The New York Jets don’t expect the flagging economy to sack demand for the 2,000 best seats in their new stadium, but the team today is launching a TV ad campaign, just in case.
In the ad, the camera moves up a misty stadium tunnel toward the football field, where a man in a flamboyant white fur coat is revealed to be Donald Trump.
“Who were you expecting, Joe Namath?” he says.
The message of the ad is that fans who buy these Coaches Club seats “may be sitting next to Donald Trump or they may be sitting next to a guy who has been a fan for 30 years,” said Jets Vice President Matt Higgins.
The rights to purchase the luxe seats will be auctioned off later this month.
Unlike the Giants, who charged $20,000 for personal licenses for the best seats, a right that can be sold or transferred, the Jets are holding an auction on StubHub.com from Oct. 19 to Oct. 27. The starting bid is $5,000.
The 50-yard-line seats come with their own entrance to the stadium, a parking space and a full spread of free food and non-alcoholic drinks at a swanky stadium restaurant.
But what may entice fans most of all is the right to step out onto the field behind the Jets bench during the game.
After plunking down the one-time license fee, which experts say could approach and possibly surpass the $20,000 the Giants charged for their best, the seats will then cost $700 apiece per game.
The revenue from these licenses will be used to cover the cost overruns of building the new stadium. The 27,000 worst seats in the stadium will not come with a fee.
Officials said the team wants to make the seats available to all fans, and will even offer payment plans at 6.5 percent interest.
The plummeting economy may not have a tremendous impact on the PSL sales for the Jets, but sports-ticket prices in general are expected to come down on the secondary market as season ticket holders dump seats in larger and larger numbers.
“The combination of the economy and the fact that teams are asking prices that may be too high may mean that nearly half of all tickets sell for less than face value on the secondary market,” said Don Vaccaro, CEO of TicketNetwork.com. “There could be an across-the-board price drop for concerts and other events as well. Baseball player salaries could even come down.”
Currently, 40 percent of sports tickets on the secondary market actually sell for less than face value, and that number will likely grow to 45 to 50 percent, Vaccaro said.
The Jets have less to worry about, at least for the best seats.
“We are talking about a very limited number of the most exclusive seats, and these will appeal to a demographic that is not as financially challenged,” said StubHub spokesman Sean Pate. “That’s not to say there might not be some deals to be had in the auction.”
Additional reportingby David K. Li