| 24 March 2010
During the first season of their shiny new ballpark's existence, the Yankees struggled mightily to surpass 50,000 fans in attendance for any single game. Overpricing of the Legends Suites received most of the attention, but in reality, the absence of standing room only ticket sales was the cause of the underwhelming attendance numbers.
Much to their surprise, some fans noticed new and exciting ticket options during Friday's public ticket sale - section numbers with an "s" amended to them. It caused some confusion (since the Yankees never officially announced it) but we have verified with the ticket office that the Yankees have taken the training wheels off of the "new house" and are unveiling their full repertoire of standing room only tickets.
The advance pricing is as follows (no word yet on game day pricing):
- Field Level Standing Room Only (listed on Ticketmaster as Cafe Seating) - $75
- Main Level Standing Room Only - $48
- Terrace Level Standing Room Only - $29
It is great that the Yankees have finally expanded the capacity of the Stadium, but we're a little skeptical about the value of Terrace Level standing room tickets. The areas behind the wheelchair seating is pretty far back on the Terrace Level and it is hard to see the infield. Those don't seem like a good deal at $29, especially with the wind tunnel behind home plate. On the other hand, we can vouch for the great views afforded by the $75 field level standing room tickets, and the cafe-style stool and table are a nice bonus.
Unfortunately, the Yankees didn't take the time to educate fans about these options before they went on sale, so some were left with unusable tickets. We received the following email from a disappointed fan who thought he had snagged some great tickets to take his young boys to see the Yankees take on the Red Sox:
I just bought 4 tix for Yanks-Sox in September - was planning on bringing the whole family (including 2 small boys). I was just excited to get anything near the bases so I wasn't really thinking carefully enough to realize that $48 per ticket in 226 was too good to be true. Then after I processed the order I realized that these assigned seats were in SRO. Can you tell me if the seats are actually "assigned" or will I be jockeying for position the whole game? I assume that bringing my 2 young boys also now becomes a bad idea - will there be any opportunity to sit.
We asked our source in the ticket office about this fan's dilemma and were told "standing room could be tough if the kids are really small, as they’ll have to be able to see past the [wheelchair] section at the rear of [section] 226. That being said, the railing/shelf area will have the numbers on it, so there shouldn’t be an issue about jockeying for space - hopefully they’ll explain the SRO stuff to security during their training sessions."
This fan shouldn't have any problems selling Yankees vs. Red Sox standing room tickets to make his money back, but it is a shame that he had no way of being a more educated consumer before the sale. Just another reason why NYY Stadium Insider has found a nice little niche on the interwebs - where else would you find elaborate coverage of standing room only tickets at Yankee Stadium?
