Damn Yankees

[nitrah55]

Yes, you read that right. Devoted Yankee fan me is nearing the end of his rope. As you might suspect, it's about money.

Maybe you've heard that the Yankees are building a new stadium- subsidized heavily by the state and city of New York, but that's another story. The main thing to know is that the new stadium has around 5,000 fewer seats than the old one.

The Yankees, like a lot of teams, have various ticket plans, full season and several others: 41 games (every other game), 20 games (1st game and every 4th game thereafter, and 2nd game and every 4th game thereafter), 12 game mid week games (selected by the Yankees) and Friday, Saturday and Sunday plans.

I have had for several years a Saturday plan- 12 games (we did not get tickets to Old Timers Day), which I split with a friend. I live about 2 hours from Yankee Stadium, so mid-week games don't really appeal to me. I applied for the Saturday plan for the new stadium. A couple months ago I learned the new Saturday plan was all 13 Saturdays (that's good) plus two midweek games of the Yankees' choosing (annoying, but not a deal killer). The main advantage to having a ticket plan is access to the pre-sale of post-sesaon tickets.

My invoice for my ticket plan has arrived. It is for a 12-game midweek plan. Reading Yankee blogs and talking to the Yankee ticket office, this is what I have learned:

The Yankees held back a bunch of seats for the 20 games and more plans which, because of the "premium service" for those seats (parking included, special food service), go for $350 a game. Those seats are going begging.

The Yankees claim fans had more interest in full season plans than they anticipated, and made seats available to the full season plans that would have gone to the other plans.

The Yankees have never had problems selling weekend seats, and would love to have weeknight sellouts, too.

This helps to explain why I got shunted to a midweek plan. My alternatives are to take what's offered, or decline and be put in a pool (that sounds ominous, no?) from which the Yankees will select fortunate patrons to be offered what plans are available.

But wait, there's more. For years, the Yankees said that scalping tickets bought through a ticket plan would be grounds for losing the ticket plan. That changed last year, when they made an arrangement with StubHub to allow resales-but the Yankees get a cut of the sales charges StubHub puts on each ticket.

I could take the 12-game plan, tickets to games I have no intention of going to, and resell them on StubHub, probably for a loss- but the Yankees will make money on my resale.

Yes, with the new stadium, the Yankees have turned many of their ticket plan holders into ticket brokers, and gotten a vig, to boot.

The question is, what do I do with the money I get from the resale? Buy tickets to fewer Yankee games, but ones I can actually attend? Or start rooting for the Long Island Ducks?

[littlebeast13]

New stadiums are all about greed, and that always extends to the ticket sales.... and I feel sorry for New Yorkers dealing with the double whammy of dual new stadiums....

I am just glad that with Nude Busch Stadium in Year 4, and the Cardinals back to mediocrity, I will not have to hit the online ticket site the morning tickets go on sale like I have the past 3 seasons to make sure I'm able to get decent tickets, so I can save a small fortune in convenience charges by just going to the ticket office the following Thursday morning like I always used to at the old stadium....

lb13

[minimetoo26]

I can't wait to see what BS they perpetrate on Jets' season-ticket holders...

[nitrah55]

This whole thing does not seem to be an issue with Mets fans, as there are fewer and fewer of them every year, on the merits.

[minimetoo26]

This whole thing does not seem to be an issue with Mets fans, as there are fewer and fewer of them every year, on the merits.

Yeah, but--David Wright! So my family still goes.

And I said Jets, not Mets. They're easier to get than Giants and the tailgate is a blast, so we have Jets tickets. At least in the OLD stadium, we did....

[Vandal]

Did they blow up The Toilet, yet? I'd watch that video.





ETA: Fixed link

[MarleysGh0st]

Maybe you've heard that the Yankees are building a new stadium- subsidized heavily by the state and city of New York, but that's another story.

I'd say that's the main story for me.

If they weren't ripping off the taxpayers, their ripping off of their fans would be a private matter.

[Snaxx]

Join the club, Nitrah. My mother had the same Saturday package and got the same letter. I'm waiting to hear from a friend who had a Sunday plan for about 12 years.

[T_Bone0806]

Did they blow up The Toilet, yet? I'd watch that video.

But then where would the Sox play??

You axed for that one, buddy!

[T_Bone0806]

The question is, what do I do with the money I get from the resale? Buy tickets to fewer Yankee games, but ones I can actually attend? Or start rooting for the Long Island Ducks?

I don't get down to many games like I did in younger, more mobile days..but I did make it for one last day at the Cathedral. I s'pose I'd like to take in at least one game in the new place, but I suspect that single game tix may be hard to come by in the inaugural season, at least for seats I can afford.

I'm sure my 42-inch tv will provide me with a sufficient view this season.

[Snaxx]

Apparently the letter writer from the Yankees went to Eyegor's School of Spelin and Tpying.

