A Whole ‘Nother Ball Game
I hadn’t gotten a chance to go to the new Yankee Stadium until last night, when a friend invited me to watch the Yankees play against the Texas Rangers. I’m not invested in any particular team (maybe the Dodgers for a second while I was growing up), so for me, baseball games are more of a chance to hang out with friends, drink expensive beer, eat a hot dog, shoot the breeze, and yes, watch some of the game from the nosebleed section.
This was certainly not the experience I had at last night’s game. As you can see from the photo, I was not in the nosebleed section due to the fact that my friend had scored the tickets for free at her office, which happens to be a sports publication. Yankee Stadium is fancy and eerily shiny. You can order gluten-free food, or watch a butcher carve meat and make you a steak sandwich, and dine on sushi or noodle dishes.
The great seats came with a huge price tag:
Seeing $210 on a ticket was shocking to because I’m used to seeing $25 on a ticket. Paying top dollar for a ticket, or at least sitting in a section where people pay top dollar, also gets you in-seat service.
When my friends and I sat down, a man approached us and said, “Pardon the interruption, but if you’d like to order beer or food, just let me know and I’ll get it for you.” We decided to skip the in-seat service, and explore the concession options in the stadium, and settled on BBQ. I got a Carolina pulled pork sandwich and a beer: $24.
While I was eating my sandwich and spying on Jimmy Fallon, who was sitting in a section over, a man in a row in front of me placed an order with a man in uniform, who returned with a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. Drinking wine at a baseball game seemed so foreign to me—this was not America’s pastime. I can’t complain, of course. This was a mostly free experience that I probably wouldn’t get to have again.
Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira both hit homeruns at the end of the night in a game where there were no runs for the majority of the innings. So I guess the Yankees won.
hate the yankees but LOVE nick swisher. if that’s wrong i don’t wanna be right.
i watched the yankees destroy the jays last friday.
then again i also got a golden opportunity to loudly shame an ignorant dude who was going on about the “cripple holding up the line”
so overall I feel that I got my $15 worth.
also don’t you always get in-seat service?! although usually it’s just a dude hoisting a giant tray of popcorn or cooler of beer around…
I have had superb seats at two major professional sporting events.
Senators @ Bruins, spring of 2009, my best friend and I had fifth-row loge seats at the Garden. These are brilliant. You’re far enough back that you don’t have a coronary whenever someone hits the glass, but you still feel like you’re sitting on the ice. The only thing I don’t like is you can’t see both ends of the ice without standing up, but it still beats nosebleed seats. $110 per seat at the time, probably more now.
Marlins @ Red Sox, summer of 2009, BFF and I had pavilion box seats, in the front row of our section. These are the best seats at Fenway and I refuse to hear arguments to the contrary; this was our view. They’re above the field, but you can see everything, and they have private concessions and restrooms. $90 per seat.
I have to say that my local AAA baseball team (the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston’s affiliate, obv) has a very nice ballpark and the ticket prices are great. The only problem is it’s in Pawtucket, and Pawtucket is the worst to get to, drive in, or leave. Nothing’s perfect, clearly.
Oh man, the big culinary steps forward at Camden Yards are the new special Camden Yards edition National Bohemian cans. It’s dirt cheap, though–I’ve got to games for like $9.
Ooh! This reminds me, my work has full-on super-duper-luxury boxes with free everything that we get to use sometimes, via an arcane process I don’t understand. Not a big sports fan but I need to get into that box somehow.
I love, love, love attending baseball games. For me, it’s That Thing It’s Worth Overpaying For (like how for some people it’s rent, or local food, or haircuts, or whatever). The amount of money I spend 2-4 times a year for tickets, beer, food, and the occasional souvenir is ghastly, and I would never allow myself to spend that much in one day under almost any other circumstances. But I never regret it.
However, my preferred ballpark is Wrigley Field, where you’re paying for baseball (not commercials and hot tub parties), hot dogs, peanuts, and beer (not sushi/steak/wine coolers/whatever). Some might disagree, but for whatever reason, I see this as a better deal.
I hope you went to the bathroom before you left! Expensive baseball game seat bathrooms are so nice.