Whoops, You Paid $1,200 For Crappy Obstructed View Yankee Tickets
Thinking of buying some "secondary market" tickets? Well, you might want to do a little research before you open your wallet, according to the New York Times. Apparently, the new Yankee Stadium has some seats that are so godawful that they only cost $5 — unless you buy them from a scalper who charges you hundreds.
From the New York Times:
Earlier this week, tickets for Sections 239 and 201 were selling for over $200 on StubHub, without the sellers' necessarily mentioning that the view was obstructed. Though the Yankees had previously recognized that these seats were not ideal and lowered the price for them, independent marketplaces like StubHub and eBay leave it up to the sellers to disclose whether or not a view is obstructed.
That is how a visibly upset Adrian Rea, a Yankee fan from Binghamton, N.Y., wound up spending $1,200 for four tickets in Section 201. Rea had no idea that he would not be able to see right field.
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have bought them," he said. "I would have even paid more if I could have had seats that weren't obstructed.".
Whoops.
It Depends on Your View: Yankees Tickets From $5 to $2,625 [NYT] (Thanks, Charles!)
(Photo: John Dunn for The New York Times)
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Comments:
I'd be outraged, but they're Yankees fans.
Indians 10, Yankees 2. I don't think he missed too much...
That was just a bunch of poor architectural decisions. There should have been $5 seats someplace, but not at the expensive of seeing the game.
@ianmac47: Or rather, not at the expense of seeing the game.
Probably time for a modern comment system that allows editing posts.
Hmmm. Should we be mad at StubHub,etc for selling the tickets or for the Stadium designers that actually made the seats like that.
The question I have is this: Why not install a "jumbo-tron" on that wall, and have a live feed from a camera mounted on the opposite side? It would make it pretty much transparent, and you could also sell ad space on it in between innings.
Just my dumb little idea. If the Yankees steal it, I might have to call everyone here to testify I had it.
What I think is hilarious is that Adrian didn't even get the worst seats, if you were sitting in the last row all the way to the left in that photo, you'd pretty much get a view of left field only.
You have to admire the dedication of Yankees fans, because I wouldn't spend half of what this guy did on the four best seats in the stadium. Presumably he knew his $1,200 wasn't going to get him close, but at some point you should probably just buy a $1,150 TV and $50 worth of beer and hot dogs and stay home.
The seats are normally $5 for a reason, this is what they get for buying tickets from scalpers. Besides the only reason they went for such an insane price is because its the first game played at the new Yankee Stadium. Also all someone has to do is walk 20 feet and watch the game from the deck above the batters eye and viola no more obstructed view.
Obstructed view or not, you're crazy to pay $1200 for bleacher seats.
15 dollar seats they bought for that much??!? Yankee fans are crazy.
see nothing about 5 dollars but maybe they have extra special pricing hidden someplace?
This isn't exactly news, complaints about obstructed view seating in the bleachers as well as around the foul poles have been garnering complaints since well before the Stadium opened for the exhibition games against the Cubs. StubHub tells you what section, and what seats your tickets are located. Then do some research...
Then again, people are going to say that a modern ballpark should not have obstructed view seating like this, and that the center field Mohegan Sun bar was an architectural afterthought which was just plopped down in the bleachers without any thought.
Anyways, the only real complaint here is that the seller didn't reveal that these were obstructed view seating, and that StubHub should require sellers to do so.
Not that they would...they wouldn't get as much money for scalping their tickets that way.
I have no sympathy for Rea at all. Bottom line is that its just a GAME. Buying tickets on StubHub or EBay is a sure way to get ripped off. $1200 for four tickets? I wouldn't had been admitting I had payed that to the NYTimes.
"SCALPED TICKETS A RIPOFF!" Film at 11.
@gorckat: There's a sports bar on the other side of the wall. What would you have had them do instead? Not put any seats in that section at all? At least this way, there are some cheap tickets available.
