Empty Seats at Yankee Stadium

 

As the Yankees get set to open their final season in the original (albeit renovated) Yankee Stadium, look ahead to what I predict will be the toughest ticket in New York sports history — Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium in 2009.

Yankee tickets weren’t always tough tickets. Even during the great championship runs and dynasties, an SRO crowd in the Bronx was a novelty, not a daily occurrence. Yes kids, there was a time, not that long ago, that the average fan could buy an average price ticket and see the Bombers in person.

Heck, as kid I used to take the El down from Woodlawn, buy a $1.50 general admission ticket for 75 cents with my high school G.O. card, and sit wherever I wanted in a half empty upper deck for a Sunday doubleheader.

Remember 1966, when Yankee announcer the legendary Red Barber was fired for telling his audience that only 413 fans filled the Stadium for a game against the Chicago White Sox.

Those days are gone, forever. Prices for field championship boxes this year range from $325 to $400. Forget about a luxury suite.

Over the past few years, as the Yankees and their fans began counting down the seasons in “The House that Ruth Built,” tickets have been more and more difficult to come by. A weeknight game with Texas in July has become an event.

And if it’s a tough ticket now, it will be a tougher ticket next year in the new Stadium, with more luxury suites and corporates and even higher prices.

Gone are the days of empty seats at Yankee Stadium.

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