NY Yankee Stadium funding?

Both New York stadiums are being financed by the taxpayers. When the taxpayers can't afford the taxes anymore, who's left to go to the ballparks?

New York taxpayers are already stretched out. Some of that money should have gone to infrastructure repairs and new hospitals; both of them are badly in need.

I don't live in NY, I live in NJ and we're going to pay for a new Giants' stadium, but won't be able to afford the seat licensing, so who's going to go to the games?

The mets are doing the same thing so why as a mets fan are you complaining about the yankees stadium. In fact the taxpayers are paying more the new mets stadium because the taxpayers have also bailed out Citibank. So basically all the money Citibank gave the mets is from the taxpayers and then the rest thats supported by the taxpayers is also from the taxpayers.

I for one, don't think its unaffordable to go to games. I agree that there are rediculously priced seats and luxury boxes for upwards of thousands of dollars. But what regular fan needs a private suite with free food and beer and monitors to watch the game. Real fans want to sit with the bleacher creatures and according to Yankees.com, bleacher tickets are $12. I guess that's alot for you midwesterners. Also, you have to be a little smart when you go to a game. Don't park in the Yankee stadium lots and pay $20 to park. Take the subway or park in Manhatten and walk over the Macombs Dam Bridge. Its free to park on the street and its $2 to take the subway. Also, bring food to the game. I usually bring a chicken cutlet and proscuitto sandwich and buy a $5 32oz tap soda when Im there. So far, I've spent $12 on a ticket $2 each way for the subway and $5 on a soda. That's $21 a person. With a family of 4 thats $84. Not too bad. Going to the movies will cost you $45 plus food and gas.

And I dont know why anyone would complain about going to sellout games. Thats part of the fun in going. Packed house cheering for your home team. It sux for teams like the Marlins who have 6k people go to the games and theyr all fans for the other team.

I believe the stadium will be a huge tourist attraction and will help the NY economy get out of this rut. People from all over are attracted to the stadium and will pay to see games or go on tours. Last year I tried to go on a tour of the old Yankee Stadium, I went to the stadium at 8am to get tickets for a 1pm tour and there was a line about 400 people long waiting for tickets. They had all different team jerseys on and I could here people saying for example, Im from St Louis we had to stop here while we were in NY.

All in all, I know its hard for taxpayers to fathom paying for a baseball stadium but look at all the other crap we pay for. A stupid war, politicians personal projects. This at least can help NY earn some money, attract tourists and just be a great representation of what NY stands for.

The bad part is, is that Yankee stadium will sell out no matter what outrageously high price tags the Steinbrenners place on those seats. If people stop going, they'll have to lower prices.

Put it this way. I bought a 10 pack of tickets to Kaufmann stadium this year (thats 2 tickets to 10 games, so 20 tickets in total including opening day), and I paid right around $250 bucks for the whole package. Now, granted the Royals have one of the lowest ticket prices in the MLB, but it's nice to be able to take your kids and go to a ballgame.

It just goes to show you that the Yankees don't care about the average baseball fan. Only the wealthiest ones. So all of you average Yankee fans out there, you can either spend $400-500 to go to ONE game at Yankee Stadium, or you can spend the same amount and go to 15-20 games at a lower revenue team's stadium. The Yankees don't care about you as a fan, only your money.

The new stadium is going to generate a lot of badly needed revenue for the city, because people are going to pack the place no matter how bad the economy gets, at least for the first couple years. It should help to cut into the city's tourism and entertainment losses a bit, because it's one of the few venues that should be somewhat immune from the recession.

Bad thing for the average fan, good thing for the city as a whole. I hear what you're saying about preferring to see them in Baltimore. I live in Chicago now and I'm happy just to watch them at the Cell for 30 bucks when they come to play the White Sox. Sometimes you don't want to pay an arm and a leg and be packed in with 50,000 people just for a Tuesday night game in May. Going to a Yankee game in NY is so much of a production now, a real pain in the *** and way too costly for the average fan to go often.

But....it's going to help the city, so I guess that's good.

