'Cheap' seats going for a mere $242 each
23 Mar, 2008 By: Ron Hall Athletic Turf News
If you have $242 burning a hole in your pocket you can be among the 57,000 people to see the final regular season home game at Yankee Stadium this coming season. That $242 will buy you the least expensive seat in the furthest reach of 84-year-old Yankee Stadium. If you want the best available seat for this particular September 28 contest with the Baltimore Orioles, you will shell out at least $9,950, according to the Yankees’ Web site.
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(Inexplicably, the team closes out the season on the road, its last before the most famous, with apologies to Lambeau Field, sports stadium in the country is demolished to make room for a new Yankee Stadium.)
By comparison, my friend Jerry attended the final game by the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium Oct. 3, 1993. He cherishes the ticket stub. But he didn’t pay more than $10 or $15 for the memory. I know my friend, and let’s just say he’s careful with his money.
Admittedly, Municipal Stadium, that cavernous, 80,000-seat, concrete structure on Lake Erie’s shore, never held the mystique of “The House that Ruth Built.” But it did collect its share of memories in its 61-year history, including World Championships by the Indians and the NFL Cleveland Browns. I’ve often wished I had gone to that final baseball game at Municipal Stadium with Jerry. I could have afforded it.
That’s not the case so much anymore. Because of the expense I can’t afford attending many professional sports games, the Indians being the exception since you can still get in the gate at recently renamed Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) for $9 for most games. In fact, I have six tickets to Opening Day (all cheap seats), and I’ll probably give away some of them. I only have $63 invested in the lot of them.
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Compare that to what you will have to pay in the new $1.3-billion Yankee Stadium when it opens in April 2009.
The Yankees will charge $500 to $2,500 for seats in the first five to eight rows near home plate. Yes, that’s for a single game. These are in the Legend Suite area. For your money you get seats with cushions and teak arms, private bathrooms, waiter service and you get access to three clubs. The $2,500 seats are already sold out.
If that’s a bit much for your budget, you can buy one (or more) of the Main Level Outdoor Suite seats in nine sections behind the plate priced at $350 to $500 each. Oh, and you must commit to them for four, six, eight or 20 seasons. Or, how about the Terrace Level Outdoor Suite seats at $100 to $135 each with a commitment to purchase them for two, four, six, eight or 10 seasons.
For the rest of us, apparently if we watch our pennies, we’ll be able to take in a game or two over the course of the season. The Yankees say that 88% of the “non-premium” seasons will be less than $100 each.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to fulfill one of my fondest dreams of seeing a game at Yankee Stadium this year, perhaps when the Yankees play my Indians or Tigers. These are the two teams that bounced them from the playoffs the past two years.
If I can’t, I’ll content myself by seeing my share of games at the Indians’ Progressive Field, hopefully a few at Detroit’s Comerica Park and many, many more at the incredible newer Minor League baseball parks that sprang up this past decade. My favorite Minor League park is still Slugger Field in Louisville, although Fifth Third Field in Toledo and Victory Field in Indianapolis are pretty nice, too. My goal is to visit at least a half dozen different Minor League parks and hopefully get a chance to chat with their grounds pros this summer. That, I can afford.
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