— Shea Stadium Doomsday Clock —

New York Giants
The Giants are a complicated team. They are the New York Giants, but play in New Jersey. It is Giants Stadium, but the Jets live there too. Manning was a hopeless cause until he suddenly won a Superbowl and became a sage veteran.

But one thing is never complicated: if you are a Giants fan, you will get gouged for tickets. Deeply gouged.

The Giants announced their seat licensing program for the new stadium yesterday and it is impressive.

To be honest, they did do a nice job creating a great Web site, NYG2010.com, where they very clearly explain the new pricing strategies, seating charts, etc. The stadium doesn't open for over two years and they already have a clear communications plan and migration strategy for ticket-holders.

It should come as no surprise to Giants ticket holders that it will cost them alot of money to get into the new stadium. Go to "Seating allocation" then "Pricing and seat views" for a sharp interactive map of costs and locations. The seat licenses (a one-time fee to hold your seat) start at $1,000 each for 26,179 upper-deck seats and rise to $20,000 apiece for 4,162 lower-level field seats.

According to the New York Times, "Between the highest and lowest prices that fans must pay for the rights to keep their season tickets are fees that range from $4,000 each for 10,905 mezzanine seats above each end zone to $12,500 each for 3,052 mezzanine club seats overlooking the sidelines.

The Giants are selling licenses to every seat in the $1.6 billion stadium they are building with the Jets, and will generate about $367 million if they sell all 78,448 licenses. After taxes, about half the revenue will go to paying the Giants’ stadium debt."

Of course, people are mad. Folks who have held Giants tickets for decades are getting squeezed for every dime. 

Putting aside the debate about ridiculous ticket prices and the absurdity of personal seat licenses, the Giants are at least offering long-time fans a chance to downgrade their plan and get a seat somewhere in the new stadium. A similar offer has not been extended to long-standing Met season ticket holders and Citi Field opens in nine months.



[July 18, 2008 10:47 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Rickey24 said

Here is the first set of information re: prices at Citi Field.

No word yet on partial plan holders and they conveniently omit the starting price for seats in the Promenade level (i.e., the New Upper Deck)

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ballpark/citifieldseats/index.jsp

[July 18, 2008 11:08 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Doug said

Mara was Craig Carton's guest on the FAN this morning. The interview is available for download on the station's site. Here are some highlights:

1. New Stadium was budgeted at $800 million. Now costs $1.6 billion. Increase due to rise in cost of steel, concrete, and labor.

2. The Stadium is being completely financed in the private sector. In order to complete the building, the Jets and Giants had to meet certain payback schedules resulting from the Credit Crunch. PSL's were the only way to meet that deadline. PSL's will pay 1/4 of the Giants cost of the BUILDING.

3. For the PSL owner... 20 percent due 30 days after receipt of letter. 40 percent due August 2009. Last 40 percent due March 2010.

4. The owner of the PSL will have the right to sell that PSL, or forfeit it back to the club. This is key, because this effectively makes the wait list a line that doesn't move. What sane person is going to forfeit $80,000? That person is going to sell his PSL's for whatever he can get, and not necessarily to the next guy in line. Waiting for 30 years? Tough luck. Those PSL's will change hands in the private sector to the highest bidder.

Sad, but its a fact of life. Professional Sports is a business. In the New York Market, if you don't pay, someone else behind you surely will.

As it goes with the Mets? We will have to wait and see. Phil Mushnick of the Post wrote today that the Mets are having to call back big-spenders who have decided NOT to renew their tickets... Has the bubble popped? Time will tell.

No use worrying about things one cannot control. I still believe that Partial Plan holders will be offered SOMETHING in the new park. I don't see the club shutting the door. However, I understand the economic game they have to play. It's in their best interest to state now that the only way to secure seats is via Full Season Tickets.... They believe they can drum up persons to believe "The Sky is Falling" hype.

In the meantime... LETS GO METS!!

[July 18, 2008 12:48 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Anonymous said

I've been to a handful of NFL games (Candlestick Park, Giants Stadium, and Shea) and much prefer watching football games on TV. You see what's going on much better, don't have to deal with bad weather, don't get gouged buying ballpark food, parking, and of course ticket prices. You're right, seat licenses are an absurdity, a way of charging fans twice for the same thing. Anyway, it's a free market and fans always can watch the game on TV, so I'm shedding no tears for Giants fans.

[July 18, 2008 1:02 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Doug said

It would seem that the above link to the mets web site is to drum up new sales in the new ballpark. It appears to be a work in progress, as you can't leave a deposit yet...

But, over at the main mets site, you can still buy a Sunday plan - prorated for 5 games. Hell, you can even get a full season prorated for 25 games, beginning the first week in August... Upper Box Section 16!!!

Seems to me like there are still plenty of seats available...

LETS GO METS!!!
Spring Training 08







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