Christmas may come in October for Yankee season ticket holders.
For the first time ever, playoff tickets will actually be cheaper than the astronomical face values the team charged during the regular season, the Yankees said yesterday.
The $2,500 Legends seats right behind home plate will cost only $275 during the American League Division Series, rising to $450 if the Yanks make it back to the World Series.
While that discount is not as steep as it appears — the bulk of the $2,500 seat price is made up of licensing fees that season ticket holders will have paid in full by the end of the season — Legends seat holders will still see a deal in the first round. The actual face value for a Legends seat is calculated as $325, so those seats will be $50 less in the ALDS.
Non premium seats will be sold for between $5 — for obstructed view bleachers — to $275 during the division series and between $50 and $450 during the World Series.
But fans who do not have season tickets may be shut out entirely, as fewer than 1,000 seats could be available for World Series games, the team said.
The team has sold more than 37,000 season ticket plans out of the stadium’s 50,235 seats.
Major League Baseball requires 3,000 seats be provided to players and the media, and between 5,500 and 9,500 seats are set aside each playoff game for sponsors.
“As we have done every year since 2004 and as we expect to do in the future, the Yankees will provide their loyal season-ticket licensees the first opportunity to purchase postseason tickets,” said Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost.
In 2007, the last time the Yankees made the playoffs, the postseason tickets jumped anywhere from 30 to 130 percent of the regular season price.
The only exception to this trend appears to be the bleachers, which could increase to $50 in the World Series from the $12 season ticket holders pay during the regular season.
Major League baseball has to approve all postseason ticket prices, but actually determines the World Series face values. The minimum World Series ticket, no matter what teams wins the pennants, is set at $50.
The Yankees came under fire early this season for overpricing the premium seats at their new ballpark.
Huge swaths of the Legends seats were vacant in the early months of the season, prompting the team to offer a 50 percent discount for many seats this year.
The team kept the prices of the bleachers and the nosebleed seats in the upper deck the same as they were in 2008.
But the huge increases for all other sections forced many longtime season-ticket holders to move further back or abandon their seats altogether.
Team officials say they have not determined when postseason tickets will be sold to the public and what sort of lottery will be used to give fans a fair shot at the limited supply.
