People who purchased a season ticket plan from the New York Yankees in the past, you may have received an interesting e-mail from the team in the last couple of days. It offered "premium" seating packages to anyone willing to pony up for them, which translates into seats in the first nine rows of the 25 sections closest to the field. That means that less than two months before the first game at the new Yankee Stadium, the best seats in the house are up for sale.
That's a big change from seasons past when getting seats that close to the field was nearly impossible. Those seats didn't cost anywhere close to the $350 a game that the Yankees are charging for the cheapest "premium" seats, but that's not why they aren't selling. In 2007, when the team started putting together their pricing plan, you can be sure that every single one of those seats would have already been snapped up because the city was flush with money. It isn't 2007 anymore, though, and there just aren't buyers for these kinds of luxury items around every corner.
Take a look at StubHub if you're doubtful. There are more than 1000 offerings for tickets to the opening game at the new Yankee Stadium and for most of the games thereafter. People often look to unload some tickets when they've got a full season of games ahead of them, but the first game at a new stadium for the team they love would usually qualify as a keeper. The Mets don't have quite that many available for their first contests at Citi Field, but things aren't looking that much better.
Baseball is the first sport to start its season since the bottom has fallen out of the economy, and the fact that the Yankees are having problems selling their tickets doesn't bode well for teams that don't have their history, roster or new stadium to use as marketing tools. Football teams have been laying off employees, so has the NFL, and the NBA and NHL have experienced a drop in revenue this season even though they were able to sell tickets long before things got really bad for people's bank accounts.
The Yankees have publicly been steadfast in their denials that they've experienced any problems selling tickets, but this week brought an end to that wall of silence. It may be the tip of the iceberg for baseball in what may be a very difficult financial summer.
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.
