Yankee Stadium prices are insane!

Daily News ^ | 5/4/08 | Mike Lupica

[melt]

There is a very good reason why most Yankee fans don't care how much their team spends on baseball players. One of the best reasons is that their team keeps asking them - at least the most well-heeled of them - to spend more and more to help pay the freight.

There is a guy I know who has tickets behind the Yankee dugout, has had them for awhile. Last season each seat cost $150 per game. This season, because it is the last season at the old Yankee Stadium, the cost went up to $250. Next season, if he wants to keep the same seats when everybody moves across 161st St. to the new Yankee Stadium, the cost will go to $850 per seat.

If he wants to keep his current seats, he has to sign a minimum four-year contract, and they want a third of the cost of the first year up front. If he goes for that deal, they say the most they can increase him over the term of the contract is 4% a year.

"I told my friends who are going this season, ‘Enjoy yourselves, because you'll never be this close again,'" my friend said Saturday.

Now this isn't the old Lawn Tennis Association out of the 1950s, where everybody was just supposed to play for the love of the game. The Yankees are the biggest baseball business in the world, and running the business costs money. The Mets aren't going to be giving away their "premium" tickets at Citi Field, either. But they haven't set next season's ticket prices yet, perhaps sitting back and tracking the baseball market in the Bronx. Well, it's either a market or a shakedown.

[ShadowAce]

The Yankees are privately owned and can (and should) charge whatever the market will bear.

Yeah? Who paid for the stadium? If the Yankees paid for it 100%, then I agree with you. If the taxpayers chipped in, you're wrong.

[Phantom Lord]

I’m not a baseball fan. But I don’t think I’d spend that money on anything other than housing or savings. Where do the people get the money to buy those seats? That’s the important question.

Bush's tax cuts for the rich!

[melt]

Last I heard:

Hot Dog: $4.75 Soda (20 oz): $4.50 Beer (domestic): $7.75/16 oz; Heineken, Beck's: $8/16 oz. Peanuts: $4.50/bag; Cracker Jack: $5 Cotton Candy: $4

They may be even higher now.

[Phantom Lord]

Corporations pay less taxes — and taxes for the people go up and up and up to make up for the shortfall.

Corporations pay no taxes. YOU pay them in the price of their product and services.

My department spent over $100,000 on hockey tickets for the Hurricanes this past season. And with that investment we obtained millions in business.

[Dick Vomer]

Well that's what's great about our country. If you want to dump money in baseball seats, you can.

Gee, I'd just like to get a real nice guitar on a "splurge". One of those items that isn't for anything other than some luxury that you can enjoy on your own.

Good for the Yankees and their fans.

Like I said, I'm not a baseball fan but I've got nothing against people spending their money on what they want to. Rather than a democrat, telling you that you've got to buy tickets to the Mets games in order to "be fair"..... or worse yet, subsidize the Red Sox ....haahhahahaha

[Phantom Lord]

401(k) scam? My father retired with over $1MM in his. Hardly a scam. Mine is doing damn fine as well.

[AGreatPer]

Question. Is evey Yankee home game sold out?

[Former War Criminal]

I love to hear Yankees fans cry.

It’s even better when it’s a friend of Imus’.

But the pining for the good old days is real. My dad paid $0.65 each for our bleacher seats at Fenway Park when we first started going back in the early 1950’s. Ted Williams’ final appearance as a player in Boston was witnessed by about 8800 fans.

At least Massachusetts politicians didn’t fall for the scam of a taxpayer-funded stadium the last time a pro team wanted one (New England Patriots).

We fall for bigger scams...

[Mr_Moonlight]

yeah, he wishes he were top-side making $30m/yr and not the $80K he played for.

"I know, but I had a better year than (President Herbert) Hoover." - 1930 Babe Ruth response to his salary of $80,000 being more than the President's $75,000

[gusopol3]

and nobody made that much again for years. I remember when Mays and Mantle went over 100k in the mid-sixties.

[SamAdams76]

I'm going to a Boston Red Sox game in June with my son in which the tickets are $350 each. Right behind the Red Sox dugout. I never dreamed that tickets would be this expensive. When I was a teenager, I used to buy a bleacher ticket for $1.75 and for another $1.00, I'd get what was called a "grandstand pass" in which I could go into the grandstand and either stand in the back or find an empty seat. Usually in those cases, I'd end up behind the dugout by the 7th inning as most of the businessmen would duck out by then.

I figure I'll spend $900 to $1,000 that day once parking, food and dinner afterwards is factored in. I was at a Boston restaurant last night with my wife (Chart House on Long Wharf) and we spent over $300 all told.

It is getting insane out there.

[tomkat]

I'm 25mi south of the Little League World Series fields,
where admission was free last time I went and dogs/cokes were $1.

Yuck the Fankees in particular and MLB in general.

[GOP_Raider]

What does Mike Lupica care, he can pay those prices.

FWIW, I’m a Giants fan and I take an annual road trip to see the Giants play on the road, instead of in SF where the prices are rather ridiculous. I usually try and use one of my free flights I get on Southwest w/ my Rapid Rewards membership, buy my tickets for the game early—say, in March when single game tickets for that particular series is put on sale—and then make my arrangements from there.

So this year I’m going to Kansas City to see the Giants take on the Royals. I should also point out that I’m single and it’s easier for me to save money or more accurately to have money available for things like this. There’s no way I could do it if I had kids or were married.

[Mr_Moonlight]

and nobody made that much again for years. I remember when Mays and Mantle went over 100k in the mid-sixties.

Yep, they had eclipsed the Ruth 'benchmark' salary, and this was during booming times, before overall inflation reared its ugly head ... guess DiMaggio wasn't too thrilled about what Mantle and Mays were getting paid, ehhh ?

[GOP_Raider]

Click here. Anything on the schedule with a green "T" means tickets are available.

[angcat]

I remember the same...........

The only reason I went to opening day this year was because I won a contest with MLB and Monster.com. It was opening day for the team of my choice for five consecutive years.

[angcat]

7.00 bucks

[Mr_Moonlight]

Gee, I'd just like to get a real nice guitar on a "splurge". One of those items that isn't for anything other than some luxury that you can enjoy on your own.

Like one of these beauties?

G&L Leo Fender Commemorative Edition ... beautiful sunburst with figured wood grain, all gold hardware, even (supposedly) the strings are gold plated(!) ... Leo Fender's signature on the upper bout with a flower and the dates of his birth and death: 1909-1991.

It can't be played ... EVER!!! Anyone buying and/or 'playing' this piece would be cast out into the abyss of shame by (museum piece) guitar collectors! This guitar is truly a showpiece collectible and was marketed as such ......

........ ironically ........

Leo Fender himself would have been appalled by such a thing, as he always believed that his products were meant to be used, and not sit in some airtight museum casing untouched

/laughs

[Larry Lucido]

Don’t go, and pocket the $137,700. In 20 years, you’ll have $137,700 times 20, plus interest.

I have more free advice if anyone is interested.

[lonestar]

The most enjoyable baseball to me is the College World Series...I’ve only done it once. Everybody should do it at least once...wish I could do it every year and I’m not a BIG baseball fan. I like college sports better than pros.