis Stadium ruined it for me. Too big, too much. Oh well, progress ain’t what it used to be, eh?
This would have never happen if George was still alive.
Everyone:
Call 718 293 4300 and ask for Lonn Trost’s office.
Leave a message with his secy or ask for his voice mail.
I left a nice message suggesting he take a long wak off a short bridge.
Very mature of me, I know!!
But I enjoyed it.
Now everyone follow my lead.
Flood the jerk with calls. Ruin his day. Let Lonny Trost know who the real Yankee fans are!!
Pete,
cAN YOU print out this comment section and give it to Lonn at some point. iM SURE he would love to hear how much the fans love him. I mean afterall, the game is about the fans, no? Ive heard that sentence a lot the past few years – the game is all about the fans. And i always thought it was BS but in the back of my mind, i WANTED to think it was true. I mean obviously the players want to win too but a team should play for its fans. From Lonn’s demented statment, he has made it abundantly clear that this franchise doesnt give a sh!t about its fans right now. Maybe they never did but they certainly never spit in our faces like he just did.
So I guess LT’s never heard of the saying “open house open heart” . . .
I think Jonathan’s last name might be “Swift,” as in sarcasm and satire and Modest Proposals.
“Can someone start an online petition with the URL FireLonnTrost.com???”
i’d settle for Bring-Back-BP-at-NYS.com…
Or feel free to e mail him:
ltrost@yankees.com
more than a little worried about tonight’s game. these jays hitters are ultra-aggressive and Halladay’s refused to speak to media the last 2 days. the jays will have all kinds of grrr for AJ leaving for greener pastures (even though they’d do the same thing!).
Chris Russo is KILLING Clemens on his show
Pretty funny, he is going off lol
oops. don’t know if doc’s refused to speak to media, he may have just refused to answer any questions about aj.
My husband was at the Ray game last week and called a few times from his cell and the stadium was loud.
Unfortunately, the Yankees haven’t given the fans much to cheer about at home lately but hopefully that will change soon.
Lonn Trost doesn’t get it
http://www.puristbleedspinstri.....et-it.html
The Yankees could learn a thing or two from the Mets.
The Mets are very fan-friendly and accessible. Then again, they are not the big bad corporate Yankees who are always greedy, they are a baseball team interested in serving the fans.
I wish the Yankees would get off their high horse and realize the rest of the world hates them, and they are making their own fans despise them. Pretty soon, the rich fans are all they will have left. And in this economy, that is like what, 1% of the population?
Simple solution:
Allow free movement in the luxury seats right down to the front row until a half hour before the game. Then make an announcement and boot out non-Legends people. None of the hoity-toity will be there before then.
If they’re worried about having non-Who’s-Who proles polluting their plush Legends Suite area, Lonn Trost and Randy Levine can suck the everyman flatulence out of all those expensive padded seats.
That Clemens interview was the biggest waste of time ever.
Yankees brass reads the blog. They know what we’re saying. They probably can predict what everyone thinks because we keep harping on it.
BL-Yankees FAN
May 12th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
No – worries. I will just continue to see the Yanks play at Camden Yards. Very Nice Ballpark. Yankee Stadium South.
——————————————————-
It is such a nice stadium, isn’t it? And friendly too. Yankees fans co-exist with Baltimore fans – very little trouble, if any.
We try to go down once a year to see a game. Club Level seats – only $50.00 (not too expensive) – hotel, minutes before the entry way.
Umm! The game is about the money! Not the fans. It always has been and always will be.
And the players play just for the fun of it too!! LOL!
AJ leaving for greener pastures
——————————–
Well, more money anyhow. Not sure how much “greener” anything is in reality. Especially reading this thread.
Trost is such a loser. It’s sad the Yankees have come to this. If I had the money, I’d buy one of those suites and let any fan in to get autographs at any time during BP.
Ares –
No, Lonn’s view is not a new york thing as you can tell from the hundreds of comments from new yorkers who have all pretty much replied witht the same sense of disgust and frustration that this guy has anything to do with the organization. Ive never heard anyone in any type of business management position just blatantly spit in the face of his customers like lonn just did and i have lived in NY my whole life.
Ricciardi has been a very solid GM, very quietly.
