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. Read the full post, after the jump

The Yankees Are Trying To Move Seats - Old And New (Demolition & Ticket Pricing Updates)

A couple of quick notes on a busy Monday afternoon - before we head out to the stadium.


(photo courtesy of WCBS880.com)

The pace of demolition is accelerating at the old Yankee stadium, as seats are being being pulled throughout. Sales are brisk for the insanely overpriced seats, so the Yankees likely want to get those orders fulfilled before the inevitable buyer's remorse sets in and people try to get a refunds.


(screen grab courtesy of Yankees.com)

The Yankees are trying to sell seats at the new Yankee Stadium as well. In this case, they are trying to get fans to come to the seats, instead of the seats coming to them. According to a marketing email sent by the Yankees this morning, fans can "Save $40 on Batter's Eye seats May 18-21." The Yankees conveniently withhold the price of these seats throughout Yankees.com, so fans can't see the completely overpriced $125 face value. Even at $85 ($40 off) "catch[ing] the game perched atop the Batter's Eye and enjoy[ing] one of the most unique views in the Stadium" is not worth it. Buyer beware, and wait until they drop the prices to a more reasonable level of $45 - $50.

Enjoy the rest of your day, and if you are at the Yankees game tonight, come and visit us in section 428, row 10. Nick is making his new Yankee Stadium (regular season) debut, and shenanigans are sure to ensue. We'd love to meet our loyal readers (if such people exist). Come and say hello. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankees Continue To Slash Prices - This Time On Audi Yankees Club & Batter's Eye Seats

An exciting email just hit the inbox from the New York Yankees. Apparently, team executives are starting to realize that seats other than the Legends seats are overpriced at the new Yankee Stadium.

Ticket prices for the upcoming mid-week series against the Tampa Bay Rays have been slashed - specifically in the Audi Yankees Club, and the recently re-branded "Batter's Eye seats" (formerly Bleacher Cafe seats). This doesn't come as much of a surprise, since resellers and ticket brokers have informed us that the secondary market has crashed, and tickets for the series against the Rays are nearly impossible to sell.

Directly from the Yankees, here are the offers:

E-Saver: Audi Yankees Club
May 6-7 vs. Rays
Save $50 on Audi Yankees Club seats and enjoy a tiered seating climate controlled space, and a complimentary upscale dining experience. This offer is compliments of Audi.
Coupon Code: AUDICLUB

E-Saver: Batter's Eye seats located in the Bleachers Cafe
May 6-7 vs. Rays
Save $50 on Batter's Eye seats. Catch the game perched atop the Batter's eye and enjoy one of the most unique views in the Stadium. This offer is compliments of Pepsi.

In our opinion, the Audi Yankees Club seats are priced to move, while the Batter's Eye seats are still a rip-off.

In the Audi Club, you will have a top notch, all you can eat dinner, and a nice view of the field for $90. We're tempted to jump on this offer, as the Lobel's guys have told us that they distribute all of the meat served there, and with the all you can eat offer, it is a great deal. As for the Batter's Eye, drop the price below $50 and we'll think about it.

Expect to see more of these Yankee "E-Savers" in the future, as they will do the right thing and try to fill the stadium, not matter how deep the discounts have to be. Read the full post, after the jump

Plenty Of Good Seats Available For Upcoming Premium Yankee Games - And We're Not Only Talking About The Legends Seats

When it was announced that there were going to be seats on top of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, reminiscent of the "Green Monster Seats" at Fenway Park, we were all ears. When word came of a climate controlled sports bar in center field, featuring unique views from the batters eye, we were pestering Yankee ticket reps for information every day. When we found out about seats down the left field line offering unlimited food along with the price of admission, the fat guy in us reared its ugly head and we wanted in. Last week, the Yankees finally released tickets for the Bleacher Cafe, Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and The Audi Yankees Club - the public has responded with disinterest. The Yankees have misread the market yet again and just like with the "greatest seats in the world," inventory is stagnant.

