I was at Yankee Stadium 3 yesterday to purchase tickets. I read that the Yankees will supposedly have 2,000 Standing Room tickets available in sellout games. The ticket agent explained to me that Standing Room Tickets will be available on Gameday. BUT! The price of the Standing Room ticket depends on where you stand in the ballpark.Perhaps some earlier iteration of the Yankee ticket plans had the Yankees doing the right thing (like they do at Citizens Bank Park in Philly) and offering all standing room only tickets for $10. Unfortunately, the final word is that tickets for standing room only will cost the same as any game day ticket in the assigned SRO section. On a positive note, this does mean that standing room only tickets will only be sold on the day of the game, as we had hoped.
To clarify, if you purchase a standing room only ticket in the outfield Grandstand, you will pay $23 for the ticket. If you purchase a standing room only ticket in the field level section behind home plate, you will pay $375. Aside from everything we said earlier today about Yankee Stadium security, is it any wonder that they are so uptight? It appears that these guards are going to be responsible for monitoring the people trying to sit in seats in their section, and also responsible for monitoring which fans are allowed to stand near the section.
As for the actual views from the standing room only sections, our experience at the new Yankee Stadium leads us to believe that standing room only in the upper deck offers views of only half of the field. The most we would pay for SRO in the Grandstand is $5, and that is a stretch. The idea to charge full game day price for standing room only makes sense in the most expensive sections of the field/main levels of the stadium, where admittedly good standing room only views exist.
Another factor to consider in all of this is the horrendous flow and painfully long concession lines that plagued many of the concourses during the first weekend of games at the new Yankee Stadium. People were obviously walking around the concourses more than they will during the season, but selling more standing room only tickets means more traffic on the concourses. Right now, Yankee Stadium can't handle that. The Yankees would be smart to evaluate the general flow of the new park before letting the additional ticket revenue drive their decision.
As usual with the Yankees, none of this information is available on the official website, so all of the above information is subject to change. A rogue ticket agent may well sell you half price standing room only tickets for a sold out game versus the Red Sox in September. It is very unlikely, but when policies are not in black and white, and we are forced to rely on first hand reports from fellow Yankee fans, anything is possible.
