Okay, I understand your numbered points. But perhaps you're missing my major point because I haven't spelled it out succinctly. Here it is: There is no justification for our 10% per year increase, at least none that can be defended in the court of public opinion. Our "amenities" have increased ZILCH. The Smithwick's or Guiness you think is such a good deal at $7.25 is outrageously priced, so no amenity there. The stadium hasn't upgraded one thing... not one, in all the years I've been going there (20+). The food isn't terrible, it's deplorable. Inedible comes to mind. The bathrooms are still clean and serviceable, but haven't experienced a makeover ever, unless you want to count a couple of coats of paint on the austere concrete block walls. So, there is NO justification for a 10% add-on rate in price escalation of tickets... none. But you do have a point, which is... they can do whatever TF they please because they can. End of story. Case closed. And THAT's what is pissing me the hell off.
Well, that's the bottom line. They aren't running a charity. It's a business. If demand went down, tickets prices would go down or they would improve the stadium. But demand is only going up.
$7.25 for ANY beer is NOT a good deal! That's close to a 1000% markup. What is scary is that someone would think it IS a reasonable deal. Yes, 227, they will screw you until you say enough, and they won't give a shit. With the NFL network, how far away is pay per view for the NFL? Within the next ten years, no doubt about it. Crap, "they" have convicned people to pay for freakin radio broadcasts! And they are happy to pay! Now people think spending $7.25 for a beer is a good deal! I mean there are people who actually pay for membership to another Jets fan site! In the end, they will shoot themselves in the foot, eventually, and lose their mainstream hard core fans. Then, they will go the way NA hockey has gone. Might take 20 years, but I can see it coming.
Where I sit in the Lower Level my seats went from $70 to $75, so not that much of an increase but I feel for ya 227.
When you go to a bar in NYC and order a Guinness draft, you'll get charged $5. So $7.25 to be able to drink in the stadium is not outrageous. $7.25 for a Bud Light, however, is ridiculous in my mind. But a Guinness will get as drunk as three Bud Lights.
Got my invoice today a 5 dollar increase on my seats. I love having the cheapest seats in the stadium. 2 seats cost me 1600 bucks.
Look, you're not talking to a novice here and I know they're not "running a charity." I ran my own business with 22-25 employees for 30 years. I know all about supply and demand, but thank you anyway for taking me back to Econ 101. And speaking of running a business, the business of the NY Jets is to put a football team on the field and run a franchise that is profitable. But this is essentially show biz, not some commodity you're selling. This is live, televised entertainment, not an apartment dwelling. But oh yes, they could increase the tickets to $250 next year. In fact, let's make it $300 a seat. The traffic might bear it because you could get every corporate schmuck in the city who owns a company to foot the bill. Lets make them all boxes and this way they can invite everybody and anybody to attend the games as a perk. Of course, half the seats will be empty, because those who are in receipt of the tickets could give a shit less about attending, but who cares? So, you put a team on the field that receives a lukewarm reception. Half the stands are empty and the rest of the seats are void of real fans because there's no way they can afford the price of admission. Look at T-Bird's post about the price of hockey games and the attendance figures. Very interesting when you really give it some thought. Tickets are $120 per game, with about 6,000 in attendance. Here's a very good case study of what NOT to do. Keep jacking up the price of football tickets and perhaps we're headed in the same direction. So, here we are... back to your business model. Sure, they can charge whatever the hell they want, but do we really want football to go the way of hockey? Sure, there are other mitigating circumstances, but just wait and see what happens to the business side of the franchise if Woody continues to whallop season ticketholders with a 10%/year add-on and then turns around and accesses each ticket a $3,000 PSL when the new stadium is delivered. You won't lose the fan base necessarily, at least not the TV audience, but you're going to lose those loyal fans who go to the live event and support the team at that live event. So now you're running a business by televising a live event to which there is no audience. I guess you could then pipe in the background sounds of people cheering. Some "business." What is this world coming to?
Well the food can be factored into the stadium age. I've been to my fair share of arenas/stadiums/parks and never once have I seen "gourmet" type foods in the older ones. They are only ever in new stadiums. Once the new stadium opens up, you'll be complaining about the food prices, but the food is so good it's almost worth it(almost).
