Classic Rant #216 (March 22, 2010): Baseball Tickets Strike Out

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you know that I am a huge Yankees fan. I have been with them through thick and thin, and this past season was one of the most memorable I can remember, as they won the World Series for the first time since 2000.

The new Yankee Stadium, while a beautiful park, is really just a facsimile of the original park. It has all the bells and whistles, but it just doesn't measure up to the old Stadium. And since it is nearly a twin to the grand old park, why did they tear the other one down, anyway?

To cut to the chase, my family and I went to one game last year, and we could barely afford that one. Not only are ticket prices ridiculous, but travel, parking and food can add up to a very, very expensive day ... and it did for us.

We sat in the nosebleed seats because, for starters, I couldn't afford anything else, and second, even if I could, the seats were pretty much bought up already.

After a championship season, I would expect tickets would be hard to come by, but I had no idea that they would be as hard to come by as I experienced them to be on Friday.

Finally, after a long wait, the Yankees put single-game tickets on sale this past Friday. I diligently waited for the day, and when it came, I--and probably thousands of other people--pounced on the team's Web site, hoping to grab something before it was all gone.

Well, I waited an hour, and still, I had nothing.

Again, I was going for the cheaper seats, because that is still all I can afford. I simply can't afford $100-plus a seat for a family of four, nor could I justify it even if I could.

Well, folks, those seats, at least through the Yankees, are gone. They were taken early by either season ticket holders or other lucky people, so I was shut out totally.

I was so desperate that I went to a "secondary site"--a legal scalper--and I got four tickets there ... or at least I think I did.

I actually wanted five tickets, for my family and my son's friend, whose mom has taken my son to Broadway shows and things like that. I really wanted to take this kid to a game. He is really nice, and my son loves him like a brother.

Anyway, I ordered five tickets for a particular game, and when the total came back to me, I saw that only two tickets were purchased, even though I ordered five.

I contacted the ticket broker, and finally, after a long wait, I hooked up with an operator. The operator told me that they only sell tickets in even numbers; in other words, I could not purchase five, I had to either purchase four or six. I begrudgingly said four, and he said he would change my order.

However, my email confirmation came back as two tickets.

So, after hours of trying, I may have only two tickets for a Yankees game.

Just in comparison, my family and I vacation in Orlando where we have a time share. This year, like last, we will be going to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game--against the Yankees. When their tickets went on sale about a month ago, it took me about two minutes to choose my tickets and proceed to checkout. No hassle, no bother, no nothing.

And I paid less for those seats than the seats at Yankee Stadium, and we are sitting in the middle section, not the nosebleed section.

There has to be a better way to purchase tickets. I have to chide the Yankees for making it so expensive, as well as so impossible, for an average guy to take his family out to a baseball game.

It really stinks.