Are you Yanking my chain?

  So this morning Im laying in bed, watching "Outside The Lines" and theres a story on the new stadiums in New York, the ones that combined cost something around $2.5 BILLION dollars to build. 

  And they started talking about the tickets prices at these new ballparks and how ridiculous they were. The highest ticket at the new Mets stadium is $695 for a seat behind home plate. $700 to watch a team that chokes every year. But thats a bargain considering that that very same seat at the new Yankee Stadium is an absurd $2625.

  I can find things alot better to spend my $3000 on than a ticket to see the Yankees. Things like making a dent in my debt. Or perhaps even a car, used of course. 

  Apparently so can other people, people far richer than I. They were talking to this guy that used to have four season tickets behind home plate at the old Yankee Stadium which cost him about $80,000 a year. To me, thats still stupid money, but I suppose if you got it, right? So when this guy was offered the chance to renew his season tickets for the new stadium, he actually had to debate if he should say no, or lay off some employees at his company. He then realized how ridiculous that was and bought more "affordable" $200 a seat tickets instead.

  So, how much were those new season tickets behind home plate going to cost him? $860,000. Same ticket, same team, yet the price went up 11 times! Hey, someone has to pay off the stadium, right? 

  Not surprisingly, the Yankees are having trouble selling their more expensive tickets, yet when asked, they said they were doing just fine - in spite of taking out full page ads in the paper advertising seats still available. In their defense, they claimed that there were plenty of great affordable seats for those that couldnt spend $3000 a game. Like the 1,100 bleacher seats that have an obstructed view where the action gets cut off around center field. A billion dollar plus stadium, and you have seats where the people youre scamming to get in the building cant even see? I wonder if thats one of those "Only in New York" things. But, hey, you do get an absolutely amazing view of the side of the sports bar, so complaining... fuggedaboutit. Oh yeah, the price of those tickets are a mere $15, more during playoffs of course. Just make sure to bring a portable tv cuz, well, ya know.

  On second thought, maybe thats why those home plate tickets cost so much, because you can actually see the game. But if Im gonna spend a million dollars on season tickets, I better get more than all you can eat veggie dogs, I wanna have all you can eat endangered species.

  But what do I know, Im a Padre fan.

  -- DBW --