Don't Expect Standing Room Only Tickets Anytime Soon

One of the factors spurring on the popularity of newly built baseball stadiums are standing room only tickets, typically made available for sold out games. At Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, fans are known to line up overnight and form tent-cities for big games. For this year's opening day ring ceremony, Phillies fans waited hours in the rain and cold for the opportunity to snag 500 SRO tickets that would cost only $13.

The wide concourses and open-air build of new ballparks makes them extremely conducive to standing and watching the game from public areas, instead of having seats. There are plans for standing room only tickets at both the new Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field, but sales of these tickets have been put on hold indefinitely.

In Queens, the Mets set expectations low right off the bat, announcing that internal evaluations of Citi Field would take place before any standing room tickets would be sold. In the Bronx, there have been mixed messages from the start. The calendar is now in the month of May and according to our source in the ticket office, "[there is] still no word on the SRO tickets...my guess is we won't be selling them anytime soon."

Both teams are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they put the standing room tickets on sale immediately, they are giving fans another reason not to splurge on the still-overpriced premium ticket offerings. The Yankees have become so desperate to sell these seats that they have slashed ticket prices and have even enlisted the help of Yankees legend David Cone, who is cold-calling prospective ticket buyers. From a business standpoint, this would be a bad time to put standing room only tickets on the already crashing market.

On the other hand, delaying the sale of standing room only tickets may generate more bad PR for the new stadiums - the last thing that the Yankees and Mets need . Fans who have been looking forward to purchasing affordable tickets directly from their team's respective ticket office may feel that they are left out in the cold because the teams are unable to move their overpriced ticket options.

When reached for comment, Yankee spokeswoman Alice McGillion said "we have always said that we would not sell standing room tickets for some time until the flow of the fans in the building is clearer. When that flow during the game becomes more predictable we will make a decision on standing room."

If that was the message that was relayed all along (as the Mets did in Flushing), there would be far less confusion. In February, COO Lonn Trost spouted off on the radio and announced that standing room only tickets would be $20. The team has yet to announce the prices of these tickets. in April, ticket office representatives shared divergent information, referencing tiered pricing, which confused everyone.The Yankees have also openly used the unsold SRO tickets as a crutch for their disappointing early season attendance, even resorting to some fuzzy math. According to Yankees Media Relations Director Jason Zillo, as quoted in the NY Daily News following opening day, 2,000 standing room only tickets were unsold - the reason for drawing "only" 48,271 fans.

It is easy for the Yankees to use SRO tickets as an excuse for not cracking the 50,000 mark yet this season, but their official website lists the attendance (including SRO) as 52,325. Therefore, even if the Yankees had sold those 2,000 tickets on opening day, it still wouldn't have been a sellout, and the Yankees wouldn't have even come close to a sellout since - not even for the Boston games.

The Yankees don't owe standing room tickets to anyone. However, poor internal and external communication among team entities has led to confusion by fans and scrutiny over attendance by others. It might be time for the Yankees to develop a better PR strategy.
Read the full post, after the jump

Don't Expect Great Deals From Standing Room Only Tickets

There have been whispers for a while, but we are now receiving the first reports from fans regarding standing room only ticketing procedures at the new Yankee Stadium. Last week, we received an email from a fellow Yankee fan with information provided by a ticket representative that SRO tickets would be sold at a considerable discount from the seats in the section in front of them. Sadly, that information has been proven to be false, at least according to blog reader Victor:

I was at Yankee Stadium 3 yesterday to purchase tickets. I read that the Yankees will supposedly have 2,000 Standing Room tickets available in sellout games. The ticket agent explained to me that Standing Room Tickets will be available on Gameday. BUT! The price of the Standing Room ticket depends on where you stand in the ballpark.

Perhaps some earlier iteration of the Yankee ticket plans had the Yankees doing the right thing (like they do at Citizens Bank Park in Philly) and offering all standing room only tickets for $10. Unfortunately, the final word is that tickets for standing room only will cost the same as any game day ticket in the assigned SRO section. On a positive note, this does mean that standing room only tickets will only be sold on the day of the game, as we had hoped.

To clarify, if you purchase a standing room only ticket in the outfield Grandstand, you will pay $23 for the ticket. If you purchase a standing room only ticket in the field level section behind home plate, you will pay $375. Aside from everything we said earlier today about Yankee Stadium security, is it any wonder that they are so uptight? It appears that these guards are going to be responsible for monitoring the people trying to sit in seats in their section, and also responsible for monitoring which fans are allowed to stand near the section.

As for the actual views from the standing room only sections, our experience at the new Yankee Stadium leads us to believe that standing room only in the upper deck offers views of only half of the field. The most we would pay for SRO in the Grandstand is $5, and that is a stretch. The idea to charge full game day price for standing room only makes sense in the most expensive sections of the field/main levels of the stadium, where admittedly good standing room only views exist.

Another factor to consider in all of this is the horrendous flow and painfully long concession lines that plagued many of the concourses during the first weekend of games at the new Yankee Stadium. People were obviously walking around the concourses more than they will during the season, but selling more standing room only tickets means more traffic on the concourses. Right now, Yankee Stadium can't handle that. The Yankees would be smart to evaluate the general flow of the new park before letting the additional ticket revenue drive their decision.

As usual with the Yankees, none of this information is available on the official website, so all of the above information is subject to change. A rogue ticket agent may well sell you half price standing room only tickets for a sold out game versus the Red Sox in September. It is very unlikely, but when policies are not in black and white, and we are forced to rely on first hand reports from fellow Yankee fans, anything is possible. Read the full post, after the jump