Yankees, Mets misread what market will bear

[Ganja Ninja]

Wallace Matthews
April 20, 2009

Upon further review, maybe the Yankees and Mets should have built them smaller.

Their ballparks, I mean. One week into their new eras, and neither team seems able to fill the ones they have, despite reams of free publicity in newspapers and endless gratuitous hype on their own broadcasts.

Last year, when both teams finally owned up to the fact that there would be a total of 20,000 fewer seats between the two parks, it appeared New York would be grossly underserved. Now it appears the opposite is true, and the teams have no one to blame but themselves.

Ninety miles down the turnpike, they are turning fans away at Citizens Bank Park, and in New York, at least 10,000 seats go unoccupied every game. There can be only one explanation: The tickets are too damned expensive. And something must be done about it soon.



More: http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spwally2012673949apr19,0,3598819.column

[Auggie]

1. New ballpark might be too rich for its own good

Good article by Bruce Jenkins, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle (4-21-09):

Let's just say it: The real Yankee fans, the ones who perfected the art of sophisticated (or downright rude) heckling, have been priced out of the yard. They're way up in the rafters, wishing they'd brought a set of binoculars. You've undoubtedly heard of the $2,625 price tag on the most expensive seats - a figure so preposterous, it's not even real - but tickets cost in the $600-$800 range in the more reasonably choice locations.

<snip>

Take a hard look at this, recession or economic boom: If you're devoted to U2, or Springsteen, or the Rolling Stones, you just might pay $800 for that experience. You'll wince a little, but you know exactly what you'll get. How do you justify $800 for a baseball game - especially if it's an 8-1 loss to Gil Meche and the Kansas City Royals?

Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC fame, attended Yankee Stadium and the Mets' new ballpark within a week's time and couldn't believe the difference. "CitiField was loud and noisy," he wrote on his blog. "Yankee Stadium felt like a library - or at best, exactly like a spring-training game."

Where are the hard-core fans making all that noise? Where's the sudden rise to a standing ovation when a Yankee pitcher runs a two-strike count? Absent, at least so far, in a sea of noticeably empty seats. Eventually, the Yanks will establish a home-field advantage in this Grand Canyon of an establishment. It's inevitable. But as a mournful Billy Crystal (huge Yankee fan) wrote in a piece to the New York Times, "New, bigger, better. Sometimes, that ain't the answer."

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/21/SPVO175KES.DTL

[MaineDem]

2. I was surprised to see so many empty seats

I think Billy Crystal is right.

[Auggie]

3. Sad and yet a little gratifying

Sad to see one of the great venues in U.S. Sports history -- The New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium -- ruined by the ostentatious greed of it owners. This doesn't sound like a stadium built for the average baseball fan. And it sounds like that error in judgement might just bite the Steinbrenners in their collective butts.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. Even the people who can afford them don't want to sit in the high dollar section.

It's not like going to the old ballpark and sitting with regular fans. People want that old time feel. If they wanted to sit in an easy chair away from other fans they would sit home and watch it in Hi-def.

[Auggie]

6. Underscores how out-of-touch some of the wealthy elite in the country

can be (many of whom "serve" us in Congress, too).

[charlie and algernon]

5. i think that's hillarious

I will gladly continue to buy $15-20 outfield seats to Camden Yards. If I want to splurge, I'll pay 50-80 and sit behind home plate, lol. Or I'll go to their AA team, shell out a meek $14, and sit 2 feet behind the on-deck circle.

[LisaM]

7. The ESPN announcers even commented on this Saturday

they said that the feeling (in the new Yankee Stadium) behind home plate was much more like a Super Bowl, where the seats were generally just used for corporate entertainment rather than the rowdy, true fans.

I've sat in corporate boxes and I don't particularly like it. In fact, sometimes, even in just the box seats, the fans are not very engaged in the game (corporate box seats). Half the time the people are on their phones, texting or talking, probably seeing if they can be seen on TV.

[Captain Hilts]

10. Very true. Folks on corporate tickets don't give a damn about the home team or either team.

At FedEx field the entire 'club' level is very quiet during games.

[wilt the stilt]

8. Steinbrenners=Morons

especially the kid

[Captain Hilts]

9. Evidently, the lower level at Yankee stadium is really empty. nt

[MrPerson]

13. It could be that the players smell bad.

[cboy4]

11. The Giants have finally lowed some prices in the upper

deck near the outfield.

But they didn't have trouble filling the stadium during the first years at all.

Of course, the economy was better in 2000 (when the stadium opened) because a Democrat was still in the White House before Bush cheated and got in in 2001.

[Elwood P Dowd]

12. Back in the 1960s, I would often set in the $1.00 center field seats for Braves games.

I was a poor college kid and couldn't afford the expensive $5.00 seats except for the really good teams like the Giants, Dodgers, Reds, or Cardinals.

[Captain Hilts]

14. In Skydome, when it was new, I'd bike down to the stadium and sit in a $4 seat.

I couldn't afford to eat anything, but no big deal. I'd grade papers while I sat there.

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. I just noticed I misspelled "sit".

What a dumbass I am after a couple of brews...sit, set, sat, fuck it!

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Captain Hilts]

21. That's okay, 'set' is southern for 'sit' anyway. Cheers!

[Captain Hilts]

15. In Toronto's Skydome, the city mandated that there had to be some inexpensive seats.

I'd sit in the $4 seats. Outfield by the jumbotron.

Fine. A good deal.

The city and its taxpayers have paid for both of these palaces, are there any discount seats?

They should initiate a 3rd inning move-up program where some lucky folks in the upper deck get a chance to sit up close.

[rockymountaindem]

17. You can still get $9 seats ($2 on Tuesdays) at "Rogers Centre" 3rd deck behind the plate

I saw many Sox/Jays games there that way. It was cool, except that too many Canadian fans don't know the first thing about baseball fandom.

[LisaM]

18. Are they allowed to drink beer yet?

They cut off beer sales a couple of weeks ago after fans starting throwing baseballs at the Tigers' outfielders!!!

I haven't checked this year, but last year you could get Mariners' tickets for around or under $10.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Hi LisaM, haven't seen you around in a while. nt

[rockymountaindem]

23. I don't know anything about that

One of my friends was at that game. He said things started to spiral downhill after someone threw back a foul ball (I think) that had been hit by a Blue Jay. I said "You don't throw back foul balls, and you don't throw back balls hit by your own team. This just goes to show what I've always said... You Canadians are close, but you just don't get baseball".

[Captain Hilts]

19. Good to know for when I'm there in May!

[LisaM]

22. I don't think it was permanent, but I guess it came after a bunch of warnings

I don't mind drunk Canadians, but when it comes to trying to bean my Tigers, well, then I'd have to say something!