The new Yankee stadium is an enormous shrine to the dynasty, a technological marvel, and a small culinary mecca in a city already boasting some of the world’s best restaurants. A hot dog and a beer are no longer affordable, ($9 for a budlight, no thanks) and that is if you are able to resist the influx of real restaurants with cooked-on-site, made-to-order food. Parm serves staples from owners Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi’s Nolita Sandwich Shop. Lobel’s of New York serves fresh made, hand carved, steak sandwiches, and there’s even a Brother Jimmy’s. The July 2012 GQ went as far as saying that Yankee stadium is the best place to eat right now in the east, and described a Parm sandwich at Yankee stadium as a “picture-perfect summer evening. Under the lights. America.”
Yes America, ball parks, good food, and beer. A fundamental essence of the American dream, taking your family to a ball game. But should you have to take out a second mortgage to afford seats out of the bleachers? Or sacrifice a weeks worth of food shopping budget to afford $20 sandwiches with $10 drinks? In the quest for more and more everywhere we go, and combining everything we like into one place, have we sold the right to go to a ballgame to the elite?
Yankee tickets are expensive. The “Legends Suite” tickets start at $1225 and go up to $2500. Of course with these tickets you can have a bottle of champagne, sushi, an 18 yr scotch, and probably anything else you want from the concierge, and wait team assigned to you. For the sake of this discussion however, I would like to try and keep the numbers in the realm of possibility for people who are not flying in a helicopter to East Hampton after the game. So there are tickets available to this Tuesday’s game against the Rangers. To the back right of home plate in section 118 just above field level you can get tickets off of Ticketmaster for $311.90. Now ticket master does charge a fee, after all they do allow you to print the tickets at home, so for the sake of argument lets call the tickets an even $350. So if a family of four goes to Tuesday night’s game, tickets in this area will run you about $1400. Of course your kids will want a hand carved steak sandwich, so family dinner at $20 a sandwich and 4 $4 sodas is around another $100, you do have to tip it is a restaurant stand after all. Now you are obviously going to need to drink four or five of those $9 bud lights in an attempt to cope with all this spending so tack on an extra $50. So for $1550 you can go to a Yankee game, with your family, and everyone can have a nice meal.
But every ballpark is not built to cater to the mega rich. There are other options for the same budget. Just one example is going to Chicago to see the Yankees play the White Sox. Tickets in the same section in Chicago go for $90 a piece. If all four of you make the trip that’s $360 for the tickets. This game is Tuesday August 21. On Expedia if you book right now flights with hotel for four to Chicago will run you $1517 all fees included. The total is $1877. I realize that this does not factor in a gourmet meal like you will get at Yankee stadium, but Chicago is no slouch in the world of foodie cities.
One day at Yankee stadium with food, beer, and good seats for a family of four will conservatively speaking run about $1550. A three day vacation to Chicago with a Yankee game thrown in, same seats, but food not included will cost $1887. That is an extra $84.25 per person. We are in a sad place in the history of the greatest baseball franchise, when its more reasonable to fly to another city and stay for three days, than it is to have decent, not even the best, seats to one Yankee game.
