Mets Sell Out Luxury Suites At New Ball Park
Wall Street may be in turmoil but that hasn't affected the need for luxury baseball suites yet it seems. Bloomberg reports that the New York Mets have already sold out the luxury suites in their new stadium, Citi Field. These 49 suites start at $250,000 a year and go up to $500,000. Mets season-ticket holders are also renewing even though the prices for the team's first season at the new $800 million ballpark are higher (the top ticket price is $495). All this at a time when the financial services sector, traditionally a big spender on luxury suites for sporting events, is rapidly bleeding jobs. Dave Howard, the team's executive vice president for business operations, has said that troubled companies Lehman, AIG and Bear Stearns were not purchasers but Citigroup did pay $20 million a year for naming rights.
Not to be outdone, the New York Yankees are also moving into a new ballpark next season that has 56 luxury suites in four different categories and a top ticket price of $2,500 a game. The NY Times reports that those suites are also nearly sold out too.
UPDATE: Bloomberg reports that the Yankees have seven luxury suites unsold at $600,000 a pop and that they expect to sell out.
