The fact is that the new stadium could have been made with the same capacity as old, and all the new comforts and amenities. It may have cost a bit more, but economically its rentability would be viable in the long run.

So, why not build a stadium that accommodates as least as many fans as the old one? It’s not quite profit maximizing, but as I said before, is that worth the lost fans?

- Went to 3 games at the New House and sat in three distinctly different locations: luxury box; mid-level, slightly to the left of home plate; nosebleeds behind Yankees dugout. Enjoyed each respective experience fully. (That they were all Yankee wins, surely helps.)

- Food/drink prices don’t affect me: won’t pay $1.50 for Budswill at the bodega, let alone $9 at YS3. (From what I’ve been told, Citi Field’s got ‘em beat on that one with their selection of decent beers for $6.50.)A bottled water and a dog: $10 bucks and I’m good. But I feel those who are not happy w/how expensive it is out there, and that’s gotta change, somehow.

- Was against the richest sports franchise in the world getting my tax money to subsidize their new stadium, and the subsequent neighborhood upheaval.

- Don’t care about the moat. Whatever. But they should let the kids have access during batting practice, period.

- Prefer YS3 to old. Even with all the design screw ups, “free” money for the stadium, and neighborhood disses, which can’t be overlooked, it still feels like YS to me.

Cons: Fewer seats, even fewer afforable seats, the restaurant in center is a monstrosity, monument park seems like an afterthought and is tiny and not enough “Yankee” stuff is visible from the field and the outfield backdrop is too dull and symetrical.

I guess you take the good with the bad.

The Stadium is obviously gorgeous, but for a Yankees team that demands the best, I think they missed the mark ever so slightly.

I don’t think fan experience was ever second, even distant.

But to play the game anyway, you can make the argument that if increased capacity is somehow a concession to fans, why not build a stadium that seated 75k or 80k like a football stadium?

Lesser seats arguably mean either a more intimate experience and/or a more comfortable experience. The new stadium does have more leg and shoulder room, no?

I think you could make the argument that’s a pro to the fan experience, no?

Agreed…

“it’s about people who have always been able to afford a day at the ballpark and who no longer can, thanks to the Yankees pricing them out. There’s no way that can be spun as a good thing.”

Again, no argument, but I would add while last year was certainly a profound one-year jump due to the new stadium, what you describe has actually been an ONGOING circumstance that’s been occurring since 1995 when the Yanks began winning 90 games a year perennially and going to the post-season.

And of course the post-season itself has for the last 15 years been a mirco-study in the same circumstance. Many of the fans who support the Yankees over a 81 game season are priced out of the ultimate reward for the regular season, and that’s not new for 2009.

“And the reference to the 80s and early-mid 90s in order to show that the fans didn’t always turn out to the Stadium even when the seats weren’t as expensive is also totally irrelevant.”

Whether they were expensive or not is not at all the point. Ticket prices don’t factor into the equation.

The point is the current generation of Yankee fans that go to games since the Yanks started drawing 4 million a year are made up of yes, some NEW fans that were kids in late 90′s and now have the means to go to games themselves, but a greater part are so-called “fair weather” fans who became fans (or a least fans who attended games) when the Yanks became a dynasty.

And that’s NOT a criticism. That’s that natural order of things. It’s how it works.

But that said, THESE fans don’t lay claim to be “real” fans any more than the fans who can afford the premium seats.

THAT was the point I was making.

And I didn’t suggest the Yankees didn’t price out fans. I commented on the argument that they priced out “REAL fans” (really, look at the post again, not sure how you missed it, it’s right above where you would have hit “reply”).

As demand increases, prices rise, and as prices rise, it becomes unaffordable to certain people. That’s how markets work.

Bear in mind in the old Yankee stadium, many fans were priced out of their too. I don’t recall people waxing poetic about how cheap at day at the old stadium in 2008 was. There were milllons of people who probably felt like they couldn’t afford that either.

Anyway, the point that you somehow missed wasn’s that some people were priced out, it was that the people who were priced out were no more “real fans” than anyone else.