The season ticket prices for New York City FC’s 2018 MLS campaign at Yankee Stadium have been revealed. Prices generally continue to rise across the board with some notable exceptions.
Founding Members Feel The Pinch
There are two seating categories in which prices remained flat for both Founding Members and general Season Ticket Holders for the 2018 season: The Delta Sky360 Suites and the Supporters Section.
There are price changes which are applied differently to founding season ticket holders and non-founding STH. Category 1 seats saw a decrease in price for general season ticket holders with an increase for founding members, however the founding member price was still lower.
Category 2 and Category 3 tickets saw increases for founding members with the non-founding member prices staying the same.
In a first for NYCFC supporters, there was a price drop included in season ticket pricing this year. The far right field bleachers, which have historically been a tough sell have seen a decrease in prices for both founding members and non-founding members.
The changes appear to indicate the front office is trying to find the correct market price for tickets. Founding-members are seeing their financial incentive to keep their original packages decrease with this season’s increases.
The first 5,000 founding members were promised a brick in NYCFC’s future stadium (should they maintain their commitment until the stadium is built) along with their package. With no stadium news in sight, some fans are beginning to consider opting for partial ticket plans.
Seating Capacity Decreased
According to the information on NYCFC’s website there will be “reduced seating inventory”. This likely means the stadium capacity has been artificially decreased once again. Yankee Stadium is far from the ideal stadium to watch a soccer match in. While the sight lines from some seats at the corners and behind the goals are close to what they’d be in a soccer specific stadium, those seats along the length of the pitch are far away from the action. As a result the seats furthest away from the action, those behind home plate, are no longer going to be an option for season ticket holders.
The decrease in seating capacity comes along with a decrease in attendance for New York City’s MLS team. The inaugural 2015 campaign saw an average attendance of 29,016 per game. No reasonable person expected those numbers to be matched or surpassed in 2016, however the decrease was not as drastic as some had feared. NYCFC averaged 26,998 fans per game in 2016, a decrease of just 1.7% from the year before.
This season however, attendance is noticeably down in Yankee Stadium. Despite having the best season in the team’s short history it would appear the charm of playing in a baseball stadium has faded. NYCFC is averaging 23,647 fans per game in 2017 through August 14th. Attendance is down a whopping 12.4% from 2016’s numbers. It is worth noting that during the 2016 season Yankee Stadium played host to local rivals the New York Red Bulls twice, whereas there is only one regular season match at Yankee Stadium in 2017.
With 5 regular season games left on the schedule, none of which feature teams with marquee names, NYCFC will be hard pressed to increase their average attendance for the season.
Tom says
when do these come out and where do I buy them?