I cant' fathom paying $1200 for ball tickets, unless it was perhaps the Superbowl. Really...this is what sports tickets run these days? I realize they are scalped, but ... Glad I'm not a sports fan - between paying for all of the expensive cable/satellite packages and $1200 tickets...that's one expensive hobby I don't need.
@ianmac47: There's a non-technical reason for not allowing the editing of comments. It keeps commenters honest by not letting them change the content of a comment after someone else has responded to it.
@PETAKillsKittens_GitEmSteveDave: Those three "boxes" on the wall are TV screens. There should be more of them, though.
@PETAKillsKittens_GitEmSteveDave:
That is a great idea, I have to agree, it seems like such a simple solution. The only reason I could think they wouldnt is because it is in reaching, or better yet, throwing distance and they dont want to have to repair a jumbo-tron every time an angry yankees fan thinks the ref is blind.
@Saboth:
They were so absurdly expensive because it was the first (regular season) game at the new Yankee Stadium.
Here's another story related to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium:
Caught On Tape: Pepsi Yankee Promo Goes Horribly Wrong
(I e-mailed this to the Conumerist tips e-mail address but I guess it got overlooked.)
@Hyman Decent: There are a lot of forum systems out there that (a) allow editing only for 5, 10, or 15 minutes after the initial post is made, and/or (b) disable editing as soon as anyone has responded to the initial post.
Are you serious? Not to blame this fellow Yankee fan, but honestly, WHO buys tickets from ANYWHERE these days without going online and looking at the seating and view?
But I guess if you so intent on being at "the first game in the new stadium" that you are willing to part with that kind of money....maybe the blood isnt flowing correctly to your brain?
Blame the architect for a lousy design.
Blame the Yankees organization for okaying the lousy design.
Blame the scalper for ripping someone off.
And partially blame the buyer for not doing their research before buying a tickt.
Everyone's a loser! Just like the Yankees themselves!
@Hyman Decent: Maybe have the sports bar not obstruct seats, like the one in the stadium the Rangers play in, for example.
@Secret Agent Man: Never has such rational thinking as this been witnessed on the internets until now.
I could get me some nice TV for $1,200.
I am very suprised a new facility would be designed with ANY seats like this. Foolish.
@Yossarian: That may not have been possible because of the surrounding streets, something I'm guessing the designers of the Rangers' ballpark didn't have to worry about.
@Hyman Decent: If i was there I would've started chanting YANKEES SUCK and see how long it took for the mob mentality to change over in verbiage.
Could they address this by changing the name of the seat? Say instead of 15E Row-11 Section-8, it could be 15XXX Row-Obstructed Section-DoNotSitHere or something.
@ianmac47:
I'd pay $5 for the cheap seats just to get in the stadium... Once in, I'd go searching for vacant seats in better sections.
Also, I assume you can watch the game from the sports bar/concession stands. Why suffer?
@Etoiles:
(a)It's still possible to edit a comment after someone else has replied to it.
(b)Someone else may be composing a response to a comment when the commenter goes back to edit it.
@gorckat: There used to be seats like this at Veteran's Stadium. They eventually just eliminated them.
Can't resist the pull.... YANKEES SUCK!
@Saboth: On the way in to the Texas-USC Rose Bowl people were offering over $1000 a seat by the time we got close to the gate. Face value was $250 so the markup wasn't as egregious and the view wasn't obstructed.
When you have only 80, 90, or 100,000 seats and many multiples of that of fans who want to go, it makes sense that the tickets would get pricey.
This is what the SNAD system from eBay is for, assuming you bought them on eBay.
I'll never understand why someone would pay thousands of dollars to watch some fucking [insert sport here] game.
In other news, kudos to the stadium designers for managing to get approval on a design that just HAS to be a joke.
You've got to be some kind of crazy loon to pay $300 for a ticket to a baseball game.
"independent marketplaces like StubHub and eBay leave it up to the sellers to disclose whether or not a view is obstructed"
Ah yes, scammers heaven. And there are people who defend StubHub and eBay. I must wonder why.
I can't believe a modern ballpark has such a shitty design that has seats like that. Nuts!