The Slanch Report

In building their new stadiums, both the New York Mets and New York Yankees decided to LOWER attendance; only 5% for the Yankees but an astounding 26% for the Mets. You’d think that if they were going to do that, and charge the exorbitant ticket prices they that are, every seat would be phenomenal. Of course, since both franchises could care less about the average fan, that is not the case. Say you want to go to a Yankees game and all you can afford is one of these 1,048 seats in the bleachers, well, I hope you didn’t have any desire to see any of the action that happens in left field or at third base. But don’t worry, hardly anything important ever happens in those areas…

The view from section 201, in the center-field bleachers at the new Yankee Stadium. The wall is part of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

Yankees officials say that they will be placing televisions along the wall so fans can follow along but why pay for tickets if you’re just going to have to watch the game on TV anyways? Even classier, it wasn’t until Newsday had a story about these obstructed view seats that the Yankees announced an “invoicing problem” had erroneously listed all of those seats as the same price of other, non-obstructed bleacher seats. The shitty seats were supposed to be only $5, not $12; of course the Yankees website still doesn’t reflect that change leading me to believe that the Yankees could care less about me, you or anyone not paying $2500 for their individual tickets.

Citi Field has sight-line problems of its own too;

Steven Gottesman, who has a 15-game ticket plan, went to see his four seats in Section 533, Row 15, near the top of the upper deck down the left-field line. To his ‘shock and horror,’ he could not see the warning track or about 20 feet of the outfield from the left-field line to center field. ‘In other words, I will only know if a home run is hit if I am listening to a radio at the game or I wait to see the sign from the umpire,’ Gottesman, 45, said in an e-mail message. ‘If Endy Chávez made his catch in this new stadium and I had been there, I would not have seen it.’

To be fair, commenters Youppi and the roomate were AT that Endy Chavez catch game, and were sitting so high up that they too were unable to see it, so Shea wasn’t immune to this problem. However, Shea was built in the 60s and Citi Field is supposed to be state-0f-the-art, not a gigantic concrete toilet…Don’t worry Mets fans, the team is on it!

Dave Howard, the Mets’ vice president for business operations admitted that the seats in Section 533 are angled in such a way that fans will be unable to see the warning track and some of the field. He said the team has no plans to lower its ticket prices or label the seats in question as having obscured views.

Sweet thanks guys! It’s nice to know you appreciate the people who are coming to watch your miserable product choke away the season once more. This is just another excellent business decision from the Mets, like giving Luis Castillo $25 million or having Livan Hernandez as the 5th starter. Assholes.

The only good news coming out of Citi Field so far is that a 12-ounce beer, formerly $7.50 at Shea will only cost $6, so getting belligerently drunk will almost be reasonable, or you could aways indulge in a $17 lobster roll instead…Other food price cuts include popcorn, down to $4.25, knishes (I can’t believe no one told me there were KNISHES at Shea!) down to $3.75, water down $.50 to $3.75 and Pepsi, a quarter less at $4.75.

[NY Times]