WELCOME to the corner of Predictable and Preposterous, the home of New York sports.
Two days ago, the start of the last scheduled regular-season game in the current Yankee Stadium – Sunday, Sept. 21 – was declared a late-night game, an 8:05 start.
It will not be played at 1:30 p.m., when Sunday home games normally and logically begin – and have since Frank Crosetti played short. The money-blinded morons at MLB have moved the game to an 8:05 start for ESPN. Clearly, they did it to best serve the Yankees fans of Tacoma.
Those who had planned to linger in Yankee Stadium after the game, to stand with their kids or their fathers soaking up The House That Ruth Built one last time, can now forget it, unless, of course, they planned to get home at 2:30 a.m. on a work/school day. If there’s no rain delay.
Whatever sentimental journey 57,000 people months ago may have planned is shot, courtesy of MLB, Bud Selig, Commissioner.
And though a family-filled, day-game crowd would be less inclined to rip the place apart for last-chance souvenirs than a booze-muscled night crowd, well, MLB sure took care of that. Double the police presence!
Then there’s that joyous possibility that the last telecast from Yankee Stadium will be in ESPN’s hands. Yeah, Chris Berman, Joe Morgan, “SportsCenter Is Next! SportsCenter Is Next!” The one game this year that MLB couldn’t have allowed money to mess with, mission accomplished.
The Mets’ final scheduled game in Shea Stadium – Sunday, Sept. 28 – is scheduled for 1 p.m. For now.
What difference did it make that Tuesday’s All-Star Game went nine innings or 15? The first pitch was thrown at 8:45 p.m.. By that time, more than 60 percent of the country’s population had no shot at seeing its ending, either way.
But it’ll soon come crashing down. In the history of the world, there has never been a graph showing a line that only points up. And the greater the greed, the louder the thud.
Next year a CEO at a stockholders’ meeting will be asked this: “Let me get this straight. You laid off 300 employees in response to the economic downturn, you cut health benefits and eliminated bonuses, yet you spent $810,000 for four, one-season’s Yankees tickets? How do you reconcile that?”
But the Yanks and Mets will be lucky if CEOs have to answer such questions. Already, Mets’ sales reps are calling big-ticket subscribers back, asking them to reconsider their decision not to renew, at nearly double the cost. “Then why not buy two instead of four?”
This time many of the teams’ wealthiest customers, those who annually could be relied upon to pay big price hikes, aren’t biting. They can’t.
It’s one thing when one’s seats jump from $75 to $100; you might still indulge the beating, eat a bunch of tickets for weeknight games in April, May and September, give some away, sell some and attend the games you want to attend.
But now that the Mets have nearly doubled the cost of their expensive seats and the Yanks have tripled (or more) their prices, the indulgence becomes absurd.
So the subscriber says, “I’ll just buy the tickets I want from a broker. I’ll save tens of thousands of dollars!”
But with the best Yankees tickets next season carrying face-values of $650, $850 and $2,500 per seat/per game, the brokers, who normally buy and sell above face value, are out, too.
This season, the Yanks increased the cost of their second-best box seats from $150 to $250 per seat/per game. Subscribers who couldn’t meet or eat that expense sold to brokers. But then the brokers were forced to sell at a loss. So how are they going to buy or sell tickets with face values of $650, $850 and $2,500?
Even corporations, which the pricing is predicated upon, will pass. Many publicly held corporations now have compliance officers, those, more than ever, responsible for responsible spending.
Ticket brokers, corporations and regular long-time ticket subscribers are all being priced out of the most expensive seats. So who will be left to buy them? That’s what the Yanks and Mets, by far out-scalping the scalpers, by trying to bludgeon their most giving customers, are doing to themselves. They couldn’t see that coming?
Wait, you’ll see. When the new stadium novelty fades, it’ll be hard for TV to hide lots of empty up-front seats. And TV will provide the last affordable good seat. At the corner of Predictable and Preposterous, look out below.