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Empty seats still dominate Yankee Stadium premium areas

Despite some price reductions — which really weren’t — on the premium seating at the new Yankee Stadium, the best seats in the house were unsold last night, even with archnemesis Boston Red Sox in town.
Despite some price reductions — which really weren’t — on the premium seating at the new Yankee Stadium, the best seats in the house were unsold last night, even with arch nemesis Boston Red Sox in town.

You know the backstory: the Yankees have struggled selling high-end ducats to Yankee Stadium this season, either as part of a package or by the game, as the market has decided $2,500 for a single game ticket is just too high. The Yankees did make some adjustments in the pricing structure, but didn’t actually lower ticket prices across the board: for the most expensive seats, the Yankees merely threw in a fourth ticket if you bought three.

The public, apparently, saw through that ruse and stayed away from Yankee Stadium in droves. We turned in to last night’s BoSox/Yankees matchup and saw a familiar scene: lots of empty seats in the front rows.

To be fair to the Yankees: last night May have been a bad barometer of the new ticket pricing. The game began two hours late, delayed by a chilly rain. Walk-up sales for the expensive seats are always going to be pitiful. But the concern for the Yankees is going to be whether the disinterest in the expensive seats is part of a larger dissatisfaction with the team: we’ve been told the team is bracing for lots of bad publicity when Selena Roberts’ book on Alex Rodriguez is widely disseminated, with its allegations that A-Rod was on the juice as far back as high school. If she does indeed lay out a convincing case, the Yankees will be on the defensive for weeks.

RELATED STORIES: Yankees respond to market, slash top-end ticket prices; Yankees reexamine ticket pricing for ’10; Yankees hold open house to push spendy seats at new ballpark; Did Yankees overestimate demand for high-end seating at new ballpark?

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