Anyone looking for a ticket to Friday night's Mets-Yankees game could easily travel to StubHub and sift through the 1,070 different listings and find themselves a seat. Why bother doing that, though, when you could just walk up to the box office and buy one direct from the team?
What was once the hottest ticket on the schedule has become just another game at Yankee Stadium. A visit to Ticketmaster on Friday morning finds tickets available at many different price levels, from the super-expensive field level all the way up to $80 Terrace Level seats. The same is true for the games on Saturday and Sunday.
The story's been done to death, but any more doubts that ticket prices are too high? Two teams in a city of more than seven million can't sell out Yankee Stadium even though both of them are in the thick of a playoff fight. To say that wouldn't have happened in the past is an understatement, and it should make for a very different atmosphere than in years past.
These problems aren't unique to the ballpark in the Bronx, of course. The Mets were offering steep discounts to games against the Phillies this week, which is odd indeed for games that have been circled on everyone's pocket schedule since the day the schedule was released. The Mets aren't selling any individual game tickets to the Subway Series games at Citi Field because they are trying to use them as a come-on for ticket packages that help them unload seats for other games later in the summer.
It will be very strange to see empty seats at Yankee Stadium over the weekend, and it will be interesting to see if anyone dares mention it during the broadcasts of the games. It would seem unlikely that the YES crew would suddenly start mentioning anything, and SNY probably doesn't want to open the Mets up to a return volley in two weeks. Perhaps the FOX crew will make mention of the new world order on Saturday, but it will be obvious even if no one utters a word.
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.
