Guess who’s paying for A-Rod’s contract?

If you said, “The Yankees,” boy, are you in for a surprise.

The Yanks tonight released two pieces of information. The boring one is the tentative 2008 schedule. Yankee Stadium will play host to its last game on September 21 when the Orioles come to town, and the Yanks will close out the 2008 season in Boston for what could be a pivotal three-game series. There ain’t nuthin’ like some drama to close out the year.

But the bigger news — and the bad news — is the cost. It’s going to cost you more than ever to get in to Yankee Stadium. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

Now, I don’t know how much it costs to sit in the lower decks. Those aren’t my ideal seats, and I never sit there. But the prices are astronomical. The Field Boxes run from $240-$325 a ticket if you buy in advance and $350-$400 for day-of-game tickets. Those are the most expensive seats in the stadium.

But forget those seats. No one can really buy single-game Field Box seats anyway. In fact, I think they’re already all sold out for the entire season. Instead, let’s jump up to the good seats in the Tier. The Tier Boxes last year cost $60 for the so-called MVP seats and, I believe, $40 for the others. In 2008, we’ll be paying $65 and $45 respectively. The Tier Reserve jumps from $18 to $22 with day-of-game tickets going from $20 to $23.

Meanwhile, bleacher seats will now cost $14.

You can bet that the new stadium will see prices even higher than this. Yankee games are fast approaching Knicks games in price, and that’s not a good thing for the average fan.