Wednesday, March 25, 2009

PAHH-TAKE

Well, for all of you turned off by the WBC talk, I bring you TicketGate. The early part of Mike's show brought us endless calls about the inflated prices of Yankees tickets. One guy got so wrapped up in the opening day ticket scenarios that he thoroughly confused me, Mike and probably countless others listening. But then Lisa from Whitestone got on to battle the big man(Mike Francesa. This is for SEO purposes). She totally disagreed with Mike's contention that it was ok for the Yankees to charge these high prices. Mike was patient with her, no doubt because she is a woman. But in the end, Lisa's spleen received a full venting about how the Yankees have basically affronted her loyalty throughout the years.

Mike informed us, 'The Yankees are in a volume business. They want you to pahh-take in the stadium. To buy the programs. To buy concessions.' Now Mike isn't condoning the high prices. But his premise more or less says 'if you don't want to go, then don't buy tickets.' A highly simplistic yet truthful comment. On this account, I agree with Mike. But what he fails to do is finish that thought. Meaning, if enough people don't go, then the Yankees will get the message and lower prices. As Yogi Berra once said, "If the fans don't want to come out to the park, I can't stop 'em."

Now I have spent more time writing on this incredibly boring topic than I bother to listen to. But apparently this issue has legs as the callers keep on coming. But from now on, when TicketGate rears its ugly head, I won't pah-take.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gman - I heard a lot of this and was wondering about it. Mike specifically stated that unsold seats could not be sold at lower prices than they've already been sold for. Is that accurate? Does anyone know? Is there a clause in ticket holders contracts restricting it? I can't stand the complaints from the callers/fans. I don't know why they think they're owed something. What's more, I don't care that anyone remembers how much tickets were in the 60's/70's/80's etc. That was then. Do they think any team is going to sell any ticket for a price lower than what they think they can get? Why would anyone do/sell anything for less than it's worth?

Personally, I think all of baseball is in for a shock this year. The attendance will be down, significantly and teams may have overplayed their hands.

First Time, Long Time said...

awesome sean..agreed with you about the callers. enough with people and their f'ing ticket sob stories. we get it.

Anonymous said...

Mike was patient with Lisa from Whitestone not because she is a woman but because she is a long time caller and is one of the good ones. She was one of the winners for Super Bowl tickets and answered all 5 questions with ease. She had some really good points she threw at the big man. Well more like realizations than actual points. She realized the Yankees and any other sports organizations deep down can give a rat's ass about the blue collar man. No matter how much they say to the contrary.

Whatdoyouhave? said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Whatdoyouhave? said...

What happened to Lisa from Whitestone calling herself Lisa from the Lower East Side for like three months? She is too much of a Mike praiser for me, but at least has a plan and knows what she wants to say when she calls up.

Completely agree about the ticket stories. We get it. We all got screwed.

Problem with the talking of the old days is that Mike always tries to one-up the callers with what he remembers. So annoying. "I remember when box seats used to cost $4!" after a caller says he remembers they were $10. Great point Mike - we get it. You're older / smarter / wiser

Brian said...

Neil Best just posted a story about Francesa being in a dunk tank at Citi Field

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/2009/03/miked_up_is_willing_to_go_down.html

Anybody up for a Mike and the Mad Blog outing at Citi Field to dunk the big man?

Metal Roofing Grand Prairie said...

Thanks for this