The New York Yankees are on the way to their worst record in 31 years – and they’re going to make their fans pay for it.
The team last week sent out renewal invoices for next season that hiked ticket prices by up to 10 percent, according to pissed-off patrons.
“It takes balls for them to raise tickets,” said actor Ralph Bracco, 65, of Brooklyn, who has been a season ticket holder for almost five decades. “The team looks stale.”
His two seats for 41 games in the grandstands above home plate will cost 2% more in 2024, up to $2,763 from $2,713.
“It’s disgraceful,” fumed Tom Simon, 52, of Levittown, LI, who has had seasons tickets since the start of the last Yankee dynasty in 1996. “They have some nerve.”
Simon said the Yankees raised the price of his four front-row seats in right field by $2,000 before the 2023 season — from $30,000 to $32,000. And now they are hitting him for another $1,000 — a 3% increase — according to an Aug.15 invoice e-mailed from the team.
“They’re doing this because they’re losing out on playoff revenue,” he raged.
The once-proud Pinstripers entered Saturday’s play 62-66, 18 games out of first place and nine away from a wild-card playoff berth with just 34 games left. The poor play even prompted GM Brian Cashman this week to describe the season as “a disaster.”
“We as season ticket holders know that you think of us as fungible,” vented Andre Glenn, 58, a software engineer from the Upper West Side speaking rhetorically to owner Hal Steinbrenner. “However, it is still insulting and infuriating to be talked to as if we are unable to comprehend what it is that we are seeing on the field every day.”
Glenn, a season ticket holder since 1999, said his nosebleed seats behind home plate cost him $4,860 in 2022 and $4,939 this year, a 2% spike. Next year his price will climb almost 4% to $5,115, he said.
“It’s extremely bad optics,” he said.
The Bombers did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the money grab.
One fan said the floundering squad should have approached next year with “humility.” Instead, “it’s like ‘Thanks . . . We want more,’” said exasperated bleacher creature Jay Peagram, whose ducats in right-field will cost 2% more, to $4,860 from $4,736.
A 68-year-old Brewster, N.Y. woman, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said her right-field line seats will soar 10% in 2024, to $9,234 from $8,424.
Former fan Vinny Milano famously stopped going to Bombers games over a decade ago. Now he makes T-shirts, including a “Fire Cashman” slipover that is expected to be a big-seller on Sept. 22, the date one fan is staging “Fire Cashman” night at The Stadium.
“The Yankees have not been fan friendly forever. They draw fans whether they care or they don’t,” Milano said. “And it’s quite obvious that you put four million asses in seats — and you put very little effort in — that you don’t really have to put any more effort.”
Despite their anger, the Yankee season subscribers said they are probably all going to renew.
Lamented Simon: “It’s a one-way street. They can get away with bullying their fans because they’re the Yankees. What am I going to do, become a Mets fan?”
The Mets, whose 2023 collapse is even worse than the Yankees, have not announced ticket prices for next season.
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