Hal Steinbrenner: Perhaps Ticket Prices Are A Bit High

It seems like the Yankees have finally caught on - tickets in the "greatest seats in the world" are overpriced, according to Hal Steinbrenner. Sadly, this is not news to anyone except for the out of touch executives that run the ticket operation for the New York Yankees.

"I think if anybody in any business had known where this economy was going to go, they would have done things differently," Steinbrenner said Thursday. "Look, there's no doubt small amounts of our tickets might be overpriced.

Back when the prices were announced, people said they were expensive. Sales are slowed by the economy, but lets not fool ourselves into believing that the prices for the best seats were ever anything short of insane.

Then, we have this revelation from Hal:

"You know, we're continuing to look into that," he said. "But the bottom line is, the vast majority of them, it seems like they're right on because we've sold 35,000 full-season equivalents, and a lot of the tickets have, you know, sold quite well. And, well, despite what's out there all the time about the time ... there's thousands of very affordable seating. And, you know, the public is excited, as excited as we are, I think."

Suddenly, the Yankees have only sold 35,000 full-season equivalents. What started as 39,000 back in March 2008, was then amended to 36,000 by Lonn Trost last week, and is now at 35,000. The Yankees continue to prove that they were using scare tactics to convince fans to upgrade to season ticket plans that they didn't necessarily want, in turn becoming Yankee ticket brokers. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankee Full Season Ticket Holder Number "Was An Internal Team Miscommunication," Actual Number Considerably Lower

According to the NY Post, Lonn Trost shared false information that the equivalent of 39,393 full season ticket plans had already been sold for the new Yankee Stadium back in January. As it turns out, only 36,000 full season ticket plans were sold in total, and the 39,393 number was a mistake based on "an internal team miscommunication."

That would be an acceptable error, except very similar information was shared with a journalist from the AP by Lonn Trost back in March 2008:

As for the regular seats, the Yankees hope to send out a relocation plan in April. Through Thursday, the Yankees had sold 39,141 full-season equivalents.

Trost said there will be about 11,000 non-premium seats at field level and 12,000 at the main level. He said 25,000 seats from the final year of the current ballpark won't be increased for 2009.

In other words, we have all witnessed an absolute vintage Lonn Tross tactic right there. Make up a large number of tickets already sold to scare the crap out of people and force them to upgrade to the highest possible ticket plan.

As it turns out, the higher season ticket holder number was from the old Yankee Stadium. Now, the truth has been revealed - the Yankees have sold less full season equivalents this year than they did last year. Along with the high percentage of the most expensive seats remaining unsold (you know, the ones that were planned to subsidize the money lost by keeping the lower ticket prices unchanged?) and the Bank of America deal crumbling this means that the Yankees may not have such an easy time of paying for this 1.3 billion dollar luxury home. Lets hope a foreclosure is not in the future. Read the full post, after the jump