Saturday, May 23, 2009

Are The Yankees Silently Slashing Bleacher Cafe (Batter's Eye) Prices To Unheard Of Levels?

A tipster has written in to tell us about a great deal he scored for Sunday's Yankees vs. Phillies game. While we have spread the word about the Yankees "$40 off E-Savers" for the 'Batter's Eye' seats in the past, we have yet to see prices this low.


(click for full size)

What you see above is what happens when the Yankees listen to us, and price the 'Batter's Eye' seats appropriately at $50 per seat- they get sold. We have said all along that somewhere in the $50 range is where prices for these unique seats belong. In reality, they are slightly better than the bleacher seats, but because of the novelty, we understand them being priced considerably higher.

This is far from a permanent mark-down. These tickets were purchased on Friday afternoon for Sunday's game, and they are now sold out. Prices in the "Bleacher Cafe" (as they are listed on Ticketmaster.com) still carry a $125 face value for all other games. It looks like the Yankees are going to promote "E-Savers" for the less-attended games against opponents like the Orioles, and are going to keep prices higher for most other games. When these seats remain unsold for games against premium opponents (such as the Phillies), it appears they are going to mark them down until they can sell them. Essentially the Yankees are holding a stealth dutch auction. Or this could just be a price mistake.

If this wasn't a one time price mistake, the only criticism we have is that the Yankees are doing this in a sneaky way, to hide their errant pricing. It is similar to seating all of the sailors and other servicemen in the unsold Legends Seats - a nice gesture, but it is obviously just to cover up boneheaded pricing schemes. Why not just come out and announce bargain-basement pricing? Fans will certainly appreciate it, and the seats will get sold, all without these secretive blowout sales. Once again, the Yankees do something smart, but still manage to be stupid about it.
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