Stadium Insider has been SHUT OUT of the B Plan

I just got off the phone with the Yankee ticket office. Unfortunately, my 2005 seniority for my Tier Reserved MVP, section 1, Row M was not enough to keep me in the B Plan. I was informed that I will be automatically assigned to one of the 20 game plans. The upside? It will cost way less money. The downside? I won't get tickets to opening day at the new Stadium and I won't get a postseason ticket guarantee. For anyone out there waiting for the bad news in the mail, feel free to call on the phone today to get it over with. The ticket office is open this weekend due to a high volume of calls from B plan ticket holders. You can get in touch with them by calling 1-800-913-9793.

The surprisingly friendly, but business-like ticket rep also let me know that I will automatically be put on a waiting list for the B Plan and they will be going down the list in order of season ticket seniority as soon as the accept/decline and payment period ends for the B plan assignments.

Some other items of note that I found out from the ticket rep:

- There will be two separate 20 game plans for disenfranchised former B plan holders - one starts with the 2nd game of the season and is every 4th game thereafter. The other starts on the 4th game of the season and is every 4th game thereafter. You will not get to choose which 20 game plan you are assigned to if you were shut out of the 41 game plan - they will automatically assign you to one of those two plans

- You have the choice of downgrading to a weekend plan an being put into the pool for those assignments. In that case, you won't lose your spot on the waiting list for the B Plan, but you will have the opportunity to guarantee less of a payment to the Yankees since the weekend plan is such a small number of games. I am not clear whether a former B plan holder who was shut out of the 41 game plan, assigned to a 20 game plan and CHOOSES a weekend plan will have priority over a previous weekend plan holder. I would assume it would be based on some combination of seniority and previous ticket plan, but I'm not sure.

- The ticket rep acknowledged that fear of being put in my situation is likely the cause of being shut out. He said that people got caught up in the excitement of the new Stadium and wanted to guarantee a plan in the new Stadium. For that reason, many people upgraded to full season - even if they didn't want to purchase 81 games or couldn't afford to do so. Essentially, those people are now ticket brokers. The ticket rep also acknowledged that the Yankees goal going into the relocation process was to secure as many full-season ticket subscribers as possible. As much as it pains me to admit as a scorned season ticket holder, this was a smart business decision by the Yankees. Considering they are spending 1.3 billion dollars to build the new Stadium, it was their right to take advantage of the impulsive Yankee fans who were itching for any reason to throw more money away into a full season plan.

- For the high-rollers out there, $350 seats downstairs in the infield are available on the B-plan. If you have $28,000 to courier over to the South Bronx, you will be the proud owner of a Yankee season ticket plan that guarantees you opening day and tickets to every playoff game.

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