Here is a link to a cut-and-paste of the letter that went to the weekend planholders:
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2009/02/19/i ... -spelling/

[traininvain]

I had the Sunday plan for Yankee games since 1993 (except for 1996), we decided late last season to get the full season package for just this reason. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to get the same plan let alone seat close to where we used to sit. With the change in scalping rules to include being able to resell the tickets on StubHub it seemed to make sense to go for the full season and sell the 60 or so games that we wouldn't be able to use. Plus, with the full season plan you can purchase the same seats for playoff games (the reason for my 1996 boycott) and also purchase additional playoff tickets. I hate the idea of treating our ticket package as a business deal, but that's pretty much what we did. Personally I would purchase the mid-week plan and work on selling them, and hope that somewhere down the line you can upgrade to the Saturday plan. Out of curiosity Nitrah, where do you live that it takes you 2-hours to get to the Stadium, for some reason I thought you lived in Nassau County, I live in Huntington and it takes me approx 45 minutes to an hour to get to the Stadium. Where I'll be parking this year, I have no idea.

[Snaxx]

I lived on Long Island until last year. On Sunday morning I could make it from Ronkonkoma, Suffolk Co, to Yankee Stadium (almost 50 miles) driving in just under an hour. I wouldn't try it on a weeknight unless I had a motorcycle and I could weave between the cars parked three-across on the inbound lanes of the LIE and NSP. I could swear traffic was worse citybound (reverse peak) between 4-6PM because of people going to Broadway and other city events and the LIRR never having built that third main-line track (Floral Park to Hicksville) so for a period of time all main-line train traffic is outbound.

[Bob78164]

Yes, you read that right. Devoted Yankee fan me is nearing the end of his rope. As you might suspect, it's about money.

Maybe you've heard that the Yankees are building a new stadium- subsidized heavily by the state and city of New York, but that's another story. The main thing to know is that the new stadium has around 5,000 fewer seats than the old one.

The Yankees, like a lot of teams, have various ticket plans, full season and several others: 41 games (every other game), 20 games (1st game and every 4th game thereafter, and 2nd game and every 4th game thereafter), 12 game mid week games (selected by the Yankees) and Friday, Saturday and Sunday plans.

I have had for several years a Saturday plan- 12 games (we did not get tickets to Old Timers Day), which I split with a friend. I live about 2 hours from Yankee Stadium, so mid-week games don't really appeal to me. I applied for the Saturday plan for the new stadium. A couple months ago I learned the new Saturday plan was all 13 Saturdays (that's good) plus two midweek games of the Yankees' choosing (annoying, but not a deal killer). The main advantage to having a ticket plan is access to the pre-sale of post-sesaon tickets.

My invoice for my ticket plan has arrived. It is for a 12-game midweek plan. Reading Yankee blogs and talking to the Yankee ticket office, this is what I have learned:

The Yankees held back a bunch of seats for the 20 games and more plans which, because of the "premium service" for those seats (parking included, special food service), go for $350 a game. Those seats are going begging.

The Yankees claim fans had more interest in full season plans than they anticipated, and made seats available to the full season plans that would have gone to the other plans.

The Yankees have never had problems selling weekend seats, and would love to have weeknight sellouts, too.

This helps to explain why I got shunted to a midweek plan. My alternatives are to take what's offered, or decline and be put in a pool (that sounds ominous, no?) from which the Yankees will select fortunate patrons to be offered what plans are available.

But wait, there's more. For years, the Yankees said that scalping tickets bought through a ticket plan would be grounds for losing the ticket plan. That changed last year, when they made an arrangement with StubHub to allow resales-but the Yankees get a cut of the sales charges StubHub puts on each ticket.

I could take the 12-game plan, tickets to games I have no intention of going to, and resell them on StubHub, probably for a loss- but the Yankees will make money on my resale.

Yes, with the new stadium, the Yankees have turned many of their ticket plan holders into ticket brokers, and gotten a vig, to boot.

The question is, what do I do with the money I get from the resale? Buy tickets to fewer Yankee games, but ones I can actually attend? Or start rooting for the Long Island Ducks?

It looks like there are a lot of unhappy Yankees fans. But this story missed the StubHub angle. --Bob

[Snaxx]

My mom declined the weekday package and expected to be out, but got a call yesterday from the Yankees that she won the 'lottery' for one of the few Saturday packages that remained, in the outfield terrace (300's) sections.

So she and my sister, big long-time NYY fans, will get to see a number of games in the new stadium this year. Yea!



.

[nitrah55]

Good for your mom. Just curious, how long did has she been a Yankee ticket license plan holder?

Oh, and to answer previous questions, I live around Northport, and drive very slowly, and include time finding parking. Lord only knows what that will be like.

I ended up taking the weekday plan, and expect to sell most of my share of the tickets, and buy tickets to games I want to/can go to.