Two or three years ago, the stock market was humming along at somewhere in excess of 13,000. A good many people were working and prosperity was in the air everywhere. It was in this era of prosperity that the New York Mets, the New York Giants, and the local professional football teams in New York planned their new stadiums.
On the baseball side, a large number of seats were set aside as boxes to accommodate wealthy patrons who were willing to pay $2,500 to view one baseball game. In Yankee Stadium as well as in Citi Field, which now accommodates the Mets, the two baseball organizations thought that they would have sellouts, with patrons clamoring for seats at $2,500 a clip.
On the football side, the Giants and the Jets designated a large section of seats behind the coach’s box which they stated would be the best seats in the house. If my understanding is correct, the Giants planned to charge something on the order of $3,000 per ticket while the Jets came in at around $2,500 to see each of their football games.
In a spirit of “get all that you can get,” the baseball organizations and the football organizations all decided to sell personal seat licenses.
To get a seat at a baseball game, one must purchase a personal seat license and then he becomes eligible to buy season tickets. This is a rip-off in its rawest form. It guarantees sell-outs to the baseball clubs and to the football clubs and means that the patrons must either attend every game or, if they elect to skip a game, sell the tickets. In short, the Giants, the Jets, the Yankees, and the Mets were charging twice for selling the same seats.
But then the great recession/depression occurred. People lost their jobs. Banks closed. The stock market retreated from a level of as much as 14,000 to a level just about half that amount. In short, America was in a depressed mood.
As things now stand in mid-August of 2009, the $2,500 seats at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are largely empty. Television commentators often allude to that fact. News reports tell us that no executive from Wall Street or the big banks wishes to be seen in those seats. A banker, for example, who would appear in the $2,500 seats would probably have his sanity questioned, particularly if his bank had accepted government bailout money. The football season is about to open, and I will ask my observers to pay a close watch on how those expensive seats behind the coaches are selling. My guess is that the same depressed atmosphere that greeted the baseball season will carry over into the football season.
I know that there are those who will claim that this is a matter of lousy timing. But for an old-timer such as myself who believes that it is worth $4 or $5 to witness a baseball game, it is a matter of the owners getting their just desserts. This is eminently true in a town such as New York, where all of the games are shown on television.
Perhaps there are those who have a need to tell the world that they have $2500 to waste on a baseball game. I am very fond of baseball and much less fond of football, but buying a seat for $2,500 is nothing more than an exercise in gross vanity. In any case, I am reduced to listening to the games on my radio, with television being of no use to me. Listening to games on the radio is where I started out years ago, and now it looks as though that is where I will end up. If that is to be the case, I have no objection whatsoever. And I will keep my $2,500 firmly planted on my left hip, rather than giving it to Yankees, Mets, Jets, or New York Giants.
E. E. CARR
August 17, 2009
Essay 408
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Kevin’s commentary: Nothing much to be said here aside from that I agree entirely. The whole notion of season tickets is pretty ludicrous when you have to buy a seat license just to get em. Pure absurdity.