Toronto won 86, 83, 87 games the last 3 years, all in the best division in baseball. Put them in the Central or West, and they probably make the playoffs in 2 of those years.
Great young players, has some money, great pitching.
It’s my sincerest hope that Lonn Trost choke on his next yankee stadium hot dog.
I agree, Jill. Camden is so nice. Even Fenway is a great place to catch a game, and I can get to either place, get a hotel, and all the bells and whistles for just as much as I can get into the Bronx. Toronto is very nice as well, but Tampa is an absolute garbage dump.
Baseball is not a business. It’s a sport, played for FUN. You’re taking away from the fun when you don’t let people go see BP up close and personal. Who the f wants to go watch BP on a big screen. Hearing the crack of the ball, smelling the cut grass, and being able to see your baseball hero with your own eyes instead of a camera’s is something that you may have missed, Jonathan, and whoever else that may agree with him. That’s why people are angry with the rule, and rightly so.
I can understand not wanting to have a hundred extra people in your section, especially loud kids, but I don’t understand why they can’t allow kids and their parents in that section up until an hour before the game. That is simply ridiculous.
Why don’t a bunch of fans hold a protest in front of Yankee stadium and express our disgust for this guy.
That Lonn Trost really has a sense of reality. Most of the suites are empty too so that example only makes me laugh. Welcome to the New Yankee Stadium: We Cater to the Upper Class.
Shanahan,
You caught that one, good job. Actually, AJ left for a pasture. The mound may be the best in the league according to AJ, but it’s a crime that big league baseball’s still being played on carpet.
“If they’re worried about having non-Who’s-Who proles polluting their plush Legends Suite area, Lonn Trost and Randy Levine can suck the everyman flatulence out of all those expensive padded seats.”
it’s not even the Legends seats though. We just want the 100 level in fair territory!
Guys: This isn’t George! It’s not the man who scratched and clawed in back alley deals and made himself. This is the work of his life-long privaleged Greenich Village kids. These two idiots know one thing – catering to the rich. We better get used to it.
Read Sam Borden’s article and I say again, Trost is a tool. And if I *ever* get the money to buy a season pass in one of those “suites”, you can bet your bippy, I’d be cursing out security to let any kid in who wants an autograph.
_Lonn Trost is a tool_
If you were a taxpayer, and you bought a house for a billionaire, and the billionaire hired private security to keep from standing on the lawn…well, you get the picture.
Is there some sort of blog/post somewhere in Yankee land that they actually read? I was wondering if there was any way to send them a petition on what needs to be changed…?
For all of you who say it’s a business and always will be, you are correct but you are not seeing the complete picture. Bad PR affects business. What the Yankees have done is basically create and foster negative stories about themselves through idiotic decisions. Maximize your profit, that’s the way it is, but don’t alienate the majority of fans in the process. It makes no freakin’ sense.
I love the ESPN radio preview of Mets-Giants this Sunday on ESPN
“East meets West as Jose Reyes and the Mets take on Randy Winn and the Giants”
LOL
What I meant to say is that you can’t maximize your profits if you alienate the majority of fans…
The Mets @ Red Sox and Phillies @ Yankees series’ on Memorial Day weekend is going to be crazy
Take down that moat, Mr Trost!
Bottom line: it’s cheaper to fly to Seattle, rent a car, watch the Yanks lose at Safeco, enjoy some tasty Pacific Northwest grub, and live the high life in a four star hotel than to go to a game at YS2.5. Click through either link for the math (yfsf).
http://www.kottke.org/09/05/th.....ee-stadium
Yankeefan 23, I’m in for a protest of some sort, a petition of some sort, a storming of the moat during BP at some point…
What is the “O’Neil banner” joke?
Everyone of us grew up being able to stand along the walls during BP. Just having the “CHANCE” to snag an autograph or get a player to wave to you was enough to make the day and ballpark experiance enjoyable.
Now the Yankees want to cut that out of the new generation of fans, that will be attending this stadium for the next 50 years?
Unreal.
I live an die with the Yankees, and today, i feel like a piece of me just died.
I wish The Yankees were run by Baseball people again.
Santana has a 0.78 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 48 innings
Shame that he is being wasted away in Queens
I’m disgusted by this. I had season tickets in 2005 and 2006, sitting with the peons in the upper deck.
