Yankees Slashing Prices, Giving Away Tickets
After weeks of intense criticism, the Yankees cry uncle
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There should be a few more butts in the seats at the next Yankee homestand.
No matter how many ads they ran to try and sell their leftover inventory, the Yankees said they wouldn't cut their ticket prices. No matter how many embarrassing swaths of empty seats were visible during every home game, the Yankees said they wouldn't cut ticket prices. It didn't even matter that Hal Steinbrenner said that those tickets were overpriced, the Yankees stood firm against any adjustment to their price structure.
Until Tuesday. The team issued a release on Tuesday afternoon announcing that they would, in fact, be cutting ticket prices among their most expensive, and most visibly empty, seats. Some $2,500 per-game seats will be slashed in half, while some of the seats with a $1,000 face will be cut 40 percent to $600. Seats in the Delta SKY 360 Suite will be reduced from $750 to $550. People who have already purchased tickets will get a refund or credited for the price difference.
So much for not dropping ticket prices. The team's going even further to placate the people who have already bought seats at the Stadium. Full season ticket holders in almost all of the premium ($325 and up) seating sections will receive free tickets to some or all of the remaining 2009 home games.
It's a good deal for those ticket holders, though. Sure, the tickets are still quite pricey but the seatholders can now get some money back for the tickets since they won't feel it's necessary to get full price to see a return on the tickets. Or they can give them away to charity and use their good fortune to do a good turn for someone else.
It's good for the Yankees, too. They should be seeing a lot fewer empty seats as a result of these moves, and they're rewarding their best customers this year and ensuring that they'll come back next year. That would have been at risk if they cut prices across the board without rewarding the people who ponied up in the first place.
The only person hurt by this is Yankee president Randy Levine who has been the mouthpiece for the team's refusal to drop prices. Additionally, Levine has gone out of his way to make insulting and derogatory comments to anyone who dared suggest tickets were too high, which, at the very least, calls for an apology in light of this news.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
