Payment for 2009 Yankees partial plans is due at the end of next week (the 27th, to be exact), and I still haven’t heard anything about my midweek plan so I assume that it is just dead. I will probably buy my friend’s midweek plan that he can’t use, but it would have been nice to at least receive some kind of indication that the other plan isn’t happening. My complaints are pretty small compared to those of others, because I did at least get my Friday night plan thanks to the single seat.
If you haven’t been a part of the process, it’s hard to explain how absolutely annoying it’s been. While I’m sure there are lots of satisfied customers (especially those with full season packages), there are a huge amount of people who–even if they got what they wanted in the end–are angry with how everything went.
Here’s the timeline:
December 2007 – The Yankees tell everyone that relocation information will start being sent out in “early 2008″.
January – August 2008 – The Yankees tell everyone who calls to ask that the information will be sent out anywhere from “in a few weeks” to “in a few months”. In the middle of the year, they send out information about Premium Seating (those are the suites in the terrace up to the $2500 “legends” seats) at least twice trying to solicit interest from the common man.
During this time the Mets relocate all their full season ticket holders without a mess and only a few whines.
September 2008 – The Yankees send out relocation booklets and questionnaires! The booklet lays out rules about who is qualified to upgrade to full season seats and how many (using a magical calculation) and says that everyone will be offered something. People…sort of rejoice because it means something is happening!
The guide includes all the changes to the plans. The 46 game M-F plan is now a half season alternating game plan, and the Flex Plans are not flex but rather 20 game plans according to a specific “every fourth day” schedule. The weekend plans have two extra midweek games added to them, and the 8 game plan is now an 11 game plan.
The questionnaires ask things about seat location preferences (e.g., Do you want to pay $12 for bleachers or $100 for main level?), plan preference (keeping what you’ve got or up/downgrading) and all that fun stuff.
The actual hard copies of the relocation brochure arrive after the initial due date for some people, so they push back the questionnaire deadline because there are plenty of non-crazy people who don’t check Yankees.com incessantly.
November 2008 – The Yankees start sending stuff to existing Full Season and A Plan (who are all being upgraded to full season) holders.
December 2008 – The Full Season pool process starts and it becomes clear they are just throwing out all the rules in the book to accommodate everyone who wants to upgrade. Which I was okay with. The NOT okay thing they did was take new business full season licensees before moving onto the smaller plans.
Late January 2009 – 41 game (former B plan) holders are sent their information. This is when it starts to get crazy–because of all the full season plans sold suddenly there aren’t enough half season plans to accommodate the existing base, and many people are assigned 20 game plans instead. Here is one tale of woe, and the relocation thread on NYY Fans has a lot more.
Meanwhile they quietly start making the $350 seats available in 41 game plans, and try to sell them to everyone calling up to voice their displeasure.
Mid February 2009 – Finally, the partial game plans are sent out. Weekend ticket holders are the biggest casualty here, with many Saturday and Sunday licensees being assigned to mid-week plans they don’t want or can’t use. While the Yankees say they went by seniority, it seems to have gotten skewed in 2007/2008. Some 2008 E plan holders have been assigned, others (like myself) have not. There are some 2006 seniority holders who have not yet been assigned seats (and this is with 2 seats, not a billion). The Yankees outsourced this all to a vendor, so if you call your ticket rep directly or the Yankees ticket office they have no real information give you (though they will try to sell you the $350 seats).
Many people who had both the Saturday and Sunday plan–2 or 3 seats each–were assigned a midweek plan that combined the two for four or more seats together. Some people with excellent seniority have been assigned seats that in no way match up with what they put on the questionnaire (Main Box to Bleachers is my favorite example so far–and you may say “Well they save money” but lots of people prefer seats with backs for lots of reasons). How does that make any sense at all?
In short, here are the things the Yankees did wrong that turned this into a mess:
- Did not adhere to the magical formula they created for full season upgrades.
- Allowed new business full season licenses to jump the line above all the people with other plans waiting for relocation assignments.
- Apparently picked seating by throwing darts.
- Combined multi-plan licenses into one plan with the total number of seats.
- Seemingly randomly assigned weekday plans to weekend plan holders after it hit a certain seniority date.
- A complete lack of communication on two significant levels: 1) Between the Yankees ticket office and the relocation vendor; 2) Between the Yankees and the license holders.
I am somewhat happy that I got something but using their “tie breakers” and the fact that I have a weird 07 seniority date (I put down a deposit the first day they were available for 08 plans) means I should have been ahead of the people with two tickets for an E plan and 08 priority. Instead, I have only one of my plans for this year. As I mentioned before I am likely taking a partial plan off the hands of a friend who is one of the unlucky people to get assigned a weekday plan they can’t use but I’ll be even more annoyed if suddenly another midweek invoice shows up after everyone is done declining/accepting.
Great post – just think, the process isn’t even complete yet. It has been a COMPLETE shit show. Ugh.
I’m really irritated because I want my goddamn tiny mid-week plan, and if I buy my friend’s plan and all of a sudden get this magical other plan I’m out money.
I don’t have any illusion that I can make my money back selling tickets with the influx there is going to be on StubHub from all the people who freaked out and bought full season seats.
Great post! I am in the middle of this nightmare now. I’ve had a plan for 7 years, have an 05 seniority date in my name, and had a Saturday plan with 4 seats in the Main Box level. I just got an invoice today for midweek seats in the last row of the Tier section by the eft field foul pole. I can’t make mid-week games, and can’t afford the $350 seats that I was offered on the phone last night. I feel like the Yankees are telling me they don’t appreciate me as a customer and a fan, and I’m not sure that’s something I want to be involved with anymore.
Thank you for your well thought out post. I have a 2001 seniority date, 3 Loge boxes above 3rd base. We did get the Saturday plan, but out in the bleachers. I asked to drop one ticket (son in college), but apparently no one read my questionnaire (and ignored my phone calls) so I still have three tickets. Oh well, at least it will be roomier in the bleachers for us. I am hoping to hold my place in line and things will change next year. It was this or the $350 seats-take it or leave it.