I now live in Florida. This summer I’m taking a trip up with my wife and son. I love the Yankees but I will not support this stadium. For $35 a seat I got tickets in the first 3 rows of the upper deck behind home plate at Citi Field. Hell, I got seats at face value (through a connection) for $80 back behind the plate at Fenway.
However, I’m not contributing to this current mess. What a disgrace.
7 UP.
If Santana wasn’t in Queens and in the Bronx, his numbers would look like every other good starter that comes to the AL East. It’s where pitchers go to be challenged.
sunny: I have it on good authority that there’s one fan blog out there they have read. (Not mine, btw).
I promised I wouldn’t say which. All you need to know is that they know the blogs are out there.
This just in from Lonn Trost:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
I’m not sure I can do anything about the wind. We have done wind studies, we have hired meteorologsts, we can’t change the weather. I have learned to focus on the things that I can control. To that end, we have announced that September 16 will be Melky Cabrera Night. Our statisticians have projected that Melky will hit his 74th home run that night. As a reward for our faithful fans and customers we will be adding a 30% surcharge to the price of tickets for Melky Night.
You’re welcome,
Lonn
There has been no better marketer in MLB in the last 30 years than the NYY. These comments are the other end of the spectrum of how George would have handled things IMO. It appears the NNY need some marketing savvy/media relations folks at the present time. It is never a good idea to have a COO “talk” to the customers if they are this far removed.
-dennis
Randy Levine, this is on you. This is your legacy, a ballpark for the rich, while utterly dismissing your loyal fan base. Your pomposity, your utter disdain for anyone and anything that doesn’t agree with you, your bullheadedness in not doing something about this when it became obvious to everyone that there was going to be a problem.
And Lonn: Suck it, you obnoxious SOB. Way to ruin it for the diehards and the kids who show up early to watch baseball, not a freakin’ mallpark. Schmuck.
The kids aren’t good enough to enjoy BP close up, but they’re good enough to be paying taxes for the rest of their lives to pay off all the bonds that built this tacky new stadium.
“If you purchased a suite, do you want people in your suite. If you purchased a house, do you want people in your house?”
the question lonn tross should be asking is if someone is an average person and they are going to root for a team and invest all that energy into it, why should they invest all that energy into in a team that doesn’t care about the average fan and their kids.
rooting for a team is a complex thing. it’s kind of irrational if you think about it. i used to watch every football giant and celtic game. i don’t watch either anymore. somewhere along the line , the rooting line snapped.
lonn tross and the yankees had better watch out. they are probably losing people they don’t even know about.
Mike wrote:
“It’s my sincerest hope that Lonn Trost choke on his next yankee stadium hot dog.”
Or any thing else he likes to put in his mouth.
Hi:
The whole thing with BP is just gross and greedy.
We all get that people in the pricey seats don’t necessarily want their space invaded, but the solution is simple. Just open up the ends on both the first and third base sides, from the base to the foul pole, and ask people to leave an hour before game time. Realistically, not all the people in the top seats come to every game, nor do they come THREE hours before game time, which is when the park now opens (it used to be two hours beforehand).
This exclusionary nonsense is not only bad PR and bad fan relations, but also bad business. My son liked to try to get autographs and balls. We’d head into the Bronx immediately after he got home from school and get food and drinks at the stadium. Now, since we’ve gone to four games and we can’t get down to the field, we don’t feel the need to leave so early. We eat at home or we grab fast food on the way in. That’s lost revenue for the Yankees. Multiply that over however many fans every game and it’s not an insignificant amount of money.
To put this in more perspective, the Mets allow people down in one section by the third base line. The the usher who told me about it during our game at Citi Field couldn’t have been nicer. The ushers at Yankee Stadium seemed embarrassed telling people they couldn’t go down. The first couple of games, the people at the customer service office didn’t even know this absurd policy was in place. The Yankees are really sucking the fun out of it for the little guy.
Trost’s comments were flat-out ones for the hall of shame. Even if that’s what the Yankees are THINKING, you don’t actually SAY it. And I prefer to think of Yankee Stadium as a PUBLIC ballpark since so much of New Yorkers’ dollars went into building it. And, really, I prefer to think of the place as a time share rather than a house. In a time share, you get your allotment of time in the place.
