New York Yankees Tickets & The Boston Series

New York Yankees Tickets Sales & The Boston Red Sox Series Will Tell The Story Of The 2013 Trade Deadline

The New York Yankees come into today a mere six games behind the first place Boston Red Sox in the American League East. This New York Yankees team was not expected to compete by anybody in the media and have far exceeded expectations with a 50-42 record and a -2 run differential but the question I think everybody has is whether the Yankees are contenders or pretenders and whether they should be buyers or sellers at this years trading deadline. The good news is for the Yankees is that they will get a chance to go head to head with the team their chasing, the Boston Red Sox, the first series after the All Star Game on the road in Fenway Park. This series is going to make or break the Yankees blueprints and plans on how they will navigate this years trading deadline both in the win and loss columns and also with the New York Yankees ticket sales. 

The Yankees announced earlier in the season that the ratings for YES, the Yankees Entertainment and Sports station, were down 38% from last season after last season which saw our worst ratings on YES since the 2003 season. The reason for this presumably has to be the lack of Yankees stars being in the lineup. Whether the Yankees stars were injured prior to the 2013 season or scooped up by other teams in free agency the Yankees roster has seriously lacked the draw that usually makes the Yankees great both on the field and fiscally. This series with the Boston Red Sox I think will have a lot to do with Yankees tickets sales, the ratings on the YES network, and what we do before the July 31st trade deadline. If we lose two out of the three games or even get swept I can see the Yankees reacting by doing one of two things. The first thing is the Yankees will sell the farm and go all out and acquire a Giancarlo Stanton type player to bring a buzz back to the Bronx or they will go into sell mode and sell off stars like Brett Gardner. Obviously I cannot see the latter happening no matter how far we fall out of the standings but weirder things have happened in Yankees land. 

The Yankees have an average ticket sale price for road games with the Boston Red Sox of $123 per ticket which is 69% more expensive than every other Yankees road ticket sold. In comparison the Red Sox average sale ticket price for games hosting the Yankees is $207 which is a whopping 92% higher than your average Boston Red Sox home games. The Yankees have generally, especially while operating under the late George Steinbrenner, operated in the red as a baseball organization but have always made up the difference with the revenue created from their YES network. With YES ratings down how long can the Yankees survive selling tickets, getting people to subscribe to YES, and survive in the standings throwing out their mash squad of the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses? I think we will find out some of the answers to those questions and more after this crucial head to head series with Boston Red Sox July 19th - July 21st. After the Yankees tickets are sold and the games are watched on YES and the tallies are placed in the win and loss columns the Yankees second season will begin with Brian Cashman taking center stage. Will we blow up the team or will we make one last ditch effort on the backs of our returning stars and veterans? Tune in to find out.