A few quick searches of Ticketmaster.com reveal availability in all of these exciting seats for nearly every premium game. The first game against the Red Sox on May 4? $90 plus Ticketmaster's exorbitant fees and you will be watching the game from the first row of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar. A Saturday, May 23 game against the nearby Philadelphia Phillies? $130 per ticket plus ridiculous fees and your family of four will be a chowing down on unlimited food and watching a ball game from the first row of the Audi Club. The June 13 Saturday tilt against the cross-town rival Mets? $125 will have you baking in the sun on the top of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in Row 2 of the Bleacher Cafe seats. We can do this all day - the point is that there are plenty of seats available for the best games, and not only in the thousand dollar seats...
Some of this can be attributed to poor dissemination of information by the Yankees. For example, today we had someone comment on the blog and ask:

Is this ALL I need to walk into Yankee Stadium, sit down inside the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar" for the entire duration of the game and watch? Or do I need an additional ticket for a "regular" seat somewhere in the stadium? Do I get to spend the entire game inside the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, or do I get a limited amount of time?

The Yankees have information about the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar on Yankees.com, but when perusing Ticketmaster.com, it is a real leap of faith to spend $90 plus fees for a ticket in what is termed as a "sports bar."

A few days ago, the anonymous author of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar review on River Ave. Blues contacted us regarding the sports bar. He mentioned that a friend of his was curious about the secondary market for the interesting seats in the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and the Bleacher Cafe. Apparently, she is willing to pay $45 for seats in the Mohegan Sun Sports bar - tickets with a face value of $90. There is obviously a gap in what these seats cost, and what they are deemed to be worth by Yankee fans. Obviously, a secondary market cannot develop unless the tickets are sold by the organization first.

As usual, we come prepared with a solution for the Yankees' problems. The organization does not have any season ticket holders to answer to when considering ticket prices for the Audi Yankees Club, the Bleacher Cafe, or the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar. While this means they are unable to scare people into buying more games than they want, it also allows the Yankees to be flexible with the ticket prices. There has been much speculation lately, regarding the Yankees lowering ticket prices. There is no better place to start than with these fascinating seating options. People will certainly be interested - but only on their terms. That is why were are endorsing ticket auctions, run by the Yankees, deciding what these seats cost. Why leave the seats empty, especially seats from unique perspectives that Yankee fans have not yet experienced?

Bidding should start at the following prices:

Bleacher Cafe

A view from the Bleacher Cafe seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

Face Value: $125
Recommended Auction Starting Price: $35
Even pricing these seats at three times the face value of the bleacher seats just next door seems a bit absurd. That being said, the seats have backs, unlike the bleachers, and they are closer to the field of play than any of the upper deck seats, so $35 seems to be a good compromise. For mid-week day games, the Yankees may not even receive bids. For premium games, perhaps the Yankees will eventually come closer to reaching their original face value. Let the fans decide.

Mohegan Sun Sports Bar

A view from the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

Face Value: $90
Recommended Auction Starting Price: $55

We'll admit that the climate control offered by the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar has the potential to be highly sought this summer. That being said, the Yankees are trying to charge $90 plus fees for the privilege to watch a game from a sports bar, through a tinted glass window. The scoreboard is nowhere in sight, and crowd noise is non-existent leaving fans completely disconnected from the game they are paying a lot of money to attend in person. Start the bidding at $55 and let the market play out.

The Audi Yankees Club

A view from the Audi Yankees Club seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

Face Value: $140 ($75 for ticket, $65 for food)
Recommended Auction Starting Price: $120 ($70 for ticket, $50 for food)

All you can eat food has a price, and we think $50 is a fair one. As for the cost of the actual seat, we recognize that it isn't too far out of line with the pricing in the rest of the stadium, since seats directly below are $60. When considering the climate control, the Yankees actual kept pricing in line with seats that have actually sold out for most games. The food seems a bit pricey, and for auction purposes, we would recommend lowering the cost of it. Remember, these seats are not selling at their inflated prices, so cuts need to be made somewhere.