A big Bronx cheer to the Yankees — and a challenge to Pete and Sam: please, please, please ask the PLAYERS about it.
Matthew
May 12th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
What is the “O’Neil banner” joke?
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/200.....t-yankees/
Look at 4:56 post from RANSOM SUCKS and read the ones before and after:
Funniest thing ever
Yankees Brass – Morons. Just morons.
A house is a bit different than a ball game. If people in the front rows are that concerned about snotty nose kids ruining their game, stay home and watch it on TV. Or, be a real rich person and buy a suite. Don’t get me wrong, if you pay more, you deserve more, but for batting practice, this just shouldn’t even be a conversation. Judging by the stories of the Yankees Security, I imagine they could certainly clear the seats 1 hour prior to game time.
I fly all the time, so I get upgraded to first class a lot, but should a coach passenger not be allowed to use the “first class” bathroom? It is just a stupid rule, though, it is never enforced. It has been my experience that “first class” people are first class jerks. Sounds like the same applies to these seats and BP.
We must protect this house!
I love how people are just blaming Lonn Trust for the horribly unequal conditions that this stadium has clearly and intentionally implemented. Yea, he is COO but he didnt decide to price the wide majority of the real fan base out of any decent seat alone. It was a decision made by the FO and not just one person. Trust is just representing what all the other execs in the FO were thinking in his retarded way and because he has the people skills of a schizophrenic with rabies who forgot to take his meds, he couldnt say it in a decent way like some of the other execs who are being just as pinheaded but actually thinks before they speak. Remember when the yanks sent out some BS saying that the seats in the new stadium would be comparable to those that ticket holders had in the old stadium? Wow – did they think we wouldnt notice or something? its really just a matter of opinion – with you rather be someone spit right in your face or dance and BS their way around the question and then, stab you in the back.
From: Lonn Trost
To: Distribution
Re: IMMEDIATE RELEASE
In recognition of the trying economic times, and in response the complaints of our loyal customers and fans, the Yankees are proud to announce our Ticket Discount Program. We recognize that times are hard and that Yankee baseball plays an important role in the lives of our most valued customers. We will offering 20% discounts on tickets to members of the Greenwich Yacht Club, the Winged Foot, and the East Hampton Polo Club. We continue, as always, to renew our commitment to making Yankee baseball available and accessible to our fans.
Best,
Lonn
1) Uhh, Lenny, I don’t see too many people there period-I guess the Lehman Bros, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and AIG suites are still available
2) Great Business plan-Piss off your customers-I’ll bet they’ll really want to go buy a lot of overpriced souvenirs after being run out by the goons
3) Where’s Brodsky-Is he still thanking his lucky stars for having such complete bufoons as adversaries?
SERIOUSLY PETE,
If there is one excellent way to approach this, it would be asking a few of the yankee players what they think of Lonn’s brilliance and hopefully, some of the MORE HONEST players if you can. iT would be interesting to hear what the players think of their COO basically telling the fans that they dont give a sh^t anymore and will say it to our face.
Went to a game two Saturdays ago and had $50 seats in the upper deck. My friends and i walked around the stadium during batting practice and wanted to go down to the bleacher section and try and catch some home runs. They wouldn’t let us in. My seat was MORE expensive then those bleacher seats and i would have left when batting practice was over. I didn’t want to sit anywhere near that giant eyesore of a club. I just wanted to try and catch fly balls/ home runs.
Someone else said it best, i hate the Yankee organization more than i hate how the team is playing right now.
Pete, please pass along the thoughts in this thread to those higher ups or point us in the right direction to complain.
Does the gall ever stop???
From the Steiner website –
“Please note that a 15% or a minimum $10 buyer’s premium will be added to the final winning bid amount.”
I am not making that up.
MattNC May 12th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Simple solution:
Allow free movement in the luxury seats right down to the front row until a half hour before the game. Then make an announcement and boot out non-Legends people. None of the hoity-toity will be there before then.
**********************
I dunno, seems to work in every single other MLB stadium, probably no way it would work at NYS.
