Here’s a comparison between the games in the Yankees 12 Game Plan #1 and the $5 tickets they’ve made available in the bleachers, grandstand and terrace for the 2009 season:
| Date | Opponent | $5 Game? |
|---|---|---|
| April 20th | Oakland | Yes |
| May 4th | Boston | No |
| May 7th | Tampa Bay | Yes |
| May 20th | Baltimore | Yes |
| June 3rd | Texas | Yes |
| June 17th | Washington | Yes |
| July 2nd | Seattle | Yes |
| July 22nd | Baltimore | Yes |
| August 8th | Toronto | Yes |
| September 7th | Tampa Bay | No |
| September 15th | Toronto | Yes |
| September 28th | Kansas City | Yes |
Ten out of the twelve games in the plan are $5, yet people who were assigned that plan are paying full price in the terrace, bleachers and grandstand for their seating. That’s incredibly ridiculous. This is the plan they originally assigned many of the Saturday and Sunday plan holders. Aren’t season ticket holders supposed to get the best price? People who kept this plan (or picked it, even) are paying 4 times the price the Yankees are charging the general public for the privilege of having a Red Sox game in their plan (and the same seat every game).
Here’s the math that shows the difference in price between buying all these games (in theory) on TicketMaster pre-fees and getting the plan from the Yankees, in all the sections that are affected:
| Seating Area | TM Price | Plan Price | Price Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Terrace
|
140
|
540
|
400
|
|
Grandstand Dugout
|
100
|
300
|
200
|
|
Grandstand Outfield
|
90
|
240
|
150
|
|
Bleachers
|
74
|
144
|
70
|
That’s a pretty big difference for all of the plans. Even if you account for TicketMaster fees that turn those $5 seats into $10 a piece it is still a huge gap for all the seating except bleachers.
In the past, the Yankees have offered some mid-week plans at big discounts and sweetened the pot with a Premium Game or two, but this year they just went ahead and charged full price for everything. This is a really unfair thing to do to season plan holders who only had the information about their plan in front of them with no idea there would be any $5 games this year much less which they would be.
[...] Last year, the Yankees had 10 $5 ticket nights. In case you’re not familiar with these nights, they’re low draw games (well, for the Yankees anyway) and they price the Grandstand/Bleachers/Terrace at $5 a seat. I believe these days it’s just the outfield terrace that is discounted but in the past it was the whole Tier Box area. In any case, in 2009 12 Game Plan #1 holders were annoyed to find out that 10 of the games they had tickets for were $5 nights. [...]