Why Large-Market MLB Teams Will Ruin Cheap Secondary Ticket Market for Fans

Lower ticket prices for baseball games are good for fans, right? Is anyone willing to disagree with that?

Oh, the New York Yankees would like to raise an objection. 

According to the New York Post, attendance is down 3.6 percent this season at Yankee Stadium. As you might expect, the Yankees aren't happy with that. And they want to do something about it.

A big part of the problem, in the Yankees' view, is StubHub. Seats are available through the service for prices far cheaper than the Yankees like, which just isn't working for the team. So the Yankees would like to start seeing other ticket agencies.

“We believe there are serious issues with the StubHub relationship,” Yankees president Randy Levine said to the Post. “We are actively reviewing more fan-friendly alternatives for next year.”

Levine's use of the term "fan-friendly" is laughable, of course. What's more fan-friendly than the lowest ticket prices fans can find? How exactly would the Yankees' ending their relationship with StubHub help the fans?

The fans that Levine and the Yankees are truly interested in are their season-ticket holders, of course. They're the lifeblood of any sports franchise. Those buyers were willing to put up with the Yankees' exorbitant prices when they could resell those seats on services like StubHub and turn a profit on their investment. 

But when secondary-ticket buyers aren't willing to buy seats at face value because they're overpriced, they search elsewhere for better prices. So those tickets essentially go unsold and you have empty seats at the stadium or arena.

Or you have a situation almost like commercial flights where one person may have paid a certain price, while the person sitting next to him got a far better deal through commercial Websites and discount agents. You could see how that might lead to some resentment among season-ticket holders. 

When season-ticket holders are forced to resell their tickets at dirt-cheap prices or see similar seats going for much lower prices elsewhere, their investment no longer pays off. Those buyers then don't renew their season packages. 

The current system works out great for fans looking to pick up a couple of tickets for whichever game they'd like to see. They don't have to pay high prices at the box office and can usually get nice seats at a much lower rate. It's a good deal. 

However, if the Yankees have their way and end things with StubHub, fans are going to lose out. The Yankees also insist, according to ESPN New York, that several other large-market teams such Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers aren't happy with their respective StubHub relationships, either. 

Yet, as Deadspin says, other teams—such as the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies—are fine with the current system because it allows them to maintain sellout streaks. Even if the seats aren't literally filled at game time, the tickets were sold. Hey, it still counts as a sellout!

So why would fans be buying tickets in those cities, at those ballparks, while attendance is down at Yankee Stadium? Could it be because the Yankees wildly overestimated the market and made their tickets at their new ballpark far too expensive to begin with? 

This is total greed by the Yankees organization, along with the other large-market teams that presumably can't abide by fans getting the best deal. What a total surprise. And how fan-friendly.

Follow @iancass on Twitter