The Ticket Licensee - Finale

After several weeks of trying to get decent seats at a price that is fair, I have thrown in the towel. I will not renew my ticket license. Part of this is pride and part is I don't want to pay through the nose and still not be able to see the ball at the plate. All options offered were between 356 to 416 feet from the plate.

Am I nuts, no, I am very level headed. I don't believe that sports tickets should be out of reach of fans, The Yankees and most of baseball have joined Club Nuts! They are raising seat prices because they can; especially in stadium that don't fill, ticket prices have been evaluated win the capacity crowd team comes to town. Baltimore has tripled the face value of tickets for Red Soxs and Yankee games, tickets remain at normal price level for the rest of American League East.

Baseball is a slow learner. Football banned drugs years back, Baseball just started. This morning the Jets announced the have fiscal issues, they need to furlough 50 non team employees for 2-3 weeks in June-July to meet expenses. Fans aren't biting at the Jets seat licence fee. The Jets like many are being crunched by the economy. this trend will catch up with most sports sooner than later. Payrolls will have to be cut. You can't pay out what you aren't bringing in.

I am not hysterical I did not renew, I will win in the end. Fiscal restraint is necessary, and if you won't charge me a fair price, I will not but your product. The Yankees will still be on TV and now I can work to get tickets for games I want beyond 2 seats. In the end I will do better.

For $899 I can purchase a 42 " Panasonic 1080 HDTV. For $299 DirecTV will sell me a HDTV/DVR. That total cost would only get me to 6 games in the crappy seats the Yankees offered me.

That stills leaves me plenty in my ticket budget, and I will have excellent seats for all 162 games. I can even record them for those west coast games and ESPN Sunday night stands, and watch them in my viewing time. I consider this a victory for the working man, in this case woman.

The license rant is now officially closed; time to turn to Baseball. Up next time, the American League East Pitching.

A final comment to Lonn Trost, Randy Levine, Hank and Hal Steinbrenner:

The All Star Game Carrot Dangling

The NY Yankees are in the midst of a dilemma, give up All-Star Game tickets to the season tickets holder with plans A, B and C or make MLB and FOX television network happy by comping the baseball sponsors and the Hollywood crowd that works on FOX Shows. The Yankees are caving to FOX and MLB.

To date only Plan A holders have been allowed to purchase the allotted tickets. Tickets for the holders of B and C plans are on hold. In response I have entered the All-Star Game ticket lottery. Lonn Trost is putting the screws to the fans again.

Trost is all about the buck. The Yankees, already the most expensive ticket in regular season sports, is losing seats in the new digs. In response, Trost has created luxury seating costing between $500-2500 per seat per game for the privilege of being part of the chosen few behind home plate.

Now Lonnie is about to rip out the fan's hearts, deny most access to the All-Star Game. Shame on you Lonn and shame on the Yankees for chasing the buck and not the fan base.

George Steinbrenner may have told the fans at ground breaking he was doing this for the fans, but clearly the heirs to the house that George is building don't give a damn.

Baseball is a business, and this proves the new Yankee management would rather make a buck. Old King George would have told Fox and MLB to wait, and not kept the All-Star carrot dangling in front of the fans.

This makes me wonder what direction the new Yankee management will take as they steer this team through this century. It's not look so far; one can always hope.