Do Sports Teams Need A Bailout?

I have had sports on my mind this week.  Not only with the exciting playoff action in the NHL and NBA but with the business of sports tickets.

The other day I discussed how the Red Sox may be having an issue with selling tickets.  Well, they are not the only MLB team concerned.  The most famous of all baseball teams has issues too.  My friend Doak forwarded me a story that was on the Fox Sports website about the Yankees are having problems selling their new premium seats. The headline of the story says it all “Pricey Seats at New Yankee Stadium Bomb”.  The article mentions how many of the prime infield seats in the Legends Suite sections have been empty.  Of course these seats are in camera view all the time.  These seats go from $500 to $2,500 per seat, per game for season ticket holders.  The article says that individual seats can cost as much as $2,675 per game.  I have one big question for the Yankees:  WTF? 

Instead of media talking about how the team is playing or which player is going to get caught on steroids next, they are all talking about the empty seats.  In typical bad PR form the President of the team, Randy Levine said “We’re done talking about seats”. “We’re not talking about seats.”

Has anybody informed professional sports teams that we are in a recession?

What’s up with this?

My son is a big fan of the Boston Bruins.  They just swept the Montreal Canadians in the first round of the playoffs.  He asked about going to see them live in the second round.  Tickets went on sale yesterday at 11:00 AM.  He was on my computer and on the Ticketmaster website at exactly 11:00 AM.  The only seats available for any of the home games were a few $250 premium seats.  He clicked again and they were gone.  However plenty of $150 upper level seats (normally $35) popped up immediately on TicketsNow.  How was this possible?  Did anyone learn anything yet from the Bruce Springsteen ticket mess?  Ironically, The Boss played in the same arena the night before.

The man behind the talent

I am very sad to hear that Tim Holst died last week.  Tim was the VP for talent at Ringling Bros.  I understand he died after a short illness while on an overseas trip to sign up acts.  He was the Performance Director of the show when I first started at Ringling Bros. in the 1980′s.  I will always remember him as a very kind person who really cared for the performers.  He had a very tough job but always enjoyed what he did.  He died too soon at the age of 61.  There is one lonely spotlight in the Center Ring today.

 

Tags: Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, Bruce Springsteen, cost of seats at sports, Fox Sports, Legends Suite seats, MLB, Montreal Canadians, NBA, New Yankee Stadium, New York Yankees, NHL, Randy Levine, Ringling Bros., Ticketmaster, TicketsNow, Tim Holst