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The Yankees have taken all kinds of heat for their new stadium. It's too expensive. It's too homer friendly. It's too fan unfriendly. The team playing in it is uninspiring and past its prime.
Wait, that last one has nothing to do with the stadium, so let's save it for another post. But that fan unfriendliness thing is still going pretty strong, and one of the most obvious examples of this is the fact that the Yankees, bucking the practice of every single ballpark I've ever been to, don't allow fans without exclusive tickets to get near the field during batting practice. The policy is causing a P.R. problem for them.
When dealing with a P.R. issue like that, it's best to make statements that come off as sympathetic and understanding. Statements that are basically the polar opposite of the one the Yankees are giving:
Referring to the high-priced Legends Suite tickets clustered around home plate and the infield, Trost said that it was an area that fans without suite tickets would not be allowed to enter.
"If you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite?" Trost said in remarks reported by The Associated Press. "If you purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?"
To sum up, the Yankees consider seats at the field level to be "suites," and they consider anyone who doesn't buy those tickets to be trespassers or home invaders or something as opposed to, say, baseball fans who simply want to get close to the players hours before the game actually starts.
I suppose it's possible for the Yankees to have more contempt for the fans that have made them the richest organization in team sports, but I'm not sure exactly how they could do it. Turning the hoses on people in the cheap seats every couple of innings? Random beatings, perhaps?
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Sounds like most New Yorkers..............
I'm a Yankee fan, but this is very disappointing. They are stiff-arming their young fan base at every turn.
Yankees Fans Strike Outside Ballpark
As an O's fan....lived in NY for years, and loved Yankee Stadium, the big crumbling mess that it was. It was a great ballpark, and can't think of a better one in the country for an number of reasons. But THIS...THIS is truly sad. Ownership has taken an elitest stance towards it's fans, most of whom don't have that kind of money. It's reserved for bozos like Billy Crystal and media celebs to "be seen" at the big fancy park. If I were a Yanks fan, I would organize a protest game day where everyone gather OUTSIDE the stadium and listen to it on the radio. Make the street vendors rich, head over to STAN'S for some beers, etc., and send a message to the fatcats that you'll still support your team, but not in the way they tell you to. Cause a scene, get on the news, beat ownership. Take it from an O's fan . . . I know all about crappy ownership.
So whats new? its New York
Why do we keep writing about the Yankees, by the end of the season , they will be battling Baltimore for last place. They havn't won a World Series in what 7yrs now, they are done. Great job on the way they have handled everything the last few years, they are the AIG of baseball, reward failure. How about theat Manager they decided was better than Torre, how is he working out for the team. Bottom line is the only thing the Yankees can do is intimidate the fans, casue they are not scaring anybody on the field.
Why anyone is still a Yankee fan is beyond me. Where do the Yankees get off thinking they are better than anyone else and that their poop don't stink. I hope they tank and if the NY fans were smart, they wouldn't pay those prices. The the stinking rich fans bail them out. They certainly didn't build a park where the average Joe can go and watch a game. Anyone who pays that prices is just plain stupid and deserves what they can't get in that park.
I like the content of this blog, but am horribly annoyed by the 'read more' links leading to 3 additional lines. I'd read it daily if not for that.
This just gets me incredibly mad. Lonn Trost has shown once again just how out of touch he and the Yankees are. The concrete "moat" around the "suite" seats next to the field is an egregious display of the caste system that's now in place at the new Yankee Stadium.
I've been a Yankee fan since I was a kid and the arrogance that the Yankees have been showing their fans leaves an incredibly unpleasant taste in my mouth. I can't even begin to guess how much money I've spent on Yankee tickets, merchandise, concessions, etc in the past 15 years but I know that until things change, the Yankees will not get another cent of mine. I've already said that I won't be going to the new stadium this year, but I honestly think that I'll never see the inside of that place. I won't go even if I'm offered free tickets, I've already turned down a bunch of them so far.
The way they've handled everything is REALLY making me question my allegiance to that team. I know that we root for laundry, but at what point does the management of the business end push away the lifelong loyal fan? I love this team, but my allegiance and loyalty to this team is waning quickly and frankly, it sucks.
The problem isn't the fact that they bar or kick people out of areas for which they don't have tickets. The problem is that they made those seats out of reach for the average fan. If the disparity between the lower and upper bowls wasn't as great, there wouldn't be as great a (perceived) need to 'keep out the riff-raff'.
I understand why they don't want to open the floodgates to the expensive seating section. It would be tough to clear out before game time. The (high) paying customers would get mad, understandably. But those seats shouldn't be priced in the stratosphere in the first place. They have undermined their home-field atmosphere, angered their fans, and embarrassed themselves.
You'd think this team wasn't already making money hand-over-fist in the old stadium without the Great Divide. I have no desire to pay through the nose to go to a stadium that won't let me and the Boy wander down to field level for 20 minutes to get some good pics of the players, watch a little BP, and maybe score an autograph or two. I'll drive the 3 hours to catch them in Toronto and do all that for half the price in a friendlier atmosphere.
Just to quickly respond to Ralph above, this doesn't change my allegiance to the team. But if I weren't a third-generation Yankee fan, having grown up on Munson-Randolph-Guidry and so on, I'd hate 'em with the rest of the country. (I'd hate Boston too, just on principle)