Lonn Trost is a liar - All the proof Yankee fans need from a year-old interview

I received an email from a disgruntled Yankee season ticket holder containing an MP3 of an interview that Lonn Trost conducted with Mike and the now defunct Mad Dog last March 11. In the interview below, listen to Lonn the sleaze go out of his way to brag about what a great relocation plan the Yankees had concocted and how happy the fans would be.

Nearly one year later, egg is dripping down his face, but the Yankees are laughing their way to the bank.

Scroll to 7:18 of this clip and listen for the next minute or so. It is pretty unbelievable that Francesca let him off the hook so easily in that interview last week. Accountability just doesn't exist these days, even when archives of print, radio and TV are so readily accesible. It is sad, really.



If the player doesn't work, you can download the interview here.

What do you have to say for yourself, Lonn?

Update (3/5/09): Some folks in the comments are pointing out how forthcoming Lonn was in his interview, mentioning the obstruction in the bleachers and talking about the TVs in the walls. If you read this blog, you will see that the bleacher obstruction has not been news since September when NY Mag posted a photo from the 3D seat selector. The fact remains that the relocation process that was being touted as one of the most efficient and well-planned in the history of sports in the interview linked above is still going on with a month until opening day. Any season ticket holder that didn't upgrade to full season is disgruntled. The interview from one year ago shows Trost's ignorance in regard to the pending relocation. Instead of tempering expectations for the process, he boasted proudly how happy everyone would be. That was his first mistake.

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Breaking news from Lonn Trost on WFAN - obstructed view seats in the bleachers for $5

Lonn Trost is being interviewed by Mike Francesca on WFAN right now. Other than lambasting partial plan ticket holders for "not reading the documentation", he has shared the following infortmation:

- All "architecturally shadowed seats" (his words, not mine) in the bleachers will be $5. No specification on exactly which seat numbers or sections qualify, but there are a total of 600 "architecturally shadowed seats."
- The Yankees are opening up the premium $350 "best seats in the world" up to ALL ticket plans. Therefore, if you want a 12 game plan in those seats, you can get one. It still seems unaffordable to me.
- 2,000 seats are being held back per game for group sales - all in the Grandstand. Why aren't some of those being used for partial plan season ticket holders?
- 28,000 seats in the new Yankee Stadium did not have a price increase this year. Well Lonn, that is because Tier Reserved MVP seats (like my old seats in Tier Section 1) increased 47% from 2007 - 2008 ($17 -$25).
- The supposed figures for seats sold so far in the new stadium:

32,542 saleable inventory for plans:
26,318 seats sold (including 23,517 full seasons)
5,870 partial plan seats on reserve until end of week

4,000 not available for plans (for several reasons, luxury seats, suites, etc)
2,000 tickets reserved for groups
1,866 standing room tickets
1,000 wheelchair access
----------
9,186

41,728 (32,642 + 9,186)
7,000 for single game sales
-------
approx 49,000

Something in those numbers doesn't add up, but perhaps I missed something.

Lonn Trost has come off as elitist and out of touch in this interview. He actually had the nerve to call $100 seats "affordable" at one point. The Yankees need to do themselves a favor and get some of A-Rod's crisis management people to advise him. As for his point about fans not reading the relocation documentation, I present exhibit A:

This is from the relocation guide about 41-game licensees:

STEP 1 - SEATING ASSIGNMENT
If you licensed and maintained a "B" Plan for the 2008 Season, you will be assigned the same number of seats in a 41-Game Plan in the new Yankee Stadium as are included in your Plan at the end of the 2008 Season. In making assignments under the Relocation Program, the Yankees will, among other things, consider your seating preferences as indicated on your Relocation Program Questionnaire. Please note, however, that your assigned seat location will not likely be comparable to your current seat location in Yankee Stadium.

As we all know by now, that did not happen. The reason it didn't happen is because the Yankees continued to allow season ticket holders to upgrade to full season plans without alerting those people who had opted not to. I completely understand that this was a business decision, but why doesn't Trost just admit to it instead of calling me stupid? This is getting outrageous.