It will be a shame if the Yankees are stubborn and keep current prices for these seats in place. The Yankees, always in denial, will likely attribute slow sales in these seats to lack of information and recent on-sale dates. They need to come to grips and fast. The first games ever in the new Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox are fast approaching, and seats remain unsold. As die-hard Yankee fans with jobs that provide a bit of discretionary income, we still can't justify paying what the Yankees are asking - even for premium games, and even though we are curious about the seats. If that isn't a problem that needs to be addressed, what is?
Read the full post, after the jump

UPDATED AGAIN: Pricing Information For Bleacher Cafe, Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and Audi Club Tickets

Please note - there have been considerable changes to this post since it first went live. We will be keeping this up at the top of the blog for the beginning of the day on Thursday to make sure that everyone sees all of the up to date information.

As usual, the Yankees website is basically useless when it comes to finding out simple ticket information. Many Yankee fans are itching for additional information regarding some of the more interesting seating options in the new Yankee Stadium. Being the intrepid reporters that we are, we did the digging in order to save you the time. Here is the information:


Bleacher Cafe


A view from the Bleacher Cafe seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

PRICE
$125 in advance
UNKNOWN day of game
Information Source: Ticketmaster.com, confirmed by an article published in NY Magazine this week.

These seats are the Yankees answer to the "Green Monster" seats and are perched atop the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar. We have been told by multiple sources that the view is amazing, and we can confirm that the view from behind them is very majestic. That being said, these seats are being billed as the equivalent to the Green Monster seats at Fenway, but they are nothing like them. While the Green Monster seats are a little over 300 feet away from home plate, these are over 500 feet away. The $125 price tag while bleacher seats directly adjacent are $12 is sure to leave a bad taste in buyer's mouths. As far as we know, these seats don't come with any special amenities, not even admission to the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar directly below. $60 would have been a reasonable price for these seats.

Mohegan Sun Sports Bar


A view from the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

PRICE
$90 in advance
$95 day of game
Full-season membership available to full-season, 41, or 20 game plan holders with field level seats ONLY for $750.
Information Source: As of yet unpublished information via a reliable ticket office source, Yankees.com A-Z Guide.

We have spent a lot of time discussing these fascinating seats. At first we were told they were only membership, then we were told they were only ticketed, now we can confirm that that the bar will be a hybrid, and the non-seating areas of the bar will be for members:

The Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, one of two membership clubs in Yankee Stadium, is a spacious, air-conditioned space located in centerfield above historic Monument Park. Its location allows for great views of the playing field as well as Monument Park below. Two cocktail bars are located inside, and guests can watch the game through the windows facing the playing field or on various high-definition video monitors inside the bar. Individual-game tickets are also available. For information, please visit www.yankees.com.

The Yankee somehow manage to get everything wrong. Why would they make things even more elitist and only allow Field Level ticket holders into the sports bar? According to our source, it is due to very limited space inside of the bar. On the other hand, the Yankees are probably just cutting to the chase - the only people affluent enough to pay $750 for a membership that allows them to buy drinks in a sports bar at a baseball stadium are the field level ticket holders.

There will not be a membership card with a barcode to get in. Each member will receive a paper ticket that is good for each different game. The Yankees somehow see this as a means of preventing scalping, but we don't quite understand the logic:

the passes will be printed on an individual game basis in a booklet (no barcodes). Hopefully we don't have as many people selling the passes as "tickets" to the game on craigslist or ebay as the membership passes won't get you through the gates and will only get you into the designated areas.

Isn't it easier to sell that paper membership pass than it would be something with a barcode? Wouldn't it have prevented scalping to somehow build the membership onto the barcode of the individual game tickets, since only season ticket holders are allowed to purchase the membership? Even providing the members with some sort of membership card would have been a better idea. We'll have to be on the lookout for those passes on the secondary market so we can check out the exclusive sports bar. It is interesting to note that those people paying $750 for the season pass will never be allowed to sit in the seats at the front of the bar, facing the field, as those are reserved for specific ticket holders.