Mr Trost, I have a house. I invite guests to my house, serve them nice food & drink and they have a good time. They generally leave when I make clear the party is over. Maybe your house is different, but you might want to try another analogy. Maybe along the lines of the dear, late departed Leona Helmsley’s “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”
How about asking the players “so, how do you like not having to sign autographs for kids before games?”
bASEBALL may be just a business to the front office but seriously, how many businesses can have any sort of sustained success when they completely disrespect and totally ignore the needs of the wide majority of their customers? I mean whether it is for the fans or whether it is just to make money, the worst possible move management could ever pull is to piss off the fan base to the extent that they actually start losing fans because of the front office, ticket pricing and the inabiity to meet the needs of the average fan. You just keep selling those luxury boxed with complete disdain for the average fan and pretty soon, the box seats will be the only seats left filled. Ive said it before and Ill say it again, you get a good enough high def tv and some surround sound and most fans can live going to the stadium no more than once or twice a season.
The new stadium makes me sad. It is missing any sense of character. The old stadium gave me a sense of pride. I loved watching games on TV. I dislike watching games on TV now. The Yankees missed completely.
From: Lonn Trost
To: Distribution
Re: IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A press conference has been scheduled in the Dead Legends Conference Room at the Goldman Sachs Media Center, part of the New Yankee Stadium, brought to you by Utz. At the press conference we would will announce the live auction, by Steiner Sports and Collectibles and Other Jock Sniffer Stuff, brought to you by Morgan Stanley, American Express, and Little Debbies, the official snack cake of Roy White, of game day used syringes found recovered from the training room of Old Yankee Stadium, brought to you by UBS and Tang. Steiner sports offers the syringe collection to the most discriminating collectors. Each syringe will be auctioned in its original condition and authenticated by Gene Monahan, brought to you by Just For Men Hair Coloring. Former and current players are invited and encouraged to aprticpate in the auction.
Ciao,
Lonn
Let them choke on their 15% buyers fee and their old crappy plastic seats.
Seriously. Every day I wish I was a Pirates fan – at least this way, I would expect to lose but make the best of it. As a Yankee fan, I expect to win (who wouldn’t with this payroll and other stuff), but then you combo the losing with all this other BS, and it’s harder and harder to show loyalty to something that just doesn’t care about it’s bread and butter anymore.
Baseball owes its current popularity to its appeal to working people and their families over the past century. The Yankees are popular with the wealthy of the greater NYC area BECAUSE the team is popular with the everyday Joe who brings his kids to the ballpark, buys them hats and other souveniers, and introduces them to the magic of the game on the field. If New York was like Miami, meaning that the average citizen in the city shows little interest in the team, and the general admission ticket sales were lackluster, the Yankees would be much less financially successful (regardless of the large corporate or premier season ticket commitments). Taking this a step further, a wealthy person would feel much less of an incentive to spend a lot of money for certain seats if the stadium was to be otherwise empty. I am all for providing special incentives and benefits to those willing and able to pay enormous prices for seats at the stadium, but the Yankees need to figure out a way to do so without restricting/constricting the experience of the average (and oftentimes more loyal) fan. The ballpark experience right now (in spite of the restaurants, clean bathrooms, and historic paraphenalia) has becomes less special. If the general attitude of the front office continues in this manner, more people might simply stay home and watch YES. The Yankees are dangerously close to alienating a significant percentage of their fan base.
The Yankees missed completely.
Well, yeah. Only this year it’s in the house, not the groceries in the cubbard.
kind of disappointed at no Thurston Howell post in this thread
Saucy:
How would you like to cut my lawn?
To: Marketing Department
cc:
From:
Another point I forgot to express: the Yankee front office must figure out a way to get the posh ticket holders to attend some games! It’s nice, revenue wise, to have these annual commitments, but these people need to fill the seats at game time, too. It’s embarrassing to see all those empty seats behind homeplate! This is not a summer home in the Hamptons, for Pete’s sake! Show up and root for the team! (Or give or sell them to someone who will!!)
To: Marketing Department
cc: Steiner Sports and Collectibles
From: Lonn Trost
I have in my possession a post-game used towel from Derek Jeter, from the May 10, 2009 game at Baltimore. Please submit any and all ideas to profit from this unique, valuable and quite frankly, sexy collectible.
Ever,
Lonn
It should have been “The House That Jeter Built”–classy, gritty, a place that represents the pride of playing a gentleman’s sport to win.
Instead, we have “The House That A-Rod Built”–all the bells and whistles, but a shallow core that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. A fake.