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The furor grows over the relocation process

Credits: Bill Bramhall/News

I must admit, I am about as sick of hearing about the New Yankee Stadium relocation drama as I am about the PED drama. Sadly, the media latches onto a story and can't let go. Local newspapers first caught on this weekend, running quote-heavy stories as a platform for jilted fans to air their grievances. The NY Daily News even had Bill Bramhall create the HILARIOUS cartoon seen above. This is the PERFECT story for New York City talk radio to spend hours talking about and they are definitely up to the task. Mike Francesca announced on his radio show this afternoon that WFAN is working hard to schedule an interview with Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost for Wednesday's radio show. Even the blogosphere was a bit late to the party on this story, but now the interwebs are incensed. Baseball Prospectus author Jay Jaffe took the Yankees to task for leaving long time partial-plan ticket holders with terrible seat choices.

The media has taken on a noble cause but they need to stay focused. In order to make Lonn Trost squirm and not spin his way out of this PR nightmare, Francesca needs to ask him the following questions:

1. Why didn't the Yankee ticket office and outside consulting firm, Turnsyle Ticketing, follow the guidelines set forth in the original relocation package? What (other than greed) inspired the Yankees to allow ALL partial plan holders to upgrade to full season plans even after the original deadline for voicing such interest had passed?
2. Why was there such incompetence in the Yankee ticket office (embarrassing typos in emails, contradictory information, etc.). Where was the leadership and why did the crosstown-rival Mets relocation process go relatively smoothly?
   
3. How many seats are being held back for single game seats in order to play up the "half of the seats in the Stadium are under $25" angle? Partial plan season ticket holders are being shifted all over the Stadium and being bumped from plans and they deserve to know how much of that is being caused by seats being held for the general public on sale. Transparency has been an issue from day one of this process, hidden behind the wordy legal diatribe also known as the relocation packet.
   
4. How much did the recent deal with Stubhub factor into the relocation process and scare tactics forcing partial plan holders to upgrade to full season? The Yankees receive a considerable commission on every ticket sold by season ticket holders on Stubhub. Did the Yankees knowingly scare season ticket holders into upgrading to full season packages with the intention of cashing in on the Stubhub commissions when they inevitably became ticket brokers for the team? This sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory but the fact remains that by forcing fans to upgrade to full season plans, the Yankees guaranteed a sold out Stadium in a terrible economy, while also turning on the faucet to another revenue stream in Stubhub commissions. Fans buying full season plans and stretching their budgets created the need to turn to Stubhub to get back some of that investment. True fans upgraded to full season plans in order to guarantee previous seat location and playoff rights, scalpers upgraded to full season plans in order to profit off of the new Stadium, and the Yankees ended up profiting on all of them. Make Lonn admit the Stubhub connection was key in this screwjob for loyal fans.
   
5. What are the Yankees going to do about the unsold "Greatest Seats in the World" once the season starts. A brand new stadium is going to look silly on TV when all of the prime seats are empty. In retrospect, did the Yankees get a bit too aggressive with the $350 pricetag of those seats and are there any plans to change the price? Further, was the $350 price worth the hassle, not only due to the absence of interest, but also considering the significant shifting it caused, further muddling the relocation process for the ticket office and the fans. There was no way the average fan was going to be able to afford those seats and most downgraded to different locations.
6. Are the Yankees worried that with an ever-deepening recession and bad PR created by the relocation fiasco will affect future ticket sales? A good portion of the large season ticket holder subscription base is comprised of Yankee fans and profiteers who were looking forward to the new stadium. When the shine wears off, will ticket sales slump considerably? A lot of this has to do with putting a winning product on the field, but how long will the Yankees be able to operate profitably while acting as if being a Yankee fan is a privilege and not a right?

Those questions are wordy and a bit emotional, but they will get to the bottom of things fairly quickly. The fact remains that the Yankees are a huge business, and they ran the ticket relocation process in the way that made them the most money. All of the pitchforks and torches in the world aren't going to cause the Yankees to drop their capitalistic approach and I have pretty much come to accept that.

Update (8:20 PM): Lonn Trost addressed some of my questions above in an interview with Newsday's Neil Best. My favorite:

Is it true there are seats in the bleachers from which you can't see parts of the field? "Yes, but we will have TVs in the walls there."

That's not the same thing as seeing it live, is it? "We had a choice of selling it to somebody or not. If you come to the stadium you'll see there are TVs in the walls. [Some views are obstructed] a little bit, but for $12 it's a choice of taking it or not."

If I were an advisor to Lonn Trost, I wouldn't recommend such a defiant tone during a time of PR upheaval. To each their own...

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