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Thursday, March 17, 2016

Are the Yankees trying to ruin soccer by mismanaging their team?

Last week, the Yankees unveiled their best imitation of the ACME Co., as they sought to ensure that soccer never replaces baseball as the national pastime.

They enforced their new admission policy - the one that refuses to acknowledge home-printed tickets - on the New York Club Futbol team, which the Steinbrenners partly own. They did this without little advance publicity within the soccer community, thus creating long lines to get into the game at Yankee stadium.

Deadspin got the story. And it wasn't pretty.

Basically, the Yankees have declared war on against Stubhub, the online scalping giant. Last month, they announced they would no longer accept home-printed tickets, the staple of Stubhub's business model. Sunday was their first implementation of this plan, shocking the monkey (in this case, soccer fans.)

This Yankee policy will work until Stubhub figures out a new hack, which will force the Yankees to make a counter move. It's a chess game played by suits and heirs to suit-hood, by people who don't care about games or fans, because they know the sports are mere products. Thus, they use brinkmanship on every dispute. Consider the war between YES on Comcast, which could deny hundreds of thousands of fans TV coverage. It's one set of billionaire assholes against anothere. And of course, we fans always lose.

We are the ones stuck in disastrous lines, or unable to get a game on television, even though we pay outrageous cable fees.

Once upon a time, I rooted for the Yankees in business disputes. I naively believed that the more money the team brought in, the more it could invest in players, and the more it would win.

That view no longer applies. The Yankees are simply trying to grind out as much money as possible, and from whomever is foolish enough to desire their product. The profits? They can spend it on clam dip, or lawn ornaments, or politicians.

But last Sunday, tempers flared. Some fans were turned away. I wonder if they'll return. I wonder if we'll live to see a day of reckoning? It's been said that you reap what you sow. Who knows?

3 comments:

KD said...

I am one of those pawns in the Comcast v Yankees game. Like you, I want to be on the Yankees' side but I've decided both sides are loathsome money-grubbers. so here I sit. paying about $160 monthly with no YES network. almost unwilling to tamper with the complex conglomeration of devices which comprise my digital world. How many hours have I spent getting all that crap to work? and now I have to consider ripping it all apart and starting fresh with another service. Folks, this is tough on a geezer.

Hermodorus said...

Incredibly telling...from RAB today

"Interestingly enough, Rutckyj told Dave O’Brien he enjoyed being with the Braves more than the Yankees earlier this week. “I feel like we can talk to anybody here. It’s kind of different from the Yankees, where if one of the coordinators or somebody walks by you, like, put your head down and mind your own business. But here everybody wants you to talk to them,” he said. So that’ll be awkward."

Sounds fun

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