Yanks (Officially) Reduce Ticket Prices For 2010

A quick bit of news before we get to last night's rumble.

Odds are, you won't be seeing too many pictures like this when next season rolls around. Darren Rovell of CNBC got his hands on the pricing list the Yankees are about to distribute to season ticket holders in a couple of days and here's the main takeaway:

CNBC has exclusively obtained the 2010 ticket price list that the Yankees will send out to its season ticket holders in the coming days and prices for more than 80 percent of the stadium will remain the same.

Some of the highest price seats will see reductions of up to 40 percent, including those in the Legends area and the Delta Sky 360 Suite.

The 80% of the Stadium that will remain the same are obviously the affordable areas like the bleachers, upper deck and second level. Which is understandable, because demand exceeded supply for those seats already. But hey, at least they aren't increasing them.

Rovell later adds that the Yankees, despite all the backlash and bad press surrounding the New Stadium, still lead the Majors in attendance.

Regardless, it was pretty obvious the Yankees had to do something about the prices for the suites, but the outstanding question was what they were going to do with the contracts that people had purchased extending into 2010 and beyond. Those who have made long term commitments for the newly-reduced suites will only be on the hook for the lower prices the Yankees announce in a couple of days. The most expensive Legends tickets are $1500 instead of $2500, which is a huge drop percentage-wise, but still pretty outrageous.

For the vast majority of fans the most relevant effect of the reduction in prices is that the seats is that there will be fewer of the empty seats that we saw early last season. Whether dropping the price to $1500 will fill out all the vacant spots is up for debate, but I'm guessing it won't.

A Simple "Yes" Would Have Done

From Wallace Matthews of Newsday: 

When I asked Yankees vice president Randy Levine if this meant the team had misjudged the market, he [said] "For a very small number of seats, in this economy [...] I guess it was a mistake.''

Reason #446,785 why I hate you, Randy Levine. You are that guy. The one who will never admit when he's wrong. 

It's not even entriely your fault. The economy went south between the time you set the prices and the when the time came to sell the tickets. Not too many people saw that coming. 

"A very small number of seats?" Okay, maybe in relation to the capacity of the Stadium, but they represent a huge chunk of the revenue. For one $2650 Legends ticket (there are 122 total), you could buy 189 bleacher seats or 120 in the Grandstand. There are 1200 seats priced over $325 and the prices of about 600 of them have been effectively cut in half. Those seats were what the entire "Robin Hood" pricing model of the New Stadium was built around. That's not a "very small" loss in revenue. 

A fun little aside... Here's a nice fabrication that I turned up in the ESPN article linked above, dated March 21st, 2008:

The New York Yankees will charge $500 to $2,500 for seats near home plate in the first five-to-eight rows of their new ballpark. They already have commitments from ticket-buyers for all 122 of the front-row seats.

Oh, did they? Then we must have varying definitions of the word "commitment", because those are the seats that they are now halving prices on and giving away to those who already purchased at full price.

Randy, you fucked up. We all see the empty seats. It's not up for debate. Are you 7 years old? Stop acting like you didn't break the window, we saw you and Lon Trost throwing the ball as hard as you possibly could on the front lawn. Would it kill you to just admit that things didn't go according to plan? 

"Empty Seats No Longer?" Yeah, Right...

According to Ronald Blum of the AP, the Yankees have slashed prices on some of their most expensive seats. (h/t Simon On Sports)

The team on Tuesday slashed the price of 48 first-row Legends Suite season seats on the outer half of the dugouts and photo cages from $2,500 to $1,250, and 68 others in the final three sections down each foul line from $1,000 to $650.

They have also decided to compensate those who have already purchased the full priced seats:

Those who bought $2,500 first-row season tickets in the 11 sections surrounding the plate that weren't reduced will receive an equal number of free first-row tickets for the rest of the season. Those who bought $1,250 first-row seats in the first two sections past each photo cage will receive free seats for 24 games.

Darren Rovell asks:

Empty seats no longer?

Rovell reports that the number of affected seats is around 600, so the short answer to his question? Of course not. The price points are still ridiculous and there are way more than six hundred seats left unsold. It's not just the most expensive seats that are the problem. The $325-$525 seats make up a giant portion of those that sat unoccupied during the last homestand.

The price reduction may get a few more people in there, but that doesn't address the issue that Jason from IIATM,S brought up.
 

It's a nice gesture by the Yankees, but it's not going to eliminate the issue of empty seats. On the bright side, it once again proves that Randy Levine is either a moron or a liar (possibly both?). Never thought I'd say this, but it looks like Bud Selig was right.