There, I went ahead and fixed that for you. I'm not disagreeing that there are some current people who are "casual fans" who have a take-it-or-leave-it mentality as far as attendance. And to them I say, "Good ridance." But I think there are far more fans who have been going for a very long time, through thick and thin, good times and bad, rain or shine... families that have made it a way to get together and share the fun... many small groups of friends who make it a once-a-week treat for themselves to get away on a Sunday and let it rip. Most of them are very loyal Jets fans who take going very seriously. Many, if not most of them, have been priced out, IMO, far more than the casual asshole who goes because he's an NFL fan (a closet Giants fan, really, or Redskins or whatever) who got a free ticket and is really going to secretly watch the Jets lose. Who will replace those guys, the loyal ones who've been going forever? Hard to say. I hope you're right, that most in the stands are going to be Jets fans, but I highly doubt it. The corporations, limited liability companies and other entities that will be antying up for the PSLs and who use the expenditure as a tax writeoff every April and who give away the tickets to employees and out-of-towners as a weekend perk are the furthest thing from the people they replaced. I sense it'll never be the same again. Seriously. Many of the fans we know at the games today are gone forever. The Jets fan base won't change, but the Jets fan base at the games will be a completely different animal than the ones I've seen and been around and come to know at the tailgates for the last 30+ years.
No way in hell would I get the club seats. If there is nothing in writing about price increases I'd be concerned about the price going up to $400 after year 1 and the Jets using the line "we gave everyone a break for the first year"
They kick out the casual fan but ok now instead we have 20k empty seats. Also they've made this very expensive for even a diehard fan. Considering face value on a Yankees upper deck World Series ticket is $105 it's hard to justify the same for a Jets game.
I'm not going to argue that some diehards have been priced out , this financial environment is certainly a difficult situation. But , the question I'll ask is are other diehards really being priced out - or are they really not wanting to go on principal. We now know that anyone with seniority could have landed UD PSL free seats. The cost of those seats is not much more than in the existing stadium and possibly lower in some cases ( ie moving lower prime to UD). So in essence they were not so much priced out , but didn't want to relocate to maintain season tickets. As far as the corps and LLC's go , I'll agree they will probably monopolize the more expensive club type PSL's , but we're talking a small % of the stadium here . Change is inevitable , and while I hate the concept of PSL's I understand its the new trend in sports and the price one has to pay for the entertainment option called the Jets.
Since you brought up the baseball comparison , the thing to keep in mind is the cost of Yankee/Mets season tickets with 82 + home games vs 10 + home games for football. Again I hate PSL's but still feel football is a bargain compared to other sports.
You have nailed the problem, my firend. Nowhere... nowhere.... have the Jets ever given or offered respite from the relentless ticket price increases. True, they now reluctantly offer discounted 2010 ticket prices (while leaving the PSLs untouched) to lure buyers in. But NOWHERE is it ever stated, nor has anyone on this entire message board been ever told that ticket prices would remain at current levels for as much as one month! They now offer diminished ticket prices because they have to, which should tell us all that they'll go back up in a heartbeat too, and at the very first chance to do so. My seats would have cost me $30,000 ($7500 X 4) in PSLs. Okay, let's say I'd go for that. But the $400 per seat ($1600 per game) was the killer for me. Now they've lowered that, but for how long? It's still the old screw job. Lure them in and then send them a very nice, polite letter, telling them how much you appreciate the support, and that your invoice will be arriving shortly for $600 per seat per game. Fuck that.
I would have stayed if I were able to get my same seats even at $125 per,,,however the way the plan went I was not given that opportunity. The only seats available to me were the corners and even at $95 I wasnt about to agree to that. I've been going for 19 years and have yet to miss a game (even my brothers 40th birthday party). I told my wife she would have to die only on a Tuesday. It's sad that after this year I wont be going regularly but at least I can say I was faithful for the time I was here...
Thanks for the support, man. I say that as a fellow Jets fan and supporter and ticketholder who has been going since the early Shea days. Woody will never send you a sincere letter thanking you, so I may as well do that for the little turd. I've been faithful, as you've been, and am being displaced into the upper deck for 2010, but I'll go there and see what happens. If I feel I've been pushed to the limit, I'll be out of there like you. I don't think it'll ever be the same... the tailgating, the fun in the parking lot... the intensity before the games. It's all about high end revenues now... catering to a different crowd... TV impressions and mass media marketing, high end clubs and the like. That's okay though. We knew what we had and it was a lot of fun while it lasted. My family knows all the fun we had and will never forget the great seats we had and the anticipation of going and actually cheering live for your team. I hope the new people get to experience the same thrills.
This response was received from a JETS Rep: We have 2,000 seats in the upper level remaining but they are NFL Holds, visiting team, press, home team, etc. We do have very limited 3 seaters in the upper level.
I agree that the Jets could do that... but why would they? If they arent selling at $400 a seat now, what good would it do to raise them right back up immeadiately? Don't you think people would just end up defaulting on their PSLs? And when they did, who exactly are the Jets going to resell them to? Sure, they could drag those who financed and defaulted into court (I dont see how that is profitable for them either), and make them pay the PSL... but then they are still stuck with empty seats. How does that benefit the Jets? Ticket price increases should be a concern, but I'd think you'd see the standard single digit increase. I have a hard time seeing how it would make sense to double ticket prices within a year of the stadium opening...
