Stop the Bailout

Let's hear one for the sensible natures of New Yorkers. (Did I just say that?) As you've no doubt read, Big Apple baseball clubs can't seem to sell out Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, particularly the high end seats, because their prices are -- I believe the word is -- insane. Frankly, the prices would keep me from coming more than once or twice a year if I lived in the metro area, and I'm a rabid fan (of the game, not of the teams).

Call me cheap, but each contest in the two NYC cathedrals counts for .07% of the team's final record, yet the Steinbrenners expect a family of four to purchase tickets three sections up between first base and right field -- in other words, nowhere in particular -- for $600. For one game! (Similar seats at Citi are a mere $276 for the same family.) That's before the outrageous Ticketmaster scam is added on top of it, before the $12 parking charge and before the $50 in hamburgers. And those aren't the deluxe model, cushioned seats: those babies go for $300 and up per ticket at Yankee Stadium.

It is my fervent hope that attendance in these two parks lags badly and that the franchises suffer financially. NYers should not reward their franchises for investments in fan stupidity, gullibility and slavishness. They need to learn that there is a severe limit on what the market will bear, and the same lesson must be made clear to their cousins across the country.

If cities are going to be stupid enough to devote finite resources (and lending authority, which is often pitched disingenuously as no cost to taxpayers) to build these edifices for companies that provide nearly no local employment and few concrete financial benefits, the teams could at least avoid the temptation to price their product as monopolists. I recommend this book to anyone who thinks that sports teams provide an economic contribution to their host cities, or that their abstract benefits somehow convey some financial gain to the metro area.

Or, you could come visit us here in Charleston, SC. Our mid-level single-A team notwithstanding, the Holy City has a thriving tourist economy based on real tourist attractions, not on sports, and we're doing fine. It costs six bucks to go to a RiverDogs game, the hot dogs are two dollars and everyone can see the field. You don't want to miss any of the action when the sumo wrestlers come out between innings in their inflatable suits.

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