It's a condition that's rampant throughout sports in general. The owners of most sports teams feel that the cities for which they represent are privileged to have a team in that particular sport. As such they ask the cities for monetary funding when a new stadium needs to be constructed. Unfortunately for New York City the two baseball teams that represent it have undergone huge financial undertakings by both building new stadiums for their teams. For the most part, the Yankees have bellied up to the bar so to speak and have funded most of their stadium internally. The Mets ownership has turned to public funding to offset the expenses they incurred to build their park. Its because of the economic state of the world right now that brings this to the public eye. If this were the late 90's or early 2000's it would'ne have garnered any attention.

It's a thing of the past to enjoy a sport with your family in person. The season tickets for any successful team are purchased by fans and then what's left over are gobbled up by sports ticket resellers. I have been forced to follow my team into cities that are less costly and I make a weekend out of it.

When the Yankees stop drawing four million in paid attendance per year, and filling up parks on the road regularly, the prices for tickets will cap. Until then, they are going to enjoy the revenues from the new stadium, The YES Network and their concessions company. Also, the owners of other teams will continue to gouge ticket prices whenever they host the Yankees and they too, will enjoy those spikes in revenue. And the Yankees are going to keep spending on the best free agents in the market from year to year to fill their needs.

If you don't like it, don't be a customer! I subscribe to MLB's Extra Innings Package every year and can enjoy almost every televised game in the comfort of my own home for under $200. That comes down to a bit more or less than $1.00 per regular season game. If you can't afford that, well I don't know what to add other than I do not live in a city with a major league team, but I have been to games all over the country including Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.

If folks want to go, they will find a way.

Besides, if you really know your history, MLB was never "a family friendly event", particularly in the early 1900's. It was actually a rude and vulgar place much like it is today, with fights in the stands and loud boisterous drunks getting arrested by the dozens. Just look at all the black and white films and photos from MLB games from that era. No children, no women, just men in suits, ties, and fedora, derby, or straw skimmer hats watching the games by the tens of thousands. That's not my idea of "family friendly".

I guess I'm suggesting that you stop kidding yourselves with the delusion that professional sports leagues are designed to be "family friendly". They are designed to make money like any other business and if a local team can earn a national or even an international following because of their history of winning and great players, they deserve the profits they can make for as long as they can make them. In fact, if the truth were known, these organizations don't care whose butts are in the seats, just as long as there are butts in them. That's the system we have, like it or not.

In fact I could argue that it's best not to take your children to a MLB game, especially if they are too young to enjoy it, and you are easily offended by vulgarity, and that's just from the players! Television coverage, complete with censoring fans who run onto the field or players who curse and spit and scratch themselves incessantly seem like more of a "family friendly event" to me. I could be wrong about that though!

;)

You left out a few points: 1. The tax revenue generated by the team 2. The tax revenue generated by the stadium for other events held at the stadium. 3. The non-sport related jobs generated by the team. 4. The jobs generated by the stadium for non-sporting events held at the stadium. 5. The impact a team has on a local economy. 6. The impact a stadium has on a local economy. I agree that tax payers get the shaft constantly (especially from the federal government)...but using (city) tax revenue to build a stadium is not an example of this...

Agree with you 100% However as i stated before it really kills me when Met fans are complaining about the Yanks when their team is doing the exact same thing of trying to extort money from the City. Stop complaining about the Yanks only & point out what your team is doing as well. Pot calling the kettle black Met Fans. Having said that i am disgusted with how lil by lil fans like you & me are starting to be shutout of being able to attend a game. But that will not change until fans finally take a stand & start boycotting the games which unfortunately i don't see happening.

I live in the midwest and have no idea how families can afford going to Yankee Stadium when you consider the cost of everything, including parking. Fans have always paid up, giving all sports owners the idea they could just spend, spend, spend. It will be interesting to see how fans react after the initial honeymoon is over. One thing is certain, the spending can't, and won't, last forever. The fans will break before the Steinbrenner's. The Steinbrenner's will never blame themselves.

The fudning wasn't for the stadium directly it was for preparing the ground, you got to have level ground before you can built and safe ground so if it shifts the hole building doesn't come down. The recently fudning was used for stadium parking and other such adjustments and additions. Levine publicly stated the Yankees themselves paid for the stadium, but needed help with the misc around the stadium itself.