A brigade of cranky Yankees fans say the team is pulling a squeeze play when it comes to season ticket packages.
Longtime ticket holders say they're not getting equivalent seats in the new stadium and are being forced to pay A-Rod-like prices to sit in the nosebleeds.Mark from Bayside, Queens, said he's held a partial plan that gave him tickets on Saturdays and Sundays only. Now the team is offering 14 weekday tickets instead, which he can't use.
"I realize that the Yankees wish to have an all-soldout stadium, and I am in no way the big spender," he said, "but I feel this is a slap in the face to many fans who have supported this team for many years."
Not good. The place looks nice, and I enjoy following the construction of it, but there have been so many screw ups so far it's ridiculous.One angry fan, who was relocated from field seats to the bleachers, forwarded The News an e-mail he received from the Yankee box office after complaining.
"Clearly the seating locations aren't anywhere near what you had last year and are a result of the limited seating availability that we had for partial plans," the salesperson wrote.
"I'm sure that my explanation of the process does little to soften the disappointment regarding the locations, but unfortunately they are the best locations that we had available when your seniority date was reached," the e-mail said.
"You feel like you're getting coerced into buying bad tickets," said Michael of Long Island, who would not give his last name for fear of retaliation by the Yankee box office.
Michael, a partial-season ticket holder, paid $65 a ticket for 46 night games last season and sat behind the visitors' dugout. He requested the same for the new Yankee Stadium.
Instead, he was offered $85 tickets in far right field.
"I didn't want to be shut out altogether, and it's too expensive to buy individual games," he said. "And we want access to playoff games," which are sold first to season ticket holders.
Michael said that even if he'd been offered better seats, he probably couldn't afford the new $100 price.
"They're forcing out most of the middle-class people in favor of all these very wealthy or corporate accounts," he said. "These prices are so far off the charts, especially with the current economic conditions."
I haven't even been lucky enough to hear about my ticket package. The last time I heard from the Yankees was three or four months ago.
17 Comments:
These aren't screw-ups, there is just greater demand for season tickets, and many people are upgrading from 41-game plans to full season, and from 11, 15 games packs to partial plans. Sure the prices are higher, but Yankee fans want to continue to buy up all the high priced talent every off-season right? If you celebrate free agent signings, and tell small market teams to shut up about revenue sharing and salary caps, than Yankee fans need to shut up about ticket prices, and being moved out of their cushy little sections because demand is through the roof. Seriously.
Oh, and I love how the Daily News had to slip a dig about A-Rod into their article. Classy.
It's a screw up when you can't follow up on promises to fans. If you tell a fan they will keep their Sunday package and they end up with a weekday package they can't use, that's a screw up.
As for those high ticket prices they aren't for the players, they're to pay for the $1.3 billion stadium. The Yankees had no problem affording $200 million dollar payrolls while playing at the real Yankee Stadium.
I got my tickets on stubhub for 26 bucks each. So i'm happy. There good seats if your wondering.
Nice. Where are the seats?
I'm in section 419 row 10. My parents and I like the upper deck becuase we can see the entire stadium.
Cool.
Do u even know where those seats are?
Yea, they just to the first base side of home plate in the upper deck.
Yea.
Those are gonna be really nice seats. Great view of the field.
The best part is that the game i'm going to the yankees are playing Seattle so it should be a easy win for the yankees.
I got my full season ticket plan a few months back. It's upper deck first base side but it looks to be as close to what I had in the previous stadium as you're gonna get. I'm happy (until I see how far away the upper deck is from the field) :).
@Greg Cohen:
What promises did the Yankees make? They gave no guarantees to fans that they would get the same or close to the same seats that they had in the old place.
And of course a portion of the money is going to pay for the Stadium, but a portion of it goes toward player salaries. Regardless, that's not the point. The point is that Yankee fans want all the spoils and none of the responsibility. You want a 200 million dollar payroll, and international recognition, then pony up some big bucks for your seats. No one is crying for you.
If you have a Sunday package for years, and are told you will receive the same package this year, you should get that package.
If you have had a 20-game package you shouldn't be forced into a more expensive 41-game plan.
Fans should get what the Yankees told them they would be getting. That's only fair.
And again, there was no problem with the $200+ million payroll when they were playing in the old stadium. The insanely expensive ticket prices are to pay for the insanely expensive new stadium.
corporate people SUCK
There will be many good seats on Stub Hub--at good prices, too.
Mike
why is everyone complaining ! the best seats to watch a game is upper deck where you can see the whole stadium! i sat in the field level for 3 years and i could not see the whole game (most of the scouts sit beehind the plate in the upper level) .the tickets for the upper deck are $25 on stubhub and you dont need to break your wallet. In a time of recession you need to learn to spend wisely , why would you want to spend $65 on a seat to sit 15 rows down when you can get a nice seat for $25.
Post a Comment