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Yankees bring in real-estate firm to sell suites, premium seats

The New York Yankees entered into a nonexclusive agreement with Prudential Douglas Elliman, a Manhattan real-estate brokerage, to sell high-end unsold inventory at the new Yankee Stadium.
The New York Yankees entered into a nonexclusive agreement with Prudential Douglas Elliman, a Manhattan real-estate brokerage, to sell high-end unsold inventory at the new Yankee Stadium.

It’s a bold move, to be sure: bringing in an outside firm — especially one so far afield from the sports world as a residential real-estate brokerate — to sell high-end inventory so close to the beginning of the season can only mean the Yankees are having problems selling big-buck seats, denials from Yankees President Randy Levine be damned.

That MLB is facing a tough year is no secret (see our story yesterday on what other teams are doing), and the Yankees are in a position where they really have to maximize every potential revenue stream to meet payroll and costs associated with the new ballpark. The deal with Douglas Elliman, in theory, gives the Yankees better access to a score of potential new customers, preferrably ones that can afford $7,000 a seat in rough times. The theory does make some sense. But we are talking about the New York Yankees, for goodness’ sake. If the Yankees can’t sell out premium seats in a new facility, it says things are even worse than we think they are.

More from The New York Times.