Trost is a complete tool
To: Stadium Security
From: Lonn Trost
Re: El Maestro
Keep an eye on him. I don’t trust him one bit.
See ya,
Lonn
To take it one step further, the new Stadium tells the world that the new Yankee brass cares much more about “the show” and “the stars”, typified by A-Rod, than they do about winning, typified by DJ.
The page has officially turned…
To: AC
From: LT
Re: Pages
Like many of my congessional friends I have been known to turn a page or two.
Courage,
Lonn
Judge Smales
May 12th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Saucy:
How would you like to cut my lawn?
——-
id depends
how many acres?
do i have to bring my own mower?
To: Lost and Found Deaprtment
From: Lonn Trost
Re: Misplaced Personal Items
Have you possibly come into possession of one (1) corn cobb pipe, two (2) tartan ascots, and one (1) Zagats Food and Wine Guide?
Please advise.
Lonn
Oh, I’m in trouble now…
…but he is a complete tool.
*it
How detatched from the fans can you be? Maybe Lonn likes the look of empty seats so much during the game he wants the same look during B.P. Hal better step up and take care of business. The fans are growing ugly.
Unless someone hands me a free ticket there is no way I can afford to step foot in the new stadium again.
But the fact that the Yankees would alienate children from experiencing batting practice and trying to get their heros to give them an autograph is not only disgraceful but also rather stupid.
One kid gets Jeter to sign a ball during batting practice and you have fan for life. To deny this to kids to protect exorbitantly over priced seats that no one is buying… Seems like a no-brainer.
To: Peter Abraham
cc: Gannett Newspaper Bigwigs
From: Lonn Trost
Please note my objection to the electronic publication of my likeness appearing at the top of this entry. This picture portrays me in an unfair light. I am much whiter than that.
Regards,
Lonn
Lonn Trost made himself sound like a d-bag there. I understand his analogy – I don’t agree with it – but there must’ve been a better way of putting it than that.
One of the perks of living in Florida – Spring Training
We’ve been to a bunch of parks in the Central Florida area, and they’ve always been very fan friendly (with, ironically enough, the Braves complex at Disney being the least accommodating, but still good). My wife still talks about “the time that Pettite smiled and waved” at her this spring at Big Stein Field… (And I still tell her, that like a baby, he just had gas 
A lot of players LIKE to sign autographs. They LIKE to see the hero worship in a ten year old’s eyes as they warm up for the game. Some players like to exchange a casual greeting with an avid fan as he walks to and from the batting cage. I wonder how these players feel now that their home field is a vaccuum, sucking any home field advantage and personal touch out of the air…
Hey people. If this stuff about Yankee Stadium pisses you off make sure you do something about it. i.e: stop going to games. I gave up my Sunday plan back in 1998 when I saw this nonsense starting. They started taking away the guaranteed playoff tickets to the partial plan owners. Funny how they waited til the Yankees were a playoff team to take that one off the table. It has gone downhill ever since. I will go to one game this year and spend as little money on concessions as I possibly can.
Maybe this nonsense will reverse itself when the fans let them know it’s not ok to have to blow a week’s pay to take the family to a game.
To: Stadium Security
From: Lonn Trost
Re: Weeks Pay
Find out who this Weeks Pay fellow is. He seems to be profiting somehow from our ticket sales.
Yours,
Lonn
Pete: There’s nothing in the LoHud story about Monument Cave. Was Trost asked a question about it?
Also while you’re at it, ask the players how much they like playing to a bunch of empty seats every night. One thing that used to be a draw for players from around MLB to come to the Yankees was the Yankee Stadium crowd. Crowd? What crowd?
The yankees and Steiner are going to take a beating on this crap!
Last week I went to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for the Red Sox game, and then went to Citi field on Wednesday to see the phillies v mets.
My observation – Yankee stadium feels like a clinical revenue machine, built with little care for anyone but the $300+ fnas, and citi field feels like it was built to please every single fan in the place.
The difference was stark.
It simply cant stay like this. Hopefully Trost gets the boot, and they fix the problems in the off season.
At least it seems like most things that are wrong are probably fixable.
THIS close to saying goodbye to the New York Yankees, after thirty-plus years of fandom.
