
Originally Posted by
Lurker
The cheapest non-bleacher seats in Yankee Stadium were Tier Reserved seats. Going by the total number of seats in all 36 Tier Reserve sections, there were far more "cheap" (if you consider $29 a seat cheap this year) seats in the upper deck than there are going to be across the street.
The cheapest Main Reserved seats this year were something like $60 I think. In Yankee Stadium, approximately 20,000 seats are in the lower levels, comprising the Field Box, Main Box, and Main Reserve sections. There are approximately 30,000 upper deck seats including the Tier Box seats, which are more expensive than Tier Reserve seats. But keep in mind there are only 12 rows of Tier Box seats while there are 22 rows of Tier Reserve seats. And in the curved sections behind the plate and out by the foul poles, there are many more seats per row higher up in the tier. So the vast majority of these 30,000 seats are in the lower price level.
Across the street, those numbers will be reversed. There will be only 20,000 upper deck seats and 30,000 lower level seats. So even independent of any price level increases, they just took 10,000 seats that were $29 in 2008 and stuck them downstairs where they'll be at least $60 in 2009.
Best case scenario (for you and the Yankees), 20% of the available seats just doubled in price. So don't give me some crap about 90% of the tickets being the same.
Then add in the fact that capacity is being decreased significantly (the Yankees have been deliberately vague about the exact reduction) and that 4300 seats are going to have absolutely obscene prices attached to them, and it just became a lot harder for Joe Q. Public to see a baseball game at a reasonable price. There have been many occasions in recent years in which the least expensive tickets available at the box office on the day of a game were $100 seats behind home plate. It happens that way often, because the games in question were sold out, but the $100 more expensive seats were held back until the last minute in case "special" people wanted them. When the special people didn't want them, they were made available to "normal" people, i.e., "civilians."
I think $100 is an outrageous price to see a baseball game, but it's very much in line with the prices at other sporting events and concerts, and is still basically affordable to a substantial percentage of people. That won't exist next year, because the same seats that were $100 in 2008 are going to be $850 in 2009. So I'm not willing to brush aside the fact that 4300 seats are going to have extremely obscene price increases. Some of them are going to be $2500 per seat.
Besides, I'm sure there will be slight increases for each ticket, probably $2-$10 each, as there are most years, independent of the team moving to a new facility.