The Yankees Want Your Opinion About The New Yankee Stadium

This past week, someone in the Yankees front office finally had a moment of enlightenment and realized that the opinions of the people spending their hard-earned money at the new Yankee Stadium actually matter. To prove this, the team is "extending a personal invitation to a limited number of people," to sit down with Yankee suits and tell them what they think of the "The New House." (that's for you, Michael Kay). The team is even offering incentives to participate in this focus group. such as $200 gift certificates, or the opportunity to watch batting practice from the field before a game.

We commend the Yankees for this decision, as long they are actually seeking the opinion of the common fan, and not just the rich people in the Legends Seats. Call us skeptical, but we have a bad feeling this is another PR stunt intended to kiss up to those naive people who paid top dollar for "premium ticket offerings" only to see the Yankees slash prices and give the unsold seats around them away for free.

We also can't help but feel like the Yankees are wasting money here. If they didn't have a strict policy against recognizing the existence of blogs and message boards, they could easily check places like NYY Fans, The Mets Police, our humble little weblog, and even the comments section of the LoHud Yankees blog (enter at your own risk). All of these are easily accessible web portals where common fans have voiced concerns about the new Yankee Stadium.

Hopefully we will be proven wrong, and people will let us know in the comments section that they have season tickets in relatively cheap seats and have been extended this invitation. We have a bad feeling that the silence will be deafening.

The full email from the Yankees:

We are extending a personal invitation to a limited number of people, to either meet at our Preview Center in Rockefeller Center or at Yankee Stadium, before or after a game, so as to spend a few minutes telling us how we are doing and how we can make the “Yankee Stadium Experience” even better.

We want you to tell us exactly what you think about the food, the merchandise, the game day personnel, and the entire “Yankee Stadium Experience” from the moment you enter the Stadium until the moment you leave. We want to know what you like best, and what may have disappointed you.

Most importantly, we want the truth.

In fact, we are so interested in what you think, we have a great gift reserved for you if you participate. Your gift can be selected from the following:

• a $200 gift certificate for use in a Yankees Team store;

• a $200 gift certificate for NYY Steak (our new steakhouse at Yankee Stadium);

• an opportunity for you and three guests to watch batting practice from the field for a select game; or

• an autographed baseball by a current or former Yankees Player

We have several dates and times open, thus simply select the session date, time and location that is most convenient for you – either at Yankee Stadium, just before or after a game, or over lunch or at the end of the day at the Yankees Preview Center, located at 30 Rockefeller Center.

Our Stadium interviews will take place on July 5, 6 and 18.