Just How Expensive Are “Legends” Section Seats At Yankee Stadium?

For a while there at least we became inured to high prices and conspicuous consumption. $150 million apartment, six-figure parking spaces, $1600 helicopter rides to the Hamptons, gigantic bags of bonus money and dopey gimmicks like “Martini on the Rock” — yawn. And then there was the $2600 seat for a baseball game. Most probably thought, “Wow, that’s expensive” or “I wonder who would pay that” but until the season started and seats started showing up empty on television I’m guessing most also thought that there was probably someone who would pay $2600 to watch the Royals on a Tuesday evening.

But now that the Yankees are forced to lower ticket prices in half (“That new lower amount is in line with prices for the same tickets being sold on StubHub for next week’s home stand against the arch rival Boston Red Sox, but twice as much as they’re going for against most opponents at the new Stadium”) you start wondering whether Yankees tickets are the most expensive tickets ever.

A recent piece in the Times hinted at this but skirted the issue — yes, I understand I could nearly get a degree at LaGuardia Community College for the cost of taking my family of four to the park. But what hasn’t been reported — at least not that I know of — is just how out of line $2600 is compared to other sporting events. It seems that 2009 Centre Court tickets for the last day of Wimbeldon are 100 pounds. Face value tickets for the 2008 Super Bowl — thought to be one of the most expensive so far — were only $700-$900, and scalped tickets on the low end were still only around $2,500 — less than the cost of watching that 22-4 drubbing at the hands of the Indians, the one in which Chien Ming-Wang only lasted an inning and a third.

But since Yankees management has turned a ballgame into a “Dance, Monkey, Dance” sort of performance it also seems useful to compare Yankees ticket prices to performances in general. Like any performance. Led Zeppelin reunion (some auction prices were actually lower than Yankees tickets)! Celine Dion (in general the Las Vegas Shows don’t even come close — even the VIPest seats at Hard Rock are $1000 max)! Barbra Streisand (VIP packages for her 2006 concerts were $1800)! And keep in mind that at least with Streisand you have some reasonable expectation that she will kick ass.

You can go down the road of non-spectator events and tickets are similarly out of wack: Skiing ($600 seems to the the max), a hot air balloon ride (doesn’t even come close) or sky diving (ditto) — all significantly cheaper.

In short, how expensive are tickets for this (to use a cliche) Taj Mahal of baseball stadia? Consider this: Go to Expedia and book a short trip to Agra, where you can see the actual Taj Mahal. It’s basically around $1000 . . .

Location Scout: New Yankee Stadium.