Yankees not selling out playoff games....

[RaysFan_98]

Now the Rays and other teams get a lot of flack for not selling out even playoff games well.....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/no-show--yankees-try-to-disguise-empty-seats-at-alcs-by-moving-fans.html

[Blue387]

Why can't teams just reduce ticket prices? Even by a little bit? Is it because of season ticket holders?

[RaysFan_98]

Why can't teams just reduce ticket prices? Even by a little bit? Is it because of season ticket holders?

Pretty sure MLB sets postseason ticket prices.

[jnakamura]

Only 47,122 attendance? That's shocking. When was the last time, if ever, the Yankees failed to sell out an ALCS game?

I was a bit embarrassed when the Dodgers failed to sell out division series games, but at least they've sold out all NLCS games since 1988.

[Blue387]

I think we can have an entire thread dedicated to ticket prices. And "tickets sold" is not equal to actual number of fans in the building.

Why can't fans be let into the stadium for $5 or so and buy large amounts of food to compensate?

[riverfrontier]

They could pull out the tarps like they do in Oakland. Make things more 'intimate'.

I'll never understand why Oakland wouldn't pull those things off for those last three home games. Surely they would have made more in tickets and nachos than they would have had to pay for few more ushers.

Ticket prices in New York ARE outrageous, though. I don't think I've ever seen a game in the new stadium when those 'one-percenter' seats weren't at least one-third empty. The people who run the Yankees obviously missed their high school history lessons about King Louis XVI.

[dadair6]

You're probably going to see the same thing when the series shifts to Detroit. We had three empty sections down the left field line for game 2 of the ALDS last Sunday. They announced a sellout, but I think that's only because the number of standing room tickets sold outnumbered the unsold reserved seats and put the attendance figure over 40k.

The ALCS tickets are pricey and I can see people who are saving their money for WS tickets. My upper deck seats with a regular season face of $25 are $105 for the ALCS and go up to $190 for the WS. I know we get a season ticket discount, but I'm not sure how much it is per game. We pay a set price for the entire strip.

[Richard]

I want to digress a bit, but somewhat similiar. The MLB playoffs are getting destroyed by the NFL and college football. I think NBA ratings are higher than MLB. I hate to admit it because I am a MLB fan first then NFL, but it seems as if MLB is becoming a regional niche sport even though it is also becoming an eight billion dollar industry. Even a Jets regular season game was more widely watched than a Yankees playoff game. I am 45 years years old and MLB has really regressed in some respects since I was a kid.

[StanTheMan]

Honest assessment by Richard. I'm not that much younger, but he is correct I believe. . A tough pill to swallow, but generally speaking he's right. St. Louis will sell all tickets I believe.

Do other clubs do what the Cards do? Season ticket holders can of course buy their own seats, AND additional seats (often upper deck, seats further down the lines or perhaps outdoors seats) BEFORE public ticket sales happen?

[dadair6]

Honest assessment by Richard. I'm not that much younger, but he is correct I believe. . A tough pill to swallow, but generally speaking he's right. St. Louis will sell all tickets I believe.

Do other clubs do what the Cards do? Season ticket holders can of course buy their own seats, AND additional seats (often upper deck, seats further down the lines or perhaps outdoors seats) BEFORE public ticket sales happen?

The Tigers do it in a couple different ways depending on the number of season ticket holders they have. Last year we could buy full playoff strips plus additional single game tickets for each game. This year in addition to our STH strips we can buy additional strips, but no individual games.

I bought extra DS tickets last year and resold them on StubHub to offset the cost of my strips. This year I didn't want to front $1,000+ for full strips and take the chance I couldn't sell them or have the Tigers only play one home series and have to wait two months to get my money back.

[Pere]

Pretty sure MLB sets postseason ticket prices.

No, not really. MLB has a range of postseason pricing structures, but each home team chooses which one to use for their games. In effect, teams with very low regular season prices are 'forced' to put a premium on postseason seats, but Yankees tickets, at least in the lower deck, were already the most expensive around.

[RaysFan_98]

I want to digress a bit, but somewhat similiar. The MLB playoffs are getting destroyed by the NFL and college football. I think NBA ratings are higher than MLB. I hate to admit it because I am a MLB fan first then NFL, but it seems as if MLB is becoming a regional niche sport even though it is also becoming an eight billion dollar industry. Even a Jets regular season game was more widely watched than a Yankees playoff game. I am 45 years years old and MLB has really regressed in some respects since I was a kid.

Maybe in Florida the College football argument could stand but not in NYC where you have 22 million people and can't fill a 50k seat stadium.

[dominik]

they did not sell out playoff games? I thought that even in the RS the yanks sell out every single game (even against the royals or indians)

[StanTheMan]

I bought extra DS tickets last year and resold them on StubHub to offset the cost of my strips. This year I didn't want to front $1,000+ for full strips and take the chance I couldn't sell them or have the Tigers only play one home series and have to wait two months to get my money back.

Are you kidding me? That's atrocious. When the Cardinals owed me for Game 5 World Series tickets in 2004, I had my money electronically deposited in my bank account in about 4 days. Might have been less. It was nearly immediate. Shame on the Tigers...

[dadair6]

Are you kidding me? That's atrocious. When the Cardinals owed me for Game 5 World Series tickets in 2004, I had my money electronically deposited in my bank account in about 4 days. Might have been less. It was nearly immediate. Shame on the Tigers...

Yep. 4-6 weeks after the end of the World Series, regardless of when the Tigers are eliminated. Most of the STH I know just call their credit card company and dispute the charges once they're eliminated.

With today's technology there's no reason it should take more than a week for refunds.