Speaking of the seats, if the view on the 3-D seat selector is any indication, you can expect to be annoyed by partitions separating the glass panels when trying to view the game through the window. Paying $95 to sit in a sports bar does not seem like a great deal to us, but perhaps we are overly negative? $75 would be fair, especially if they threw in a voucher for a hot dog and a soda. As for the $750 membership, we mentioned previously that it would have been a great deal for an obstructed view bleacher creature, but it looks like that is not an option. Go figure.

Audi Yankees Club


A view from the Audi Yankees Club seats, courtesy of the 3-D seat selector on Yankees.com

PRICE
$75+$65 facility fee = $140 advance (includes unlimited food and drink, excluding alcohol)
TBD day of game
Full-season membership available to any season ticket holder for $975 (unlimited food NOT included for people with a membership). Tiered pricing for lower plans.
Information Source: As of yet unpublished information via a reliable ticket office source

The Mets used to have a crappy "box" like this at Shea Stadium. They would stick you out in crappy seats in left field and overcharg you because you had "unlimited food." At Shea, the food was the low-end Aramark catering, so it was hardly a deal. Then again, they didn't charge $140 for a ticket, or $975 for a membership for those seats. Even worse, the unlimited food is ONLY available for the people ticketed per game, and NOT for people with a membership. Therefore, we don't quite see the value in a membership. The ONLY way we can see this as a deal is for the $975 membership option.

If you plan on spending more than $975 on food and non-alcoholic beverages while at Yankee games this year, you should jump on this. We don't know the menu for the Audi Yankees Club, but if you have $5 obstructed view seats in the left field bleachers, and you can get unlimited food and shelter in bad weather for $975, in might not be a terrible idea. As for the views, they are subpar, but not obstructed.

A more reasonable, but still overpriced price for the individual game tickets in this section would have been $50 for the ticket and $50 for the food, on an individual game basis. $140 is pretty absurd. Who would pay that?

For the record, the passes for the Audi Yankees Club will work the same way as the passes for the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar. With your membership, you will have the chance to pay to eat what they claim is top-notch food. Time will tell if the food will actually be as advertised. The individual per diem membership passes will certainly have resale value for people who buy this membership and then can't make it to the stadium for specific games. We'll certainly be on the lookout for secondary market deals, just so we can chow down on the [kind of] free food!

While we'd love to check out a game from all of these locations, it appears that the Yankees have priced us out. In the case of the Bleacher Cafe seats, there are just too many other spots in the stadium that offer similar views for 1/8th of the price. According to Ticketmaster.com, tickets are still available in the Bleacher Cafe seats for the first two series at home, excluding Opening Day. Beyond that, it doesn't look like the Yankees have made them available. This seems to indicate that they are not too confident in the $125 price going over well with fans, and there is the potential for it to change.

The Audi Yankees Club is not a good deal, no matter how the Yankees spin it. We spent way too much time deciphering how much you needed to spend on food daily to make the membership worth it, and then found out that food isn't even included when you pay $975 for a membership. We're not quite sure what that $975 is getting for people.
On a 40 game plan, we would have to plan on spending $24 per game for food and non-alcoholic beverages and go to all 40 games in order to make buying the $975 Audi Yankees Club membership worth it. Along those lines, if you attend all 81 home games in 2009, you would only have to plan on spending $10.75 per game to be able to justify the cost of the membership, providing you with unlimited food. How many people actually go to 81 games though?

We can't even consider the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar tickets because we are not special enough to have season tickets on the Field Level. Any predictions on how long that policy lasts? Unless they are offering some kind of free food with that $750 membership (and they're not), it is the second worst value in the entire stadium, trailing only the Audi Yankees Club.
Read the full post, after the jump