I just can’t handle it anymore. I only have two hands — holding my nose and plugging my ears was tough enough. Now I’m expected to cover my eyes, too?
Congratulations Mssrs. Trost and Levine — you are squandering away a generation of young fans-to-be, and in the long run lots of money to boot.
You can take your moat and your suites and stick them where the Mohegan Sun Bar don’t shine.
I’ve been a die hard Yankee fan for over 30 years now (since I was an autograph seeking child) and attended many games at the old stadium. Sadly, my passion for this team is starting to dwindle. The Yankees have gone from a first rate organization that I was extremely proud of, to one that embarrasses me and makes me sick to my stomach. They can take their greedy, arrogant corporate attitudes and “Titanic” of a new stadium and stick it!
I refuse to pay that much for a pair of seats from Yankee Stadium- why they don’t even have Teak arm rests!
I’ve been a true Yankee fan for many years. My family finally made it to the stadium last year. I was proud to be there. I am now embarassed and disgusted. Empty seats at the stadium. This new stadium was a mistake. They’ve taken the team away from the true Yankee’s fan.
I have often criticized the general malaise in here but wow!
Proud of what I am reading here today. Now I know I’m not the only one who hates this guy Trost, from the moment Kay the shill, interviewed him, I saw right thru him. It didn’t take his “do you want people in your suite or home” quote to tell me what he was. As I said before this is the “House That Trost Built,” and he was damn proud of it, chirping away for Kay.Well, I hope he reads these and has a conscience. And I’d like to know what they did to Hank, did they lock him up in the basement like what was name in “Goonies?”
The only hope for this organization may be Hal Steinbrenner. He sounds like he actually has a head on his shoulders. Hank is a complete dunce, and Trost and Levine are truly reprehensible human beings. I thought Levine was bad, but Trost may actually be worse. I went to one game in May, and I have tickets for another game in June. And that will be it for me until the team starts to fix some of the problems. And the product on the field right now stinks. If I want to see the Yankees in person I’ll go to Baltimore or Toronto where the prices are reasonable and the fans are actually treated with respect. The Legends seats in the moat are the Yankees tribute to greed and elitism. Disgusting.
I think there are 2 ways the fans can go here. Stop going to the games and stop buying the overpriced junk the team sells.
Or go to the game and start expressing how we really feel. Some of you may recall 1981 after Steinbrenner failed to re sign Reggie Jackson. In Reggie’s first trip back to the Stadium as an Angel, he went deep off Guidry and the crowd went nuts. The famous ” Steinbrenner Sucks ” chant started in the Stadium and George went storming out of his suite and was not seen again for months. I know. I was there.
Time for the fans to let Trost and Levine know what we think of them and what they’ve done to OUR TEAM. They’re just a couple of over paid suits who only care about the bottom line. So put Bruce on the CD player and listen to ” The Rising “, and when the team comes home let the world know what we really think.
Seize the Day !!!
“It should have been “The House That Jeter Built”—classy, gritty, a place that represents the pride of playing a gentleman’s sport to win.”
You mean like Jeter’s classy, gritty, 30,000 square foot house?
this comment on Borden’s story says it ALL!
Never mind that without us, the building would be dead. There would be nobody in the place. We are the Yankee fans! We are Yankee Stadium! It was dead after the 1994 strike. We brought it back to life and made it rock!
and if you don’t believe it or are to young to remember an empty Stadium, take a look at some of the video highlights from Don Mattingly’s early to mid career. The place is a SEA of BLUE EMPTY SEATS!
Ron,
I was there for Reggie’s second visit that season and he homered off Guidry again and got a standing O!
i watched the game you were at on TV.
I hear that if the seats don’t sell they plan to reduce them to half price or send you twice as many seats as you ordered
I want you guys to know that I printed this entire comment thread out and sent it via next-day air to Hal, George, and Brian (the three guys I felt might care) by UPS. All 43 pages. It’s worth the $60. So now you guys can rest assured that after tomorrow, the Yankees will have either read your feedback and made a conscious decision to ignore it.
Greg B
Why not to Hank? He, at least, showed some passion. I still wonder where he is gagged and shackled. Maybe with Jimmy Hoffa or the gimp from Pulp Fiction.
I hope they enjoy the Lonn Trost memos. I take pride in my work.
Wish I had some seats – anyone get any?