Jay Jaffe, one of the authors of the renowned Baseball Prospectus site, wrote this piece yesterday about his experience in attempting to transfer his season tickets package to the new stadium. To put it bluntly, he’s less than thrilled with the administration and overall philosophy that seems to lie behind the new stadium seating and ticketing plans.
We’re all used to the sturm and drang that typically accompanies the skyrocketing ticket prices for athletic events to the point where it becomes difficult to even pay attention, but Jay is not just a typical whining fan that you would normally get on a sports radio talk show. I know that some people wind up calling into these shows and writing comments on blogs as a manifestation of a general agitation with the universe in general or because they just need to vent. It’s difficult to take some of these comments seriously.
But Jay is normally an utterly rationally blogger who is highly logical and well-respected. There may be a real problem, here. Up to this point, there have always been enough cheap seats in Yankee Stadium to prevent the atmosphere from becoming entirely corporate and tepid. I’ve been to games where the Stadium shook at its foundations from the noise generated by the faithful. I wonder if it’s possible that will never happen again.
As more and more complaints that the cheaper $25 seats are not available begin to trickle in, it’s safe to wonder whether the affordable seats are now a grave exception rather than anything remotely resembling a rule. Have the Steinbrener’s merely thrown a few affordable seats into the vast pool in order to make it seem as if it were still possible for the average fan to go to a game? Are the Yankees at risk of alienating their fanbase? Are we doomed to a new Yankee Stadium overflowing with corporate drones who dress as empty seats or come in the 4th inning and leave in the 6th? Have any of you other season ticket holders been having similar problems?
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4 Responses to New Stadium Alienates Loyal Fans?
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TIQ IQ
I have 2 Friday night seats in Tier Reserved 22 and they keep on giving me BS about how they’ll send their ticket offer soon. Today, they said they would send it in 2 weeks. I replied with, “The Money Pit. That is my answer to that statement.”
Your statements seem to align with Jay’s. The Yanks seem to be mismanaging this situation on multiple different levels.
My dad has season tickets, or at least he did for the old stadium. I know he has those tickets for the new stadium, although I’m not too sure how it all panned out.
My family has had partial plans in the Grandstand the last 2 seasons – Tier 3. We’ve still not received a packet. When I got through, surprisingly quickly, on the phone a couple days ago, I was told there may not even be seats for us. Basically, they’re waiting to see who turns down what they’ve been offered before offering us anything. A couple friends who sat next to us last season have been moved to the bleachers. That’s about a 180 degree change in terms of seat location. If that happens to us, we’ll probably buy them, sell them and hope for better luck next season. As it is now, single game tickets in the Grandstand can be had rather cheaply. So glad the brokers bought them up. (sarcasm) We’ll just create our own 12-game plan.