This always amazes me. Two guys sat next to me at the WS the other night, told me they paid $700 each for tix and then buried their heads in their Blackberries. And what about the type [usually more so at Jets games] that pounds down the beers then makes 3 or 4 trips to the bathroom and misses half the game while constantly making the row do the wave. Unbelievable. Stay home, watch it at a sports bar, or get a colostomy bag.
Where within my post do I say that the prices will double within a year or that they will "raise them right back up immediately?" It won't happen that way. It'll happen the way it has been happening in the Mezz for 8 years now... sharp increases (higher percentage increases than other seats) each year. If you don't think this will happen, you're not in touch with what HAS BEEN happening right along. Mezz tickets have increased an average of 10% per year. If you do this to the principle for 7.5 years the principle doubles... do the math. And our Mezz seats have doubled in 8 years. Most people think all the ticket prices have to move together in lock step. They have not. They've been systematically attacking what they've considered "premium seats" for years. That will include the PSL seats for sure, because THEY CAN. As far as the Jerts not wanting to raise the prices back up to $400 as soon as possible, you ask why they would do this. My question would be, why wouldn't they want to do this? They already know they can get away with it WITHOUT a PSL in place, do you really think they will hesitate to do it once the PSL money (or part of it) is in the house? They've got you now, so of course they can get away with it. And to think they'd be concerned about the customer walking away is ridiculous. They'd come out on top every single time if that happened, because they already have the PSL or a portion of it to put toward their profit. They're not the least bit concerned (And quite frankly, shouldn't be) about your debt or collection concerns. They've already got a signicficant amount of your money. If you want to walk away from it, fine. They'll put the tickets up for sale on a game-by-game basis until they can resell the package to someone else. Seriously, let's not be so naive that we think Woody Johnson won't raise the ticket prices back up at his earliest opportunity. He's already on record for having done that right along, and we weren't even within smelling distance of a VLT for all that time.
I received an email questionairre from the Jets this afternoon. Included within was a solicitation for my opinions on how much the Jets value me as a season ticketholder and fan. I let them know I was displeased. I told them I didn't think they valued me very much. When it came time to provide detail, I told them I thought the original established ticket prices and PSLs were too high and that season ticketholders with seniority should have been given a better shot at retaining their seats and/or decent seats.
The big difference between before ( old stadium) and now is that before there was an extensive waiting list of people ready to scoop up season tickets if someone dropped. Now , they've exhausted the complete list and are still looking for buyers. With no demand , the Jets would be foolish to gouge up ticket prices - forget the fact that they're trying to screw you , it just doesn't make any business sense.
Upper Deck is it Sold Out? So is it sold out yet? But I heard so many people are moving to club seats today, Jets said 1,000 you would think that would open up UD seats? When Jets open up sales to whole planet this weekend and if Jets beat Dolphins I bet they knock off upper deck and nearly all 5k 195 a seat club corners.
My bad... I thought you were implying that they would immeadiately boost prices back up... but regardless, I still dont understand why they would try to price out their customers. There is a tipping point where the market will not support the price. Obviously, the $400 per ticket was way past that point. They have reduced the prices considerably. I'm sure there will continue to increase the price as time goes on (as all sports teams do), but there will be a point where people can no longer pay. Sure they will win by getting that person's PSL money, but who takes their place? I know THEY CAN raise the prices... they can make them $5000 per game if they liked for every seat in the house. And they would have stolen everyones PSL money... but then where are they? They dont want empty seats, blacked out games, lost consession revenue... The idea would be to have every seat sold out and get the max possible ticket price. Rasing ticket prices to the point where peole are forced to walk away is bad business. There isnt a waiting list of people dying to buy these seats. What would be the point to raise the prices to the point where those who have purchased PSLs can no longer afford them?? Trust me, I dont love the PSLs, but we bought ours. We realize that the price may go up... but thats life. I think a lot of people around here go a little off the deep end when it comes to the ticket price increases. They will happen, but I dont think their business plan is to sell PSLs and then price out all their customers in a short period of time....
My source inside the Jets just told me all they have left is last three rows on EZ in threes only. But check this out. They need to keep a certain amount of seats open for media, other team, jets players etc, around 2K. That is why they kept those last three rows. But, those SOBs are keeping the good seats being kicked back today and this weekend for themselves as people move to club from UD or a good 4k or 5k PSL that opens cause someone moves to club. So if UD Prime between 40's opens up today for two tickets they keep it and release two more in UD back row. I Love You Woody.
I would bet they already set aside all those Prime Upper Deck (1st Row) seats way back when. That's why, when they first started calling, right from the first day, they already were claiming most of the 1st Row was taken. WHAT? Well, whatever... it had to be for the media, etc. I know when we used to advertise with the old Newark Star-Ledger, the sales rep would get me 1st Row uppers whenever I bought $XXXX dolars worth of advertising, so I know they've set aside those seats already. But you raise a very interesting point. What happens now to the good Upper seats betweeen the 40s when they get vacated by guys moving into some of those cheaper (at least for now) lower seats that have been discounted? How are the bastards going to handle that now? The RIGHT THING TO DO is to recontact the Upper guys in seniority order and tell them they can upgrade now. But I know that won't happen. They probably won't give us the right time of day as usual... too busy trying to shoehorn people into the screw-job PSLs downstairs.
