The Yankees need millennials, not millionaires in those $2500 seats

The Yankees have seen it. We’ve all seen it. And the YES cameras can’t avoid it. It’s those “blue seats” behind home plate that take center stage on every pitch. You know, the ones that are always half empty. The Yankees can only blame themselves.

The Yankees are on a pace now to draw less than three million fans to Yankee Stadium for the first time since the new stadium opened in 2009. And this is with a team that is lighting it up on the field with a surge of young and promising talent that has a hold on first place in the AL East.

Tickets to a Yankees game have always been a hot and expensive commodity in New York. As with anything we purchase, the cost is relative to the value we place on an item. We don’t mind paying a little more for something that everyone agrees has value. But at what point does the bubble burst?

The “Judge’s Chambers” is a step in the right direction and is a wise move towards attracting millennials instead of millionaires to Yankees games.

I can recall driving to the Bronx as the new stadium was being constructed to get a peak and being struck by the towering wall over Gate 4 with “Yankee Stadium” in solid gold sparkling lettering. And I remember thinking to myself, “Uh-oh, the Yankees are building a palace, not a ballpark.”

For those that want to be as close to the action as possible, sitting in seats where you can see the spin on a pitch as it’s delivered to the plate so you can guess along with the batter what the pitch is, and hear the subtle chatter between players, the seats directly behind home plate are prime.

Five loaves and only two fish

Fatefully, in 2009, the Yankees decided to reserve these seats for the lords and nobles by placing a price tag of $2500 on a single seat. Vassals and serfs, you can have the rest of the palace, but keep your filthy hands off these seats.

And when the stadium was new, it worked for a while. But the team made one misjudgment that is costing them dearly now. And that’s the fact that the ones who purchase season tickets so they can sit “in the blue” are generally not baseball fans.

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They’re not even anywhere near NYC during the summer. They’re vacationing during the month of July in their second home in Newport, Rhode Island and then moving on to the third home they own in Martha’s Vineyard for the month of August.

As for the tickets they own to attend Yankees games? They don’t even care or need to spend time putting them up for resale on StubHub or trying to give them away to friends back home.

So, the Yankees created their own quandary way back when and it is only now that they realize that the hole they dug is going to take some time and innovative thought to overcome. And it’s not just the “blue seats”, it’s everywhere because no matter what seat you buy, you’re likely to drop between $300-400 when all is said and done for the privilege of attending a Yankees game.

For the Yankees, it’s now or never

Overall, the franchise needs to alter its marketing strategy so that the team moves away from the corporate image they so dearly hold on to. The “Judge’s Chambers” is a step in the right direction and is a wise move towards attracting millennials instead of millionaires to Yankees games.

Millennials have money to spend on entertainment. But in order to get them to spend it on products, you are offering, the words fun and energy must be associated with what you are selling.

The Yankees are selling Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez at the moment. Sanchez making sandwiches at a deli in the Bronx over the past winter was a marketing genius at work. And soon, Gleyber Torres will occupy the marketing department’s attention. These are good things.

But more needs to be done. As the team grows younger, the fan base needs to grow younger. But that can only happen if the team continues to explore new ways of attracting millennials to Yankee Stadium as the “happening place to be”.

The Yankees already have me and probably most of you. I’m hooked, but I’m also part of a generation that’s already had its day in the sun. And I can’t support this team by attending games anymore because I can’t afford to.

Yankees: Should they stay with the plan or go for number 28?

Soon, the Yankees will be facing their most crucial question of this young season. Do they stand pat or go for their 28th World Championship via trades?

At least now, the Yankees have recognized that they have a problem. They just need to fix it before it’s too late and the millennials have found modes of entertainment that do not include the Yankees.