This is a statement from Hal Steinbrenner via
Bryan Hoch:
“A few weeks ago I indicated that in light of the economy we would review the pricing of a small number of our premium locations at Yankee Stadium; specifically, our Suite Seats. I mentioned a small number of locations because in excess of 3.4 million seats, including 37,000 full season equivalents as well as approximately 85% of all our premium locations have already been sold. Yet, there are a few hundred Suite Seats in our premium locations that have not been sold on a full season basis. As a result, and for many of our fans who have already purchased full season Suite Seats in such premium locations, the Yankees are announcing today a program that adjusts certain prices and benefits affecting such Suite Seats.”
For the 2009 regular season only, the following price adjustments and benefits are being adopted effective immediately for a few hundred Legends Suite and Delta Sky 360 Suite Licensees.
A. The full season Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses in the first row in Sections 15A, 15B, 24B and 25 will be reduced from $2,500 to $1,250 per regular season game. All fans who have purchased such full season Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive, at their choice, a refund or a credit.
B. The full season Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses in the first row in Sections 11, 12, 13, 27B, 28 and 29 will be reduced from $1,000 to $650 per regular season game. All fans who have purchased such full season Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive, at their choice, a refund or a credit.
C. All fans who purchased full season $2,500 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses in the first row, in Sections 16 – 24A, will receive an equal number of complimentary Legends Suite Seats in the first row in Sections 16 – 24A for each of the remaining regular season games during the 2009 regular season.
D. All fans who purchased full season $1,250 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive an equal number of complimentary Legends Suite Seats in the $1,250 Legends Suite price category for 24 games during the 2009 regular season, as selected by the Yankees.
E. All fans who purchased full season $850 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive an equal number of complimentary Legends Suite Seats in the $850 Legends Suite price category for 8 games and in the $500 Legends Suite price category for 4 games during the 2009 regular season, as selected by the Yankees.
F. All fans who purchased full season $600 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive an equal number of complimentary Legends Suite Seats in the $500 Legends Suite price category for 10 games during the 2009 regular season, as selected by the Yankees.
G. All fans who purchased full season $500 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive an equal number of complimentary Legends Suite Seats in the $500 Legends Suite price category for 8 games during the 2009 regular season, as selected by the Yankees.
H. Future 2009 regular season sales of full season $1,250, $850, $600 and $500 Legends Suite and Ticket Licenses, will receive comparable (dependent upon the price of the Legends Suite and Ticket License) benefits during the 2009 regular season, subject to availability.
I. The Delta SKY 360 Suite and Ticket Licenses in the first row in Sections 218A – 222 will be reduced from $750 to $550 for each regular season game. All fans who have purchased such full season Suite and Ticket Licenses will receive, at their choice, a refund or a credit.
In addition, for 2009, so as to encourage fans to purchase full season ticket plans in the Field Level Sections 115 – 125, the Yankees are also adopting a program affecting a few hundred seats. And, for our fans who have already purchased, on a full season basis such Field Level seating priced at $325 Sections 115 – 125, the following program is being adopted effective immediately:
A. Going forward all fans when purchasing, on a full season basis, three (3) full regular season ticket plans priced at $325 per regular season game in Sections 115 – 125 will receive a fourth full regular season ticket at no additional cost.
B. All fans who have purchased full season plans priced at $325 per regular season game will receive complimentary regular season tickets within Sections 115 – 125 for remaining regular season games during the 2009 regular season as follows:
1. If you purchased two (2) or three (3) full season tickets you will receive two (2) tickets for every other regular season game, commencing with either the Thursday evening game on April 30, 2009 or the Friday evening game on May 1, 2009 and alternating for the remainder of the season.
2. If you purchased four (4) or five (5) full season tickets you will receive two (2) tickets for every regular season game during the balance of the 2009 regular season, commencing with the Thursday evening game on April 30, 2009.
3. If you purchased six (6) or seven (7) full season tickets you will receive three (3) tickets for every regular season game during the balance of the 2009 regular season, commencing with the Thursday evening game on April 30, 2009.
4. If you purchased eight (8) full season tickets you will receive four (4) tickets for every regular season game during the balance of the 2009 regular season, commencing with the Thursday evening game on April 30, 2009.
While the tickets are still amazingly expensive, this was a wise move by the Yankees, something they had to do in my opinion. At the same time I'm surprise they decided to do it. I thought they were too arrogant to admit they made a mistake in the first place.
8 Comments:
dont forget this is Hal Steinbrenner not george, he is prob not as stubborn.
I know that all of these price changes and programs have been carefully determined but ultimately they should just price their seats similar to the red sox, but alittle bit higher because its newyork and its a new stadium.
I just hope that the seats will be mostly filled now because its just depressing to see yankee stadium empty looking.
"dont forget this is Hal Steinbrenner not george, he is prob not as stubborn."Good point.
"I know that all of these price changes and programs have been carefully determined but ultimately they should just price their seats similar to the red sox, but alittle bit higher because its newyork and its a new stadium.
"I just hope that the seats will be mostly filled now because its just depressing to see yankee stadium empty looking.I agree. There's no reason why the Yankees have to charge twice what the Mets are charging (might be more).
Hal is the one that priced these seats not George. So this is Hal's own fault.
Anonymous, it's everyone's fault. When those prices were set, we were living in a different economic world. In just the past 3 months or so the entire landscape has changed. Sure, those seats were overpriced, but considering the demand for Yankee seats the past 10 years, you figured they would sell. Now you have banks failing, GM slowly going out of business, etc etc. I can blame the Yankees for a lot of things about that stadium, but I can't blame them for their perception regarding premium seating 'demand'.
SteveB,
I don't think we can speculate about the demand for Yankee seats at $2500 when they were never even close to that much.
They Yankees created 1800 seats that never existed and set the price well above market for anything ever seen in a baseball stadium.
If they had kept prices in the same range as the old Stadium, you could blame the economy for the empty seats. When they decided to price a single seat in the thousands of dollars, you can blame Yankee greed.
Oh it's greed all right. I never said otherwise. It was their plan all along to shunt aside the real Yankee fan, but then again, every other team is also after 'the dollar' at the expense of the true baseball fan. The real baseball fans are what created the baseball boom we have now, and the ballclubs are turning their backs on us in order to maximize profits. But not to worry, everything the goes around comes around... eventually. Even the way the economy tanked, the Yankees still sold most of those luxury boxes. So while you can call it greed, and be 100% right, there was still a pretty good market for those seats. If we were living in a 'boom' time, we would never be having this conversation because every single one of those $2600 seats would have been bought up in a heartbeat.
You want baseball as it should be? Go to a minor league game. $10-$15 a seat, fan-friendly seating, fan-friendly ushers, fan-friendly ballplayers.
While still way to expensive for most fans and small business owners at least it was a positive step. They probably had to hold that SOB Levine down when they told him.
The next step in repairing their corporate image would be to give fans a chance to get autographs and baseballs by allowing all fans down by the field level sections during batting practice. They can move them back to their seats after it's over. taht is what happens in stadiums throughout the country.
Third in a long laundry list would not to raise ticket prices for those paying $100 or less next year and continue to adjust those field level prices to get their fan base back into the building.
Oh great, those who don't need a price cut will receive a price cut.
Those who can't afford a ticket can still stay home and watch TV.
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