Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pay up New York Yankees fans!


Here's a reality check for any fans who want the New York Yankees to get Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford AND Jayson Werth.

The Yankees are increasing ticket prices, ostensibly to help offset the cost of having baseball's highest payroll. Despite the still-sluggish economy, the team will raise the prices of field-level seats (which I don’t care much about since I can’t afford to sit there at current prices) by about $10 or $25 and for bleacher seats without blocked views (which I care deeply about since I often sit there) by $3.

I am often amazed when I travel to other cities how much cheaper game tickets are. My last trip to Toronto, I got three tickets for roughly the same price I paid for one ticket to my last home game. But then the Blue Jays are not paying their way into contention so that's to be expected.

But for the record, I don't have a big problem with the Yankees raising their prices. If we want them to keep putting a competitive team on the field, spending big is the way they are going to do it and we have to live with that. Do I wish the tickets were cheaper? Of course. But I don't relish paying $13 to see a movie either, which is why I usually wait for them to come out on DVD. It's the same reason I watch most Yankee games on television.

I would like to see Brian Cashman & Co make better investments with my money. The Yankees are usually the only team that can afford to eat bad contracts such as the one they gave to Chan Ho Park, who was eventually replaced with the more expensive and much-more effective Kerry Wood. It was an easy call to keep Javier Vazquez off the roster for the playoffs despite his $11.5 million salary, but he wasn't a bet Cashman should have made in the first place. Let's hope he learns from that experience.

Bottom line: You get what you pay for. And Yankees fans will be paying more if they want to personally watch the most coveted free agent on the market pitch in Yankee Stadium next year. Imagine how much ticket prices would have gone up if Yankee officials were targeting all three of the top guys available. Personally, I can live without Crawford or Werth since it probably saves me some dough.

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes you get less than you pay for.

    What's your opinion of Cashman overall? He made a lot of mistakes last offseason.

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  2. Cashman definitely made a lot of mistakes last offseason, including giving Nick Johnson $5.5 million with his injury history. I was surprised he didn't get criticized more for the Johnson signing considering it was a foregone conclusion that he would get hurt. I also think Cashman has a need to be right about things, which is why I think he traded for Javier Vazquez a second time last offseason. But he also has the ability to learn from his mistakes so I don't expect any repeat offenses such as trying to sign Carl Pavano (Yikes, just the thought of Pavano is freaking me out!)

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