Take Me Out to the Ball Game: More is Less at the New Yankee Stadium

I now have two theories about this.  The first is he is right, they have not played exceptionally well there, even in the two wins.  The second fans are too comfortable to get up and cheer their team on. 

I remember many games where my parents or my friends’ parents had to stand up because their backs and butts were killing them on the hard seats at the stadium.

 So, if you have to stand you might as well cheer, which is actually discouraged (I attempted to get a chant going to spur a rally, and the people behind me quickly began tapping me to ask me to sit down). 

Another thing about the stadium that people have found shocking is the array of empty blue seats around home plate down the baselines. 

I know the people (and I hate to go back to the money issue but it should be brought up here) who can afford those tickets (ranging from $500 to $2,000 per seat) are not the “real” “die-hard” fans you want to see at the game, but it just gives it an empty feeling that the grandstands and bleachers do not.

I have several theories about why this is during the stadium’s first weekend of games and how to fix it.  First the why, these seats are usually sold as season tickets to corporations who then try to give them out to customers and employees. 

However, this weekend was also the first really nice weekend in the northeast (which Bill Simmons would refer to as halter top day) so all of those really rich guys and gals were on their boats and at their country clubs for the first time of the year. 

Now, I blame this on the media.  When the Yankees lose immediately they are written out to be the worst team in baseball, granted Saturday they lost by about 20 runs but still it is just one of 162 games.

That is how you take it, plus they get blown out by the Indians every year often giving up 20+ runs in that game, this year they did it in April.

If those “fans” thought they were going to see winning baseball they would be at the Stadium however, they didn’t so they did not come out.

Now, how to fix this empty seat problem allow fans to move down to the better, empty seats through the course of the game.  Don’t keep an usher there checking tickets to make sure they can go down, just let them in. 

Guess what owners and CEOs and whoever else is responsible for this, ticket sales will stay the same, except customers will be happier, and that friends is good business, even Bernie Madoff can tell you that.

I have been to many stadiums new and old, and they are all amazing.  State of the art and a fun place to be, however these owners and other top executives need to remember what their product is and that is baseball.  Too often that is forgotten about with the building and redesigning of a ballpark.

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