Business

LUXE SUITES SOUR

New York sports teams banking on high-priced sales of luxury suites at an unprecedented number of new stadiums and arenas could feel the pinch from the Wall Street meltdown.

Five teams – the Jets, the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets and the Nets – are building expensive venues with more luxury suites, hoping to draw corporate clients.

In the past, the Street could be counted on to be a big buyer of premium seats, but selling to financial firms has suddenly become a lot tougher in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch’s shotgun wedding to Bank of America and the crisis of confidence shaking Morgan Stanley.

“With all these stadiums trying to sell luxury seats, personal seat licenses and season tickets, this is horrible timing,” said Robert Tuchman, head of sports entertainment firm Premiere Corporate Events.

Over the next five years, the number of luxury suites across the country is expected to rise to 14,000 from 12,000, with much of the increase due to a burst of building in New York, according to Bill Dorsey, executive director of the Association of Luxury Suite Directors.

With venues, including the Mets’ Citi Field, Yankee Stadium and the new Jets-Giants stadium, due to open in the next couple of years, the teams have dramatically hiked prices for tickets and luxe suites.

The annual rents range from $250,000 to $400,000, although some top-of-the-line boxes reportedly run as high as $1 million.

Dorsey said the first sign of trouble could be shorter three-year leases, rather than the five-, seven- and 10-year deals that the teams have been signing. Renewals could also present problems, requiring teams to offer more perks and amenities.

“There is a gathering storm,” Dorsey said. “I do believe that the teams need to look very closely at retaining their existing customers with value-added products.”

A spokeswoman for Yankee Stadium said they haven’t seen an effect but are watching it “very closely.” A spokeswoman for the Jets-Giant stadium said suite sales were running ahead of projections.

The Nets have sold roughly 30 percent of the 128 suites at the new Barclays Center and count financial institutions among those buyers. The suites have averaged around $300,000. The team has eight more potential buyers booked to visit its showroom, a spokesman said.holly.sanders@nypost.com