Okay, so you only got a 7% increase. But I'll bet you've had a 7% increase year-after-year for the last 4 years or so. Go check and you'll see I'm right. It's STILL an outrageous number. All is well now because you've got a team that has made the playoffs recently. Try swallowing that invoice when your team is in the 3-13 category year after year. I've said this all along, but I think the planners of the stadium have ideas for the Mezzanine Section. I think their ultimate plan for the Mezz is to weed out the mom and pops. This will all be corporate boxes when the new stadium is built. They've already got this section billed as premium seating, they're going to really put the wood to us when the new stadium arrives. This is only me surmising, mind you, but there's got to be a reason for them to be pounding on the Mezz Section so hard. Eventually, they may offer us some tradeoff (the ones who are left standing after the pounding). They'll probably want all of us "squatters" out of there and offer us front row center Lower Level to move out of the Mezz, so they can have their corporate assholes up there.
Bah, I'm up top but we're even at $75. 35 yard line though. My dad got these tickets in about 93-94, and he said the tickets were $25 back then, and they didn't have to buy preseason. I can only imagine how cheap they really used to be.
Actually, a Guinness draught is lower in acl content than any light beer is. That is unless you are talking about an "Extra Stout", which I've only seen in bottles. That stuff is pretty strong, but Guinness draught is pretty light on the alc. Bar prices are nuts too..... heck, I can brew a 20 gallon batch of beer at a 6.5% alc content by volume for about 40 bucks. Thats 40 cents each, and the big breweries can do it for less than 10 cents, and that's for a pint, not 12 ounces and at a much higher alc content. A 12 ounce Bud costs about 4 cents to brew per 12 ounces. But, it's the labor, bottling, transportation and advertising that makes it expensive. Oh... BTW, my homebrew is pretty good stuff, made from scratch, 50 lb bags of malt and fresh hops, and one of my recipes has been brewed commercially, so I'm not talking about rot gut. I've had bar owners ask me to sell it to them, but that's illegal and too risky. I don't often drink in bars anymore, as they also have outrageous mark ups of over 300%. Sorry, but $7.25 for a beer is a rip off, no matter how I personally look at it. The stuff only costs about 4 cents to produce....
Do what I do now as of one season ago-Go to Rutgers games and watch the Jets on TV!!! Been to almost every Jets game since 1982 and I make shitloads of money and still won't pay their prices anymore. Go R.U.!!!
100% agree with this point. The Jets (or any NFL team, for that matter) will charge what the market will bear. There are enough people (or corporations) that would gladly fork over the 10% increase to watch the team. Someone in the back office probably has figured out that the market can really sustain a 20% increase, but the marketing pinheads and PC police have warned that pushing through a 20% increase would not be good p.r. So they left it at 10%. In a similar vein, albeit to a lesser degree, the cost of the NFL Ticket goes up every year even though you'd think the growth in subscribers would enable DirectTV to spread the programming costs over more households and lower the cost for all viewers. But, being that they have a monopoly on the service and are in the business to make money, none of those theoretical savings get passed back to Joe subscriber. In terms of the beer/food costs, I've always liquored up before the games and used the four quarters as a way to sober up for the drive home. But if you don't tailgate, I guess you've got to get your happy on inside the stadium and that makes you a captive buyer. It sounds like the cheapest way to enjoy the Jets is to live in NYC metro and watch the game at home on TV with a bag of popcorn.
Nobody's making you go... quit complaining... I'm on a waiting list and I'd gladly pay that kind of money. J/k man. That sucks how the prices go up like that. If I were you, I'd be pissed too, but then I'd think and say "I get to see my team play every home game", and that is something many people never get the chance to.
I don't have the letter in front of me, but my bill came with an explanation and it mentioned the sections that are roughly (from memory) between the 15 yard lines (middle of the field). I'm in 128 and didn't get an increase this year but 129 did.
I agree w/ you it's insane and it will always go up no matter what. I have been going to the games for 17 years now and when I started in 1990 it cost me $180 dollars for a seat for the season(actually my parents as I was 15 back then) as it was $22.50 a game and we didn't have to buy preseason. it actually stayed low through BP's 1st year, in '97 it was $30/gm and no preseason($240) but in '98 I think they went up to $40/gm and included preseason($400) and it's been going up ever since. The league, the teams, the players don't care about the fans for a secondwhich is why I am gettting close to ending my streak of home games. They just add more commerical time, have night games in Dec and Jan, the SB is one long commerical interruptd by football from time to time. They will drive away the real fans in time if this keeps up.
I can deal with some increases of ticket prices. Its the psl is whats going to make me give up my season tickets. I could careless about crappy food,bathrooms and beers if I can keep my tickets. The new stadium might be nice but someone else will be in my seats and that blows
