May 16, 2009

Schadenfreude 83 (A Continuing Series)

Darren Everson, Wall Street Journal:
Since [the new Yankee Stadium] opened in April, scads of empty seats in prime locations have compelled the team to cut prices. Tickets to a recent Boston Red Sox game, usually a hot item, were selling for $8 on StubHub ...

What if this $1.5 billion ballpark doesn't help the team? Is it possible that this magnificent facility could fail? ...

The new Yankee Stadium has seemed cursed from the beginning, as if Babe Ruth disapproved of the abandonment of the house he built. That it opened during a recession, with a major-league-high $72.97 average price for a nonpremium ticket (up 76% over 2008, according to Team Marketing Report) has created contempt among fans who otherwise love the team. ...

"They've made almost every mistake you can make," says Roger Noll, a professor of economics emeritus at Stanford. "There's nothing that's been as unpopular as this."
The Yankees may set a new record for consecutive non-sellouts.

A WSJ comment from Paul Cenzoprano (who named "Jetter" among the team's great players):
I am standing up today, while the team is suffering to say a the Stadium is great, a tribute to baseball, and a national treasure; furthermore the Yankees are, as I write this, scraping the season back together and will be successful this season. The team owes it to those who dedicated years of effort poured into this new great stadium. Built with heart and soul, the new Yankee Stadium deserves nothing less then ever ounce of this teams heart and soul poured back into it and into this season.
Is this parody? I fear it is not.

Last night at the National Treasure, the Yankees went wild celebrating the fact that they are one game over .500:

16 comments:

laura k said...

"Built with heart and soul"

No mere concrete and steel - and corporate and taxpayer dollars - there! No sirreebob.

Wow.

9casey said...

I had enough of the Papi experiment , put him back where he belongs...

Rob said...

I wonder if they had champagne on hand.

Rob said...

Here's some amazing timing. I thought The Baseball Show was on Sunday then I realized it was today but after 9:55. But! At noon they replay it, and so it should be on at 12:55 as well. It's 12:50 so we'll see what happens.

Rob said...

And at 12:56 there it was! Very cool.

allan said...

Glad you liked it. I never think I sound good. I think they put up the link on Monday.

They did not ask us beforehand what we would focus on (they wanted only one thing each), but it was great that there were three different topics and it seemed to flow nicely.

I'm glad I didn't have some Ortiz stuff ready to go and then have to say, "Ummm, yeah, I agree with the last guy ... Ortiz is in a slump ... uhhhhh ..... (crickets)"

NewJerseyYankee said...

More Manny talk please... What about reparations from the big Yankee killer?

Tarnished....

allan said...

Dear NJY:

News about Manny Ramirez does not fall within the parameters of our Schadenfreude series. However, there likely will be Manny posts at The Joy of Sox in the future. Thank you for your concern,

Mgmt.

nixon33 said...

you've got to be fucking shitting me.

accudart said...

I like all the open seats up front....

allan said...

Except no one can sit in them. Levine has said the seats are similar to "suites" and are totally off limits and chained off. And kids cannot go down to the field before the games and maybe get an autograph.

People are calling the dividing line between the big shots and the riff raff The Moat!

allan said...

Pic of the Moat.

allan said...

Wanna buy an officially licensed Yankee gnome for $35?

Well, get your ass over to the New Toilet.

allan said...

Plus, their brand new 101-by-59-foot HD Diamond Vision scoreboard is already fucked up.

allan said...

That Stadium Insider blog (linked right above) looks pretty good. They don't like Lonn Trost very much!

Anonymous said...

Since I was quoted - Let me add to the following...

The new Yankees Stadium has curse, its cursed with winning World Series in its inaugural season! The Yankees is the only team in baseball to have won WS first year of new Stadium 1923 & 2009.

Looking back at my prediction,it was right on the mark...