Last week's post regarding social stratification at the new Yankee Stadium caused quite a stir around the blogoverse. Apparently, Yankee management has heard the outrage and plans to amend their previously stated policies regarding Field Level access. According to a reliable source within the ticket office:As Ross says, this is the smart move by the Yankees, and in my opinion really the only proper outcome to this. Keeping those policies would have only opened the organization up to more criticism from not only Yankee haters, but from Yankee fans as well.They [Yankee management] were going to keep the field level as a private concourse but management changed their minds. Access to the concourses will be open but my guess is you can'tIt should be noted that multiple sources within the ticket office confirmed that the Yankees fully intended on enforcing the policy (which is still up on Yankees.com in the A-Z Guide), but recently decided against it. Whatever reasons are behind the change, kudos to the Yankees for not being too rigid about a downright stupid policy and doing what is best for the fans.
get by the "moat" that separates the Legends from the Field seats."
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Yanks Change Field Level Access Policy
On Friday I mentioned in this post that in the new stadium people who didn't have field level seats would be unable to access those areas of the stadium. Apparently the Yankees have decided to do the right thing and won't enforce those new policies. Here's more from Ross over at New Stadium Insider:
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Here is one I question--
Cameras and video equipment--
Single-frame flash photography is permitted. Tripods, extended length zoom lenses, other professional camera equipment, movie cameras and any other video or audio recording equipment are not permitted in Yankee Stadium. Guests are not permitted to transmit or aid in transmitting any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information about any games.
People with the average camera will be hard-pressed to get any decent picture now that most of them will be farther back from the field. But what if you bring a camera with a zoom lens? My brother has a nice camera whose built-in lens is about 2-3 inches long. In the old stadium he could take some great pictures. Will he be allowed in? And does this mean the Yankees will actively chase anyone who posts a video on YouTube?
How do you interpret this?
The only problem I see here is that fans with cheap $5 obstructed tickets are now going to clog up the field level concourses. I mean, it's great for those who own those cheap tickets, but I can see it being a problem for people on those lower levels (not the "elite" moat section, but the general admission field level seating) when they want to use those concession stands down there. It's going to get somewhat clogged up with people from the upper levels using the concessions and using the standing room areas during the game.
Don't get me wrong, I couldn't hope to afford field level tickets, and even for a couple games it would be too expensive to justify, but I can see why they intended to have this segregation policy in the first place. In the old stadium, it wasn't a problem because why would you want to mill around on the concourse when you can't even see the field. Now, you can take your obstructed $5 bleacher tickets and get "back row" standing room views on the field level, just feet from people who paid like $300 to see the game.
This hopefully won't become a major issue, but I can see them eventually having to institute a policy, such as no standing room on the field level.
SteveB: As long as the zoom lens isn't too huge, and he doesn't bring along additional professional photograhpic equipment, you'll have no trouble. Disneyland has instituted a very similar camrea policy, basically no professional equipment.
So if your camera has a retractible/motorized lens, or if it's an SLR with a reasonable size lens (we're talking probably 4-5 inches even) then you'll be absolutely fine, believe me. They want to aviod the professional zoom lenses that media use... we're talking the 6-8 inch or more SLR zoom lenses.
I also want to add with regard to the potential "premium ticket holder only" access to the field level: Most newer (and some older) ballparks already have a very similar policy and access restrictions. It mostly relates to the problems I stated above with regard to concourses that are open to the field.
Thanks, anonyMOOSE, that makes sense. You never know what an overzealous security person might do at the turnstiles, though.
Next question-- are the Yankees selling 'standing room' tickets separately somewhere? I find the location of 'standing room' to be intriguing, might actually be the best value in the place depending on the price, but I don't see where it's offered. That's of course if you don't mind standing. Then again, I also wonder if you could get away with bringing a very small 'chair-thing'. I don't see any rules about or prohibiting that.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
---OR---
are people invited to go to standing room areas, even if they have another ticket somewhere else? But that doesn't sound right, because the Yankees, when they talk about seating capacity, always refer to 'standing room areas' as an addition to their overall capacity.
The Yankees say they have a capacity of about 52,300, but actual seats are closer to around 48,000 I believe.
Another one (ugh, I have so much work to do!)--
I thought you couldn't bring any food into the stadium, but maybe I am wrong about that? Let's say I want to bring a 'big fat sammich' in a brown bag? I know I obviously can't bring in any bottles or cans.
Too bad I'd look forward not having these upper level vegabonds invading my space.
Clog up the Field Level? That's crazy. You can walk around the entire ballpark, which should keep people moving. Remember how they used to do this at Shea? It's outrageous.
You can bring food into the stadium as long as it's in clear plastic bags. In other words, if they can see that's it's food you can bring it in.
"Too bad I'd look forward not having these upper level vegabonds invading my space."
lol, you're joking right?
Steve: I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge so far, but some of it is speculation.
Standing room: Not avaialble yet, and I believe they may not start selling standing room until they get a better idea of traffic flow and things like that. Even then it may only be for the "bigger" games that they make it available. But as of now, there's no official word on if/when they'll go on sale or how much they'll cost. They do, however, have areas that are primed to be standing room areas, as there are several fenced spaces behind most sections around each concourse, with the exception of the wheelchair accessible seating areas.
I don't think they'll enforce standing room (you won't need to have a standing room ticket to use the standing room). Basically, if you have a ticket to get into the stadium (including standing room if/when its offered), you're free to mill around as you please as long as you don't stand in the walkways/stairways.
Capacity: Capacity is listed at52,325, including standing room. I think the actual seat total is approximately 51,000. The capacity might theoretically scale up to around 53,000 with maximum standing room tickets sold. I also believe that the capacity will be closer to 53,000 than 52,000 with standing room, especially if the Yankees continue to allow ALL ticket holders access to the field level, which is something they may not have originally planned to do. That will create room for, in my opinion, at least another 500 standing room. I wouldn't be completely shocked if they squeezed well over 53,000 people in there for the playoffs.
Food: I believe the official policy is (and was) no external food. I think they tend to be fairly lax on this, however, don't expect to bring in a picnic. If you've got one reasonably sized sub and a mini bag of chips I think you'd be ok, but they may be more strict in the new place, I don't know. Best thing to do is wait until the two Cubs exhibition games and see what people report back with regard to what they let people in with (and also after the offical regular season home opener as well).
anonyMOOSE, I think you may be overly generous on the seating number. I also think that it won't take long, maybe 1-2 months tops, for standing room to become an issue. After all, the Yankees were getting sellouts in late May in recent years. But you're right, everything is in flux, really it may take a whole season to figure it all out. Then who know what changes there will be in pricing for 2010, with the economy & everything. It goes on & on.
The standing room capacity has always been listed/estimated at 2,000. The official number of seats is listed 52,325, including standing room. If you take those numbers as "official", then theoretically there are 50,325 seats. I would almost guarantee there are over 50,000 actual seats. There's just no way that they would factor in over 4,000 fans worth of standing room when listing a stadium's capacity.
The numbers in this article are stated as 53,000 capacity, including 2,000 standing room.
"The new stadium seats 51,000 fans, with a standing room only capacity of 53,000"
...
but 2,000 standing room spots have been created
http://www.nyc.com/arts__attractions/yankee_stadium.1002975/editorial_review.aspx
Good decision.....the policy seemed very elitist. People should have the right to roam and see whats around. As far as the food goes....just point me to Nathan's! (I can't wait to taste the true Nathan's hot dog!)
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