Hilarious to think any regular season Yankee game gives them that kind of.leverage. Not a chance I just bought tickets for wed night for $9. I guarantee you ol timers tickets will be available for peanuts too.
Rutgers is Paying Yankees $70K to Play at Yankee Stadium?
- Thread starter Knight Shift
- Start date
Hilarious to think any regular season Yankee game gives them that kind of.leverage. Not a chance I just bought tickets for wed night for $9. I guarantee you ol timers tickets will be available for peanuts too.
Well, theoretically if the cost of staffing a home game is more than the % of sales price they give up then I could see where it possibly comes up to more profit, if not more revenue. It's hard to make the case with parking/concessions etc. RU would have to get a huge % of the gate, and the tickets would have to be pretty damn expensive.
Or at the very least make it one of the years we have 5 B1G home games so it is 4 home, 4 road and 1 neutral. Now it will be 3 home, 5 road and 1 neutral.
I thought of this as well. I'm thinking there will be no "student section". So, there's 10,000 extra tickets right there.
I'm also assuming that the ticket prices for this game will be significantly higher than they are for a game at HPSS.
So we get seats with terrible sight lines, no tailgating and get to pay more for the privilege. I mean, does it get any better than this?
It does bring up the point on whether or not this game is included with season tickets, if the Yankees are responsible for sales it would seem not. At least there's that.
My ticket rep called today in reference to basketball tickets, and this subject came up.
He said he has been flooded with negative response about this game and his accounts requesting the game not be part of the season ticket plan.
He has been forwarding the complaints up the chain and he said if enough people feel the same way and complain it makes a difference.
Having to pay $70,000 for the privilege of playing in the worst FB environment & on a dangerous field is comical. No one really knows if we'll make $, lose $ or break even. If we get 50% of the tix sales revenue, then the Yankees need to sell $3.2M in tix for us to break even. If we get 75%, then they need to sell ~$2.15M. When we played Army in 2011, tix prices were $25-$95 through Rutgers & we had 30,028. I have no idea what suites or club seating prices were but if anyone recalls please post it. We had 38k for ISU & 47k for ND.
Consider the fact that the contract may require them to pay us a percentage of the gate based on a minimum number of seats sold. Hence the statement "yankees are on the hook for ticket sales."
In the simplest example, say we wanted to make a guaranteed $1.5mm to match home revenue. We know the stadium seats 50k for football, and that the Yankees will price the seats at an average price of $60 per seat. We tell them, Rutgers get 50% of the gate, with Yankees guaranteeing a sell out crowd. If the Yankees fail to sell out, Rutgers still gets paid $1.5mm. If the Yankees do better than expected on pricing, Rutgers makes more. If the Yankees do worse, they eat the loss. They get all the concessions.
Simple stuff guys. It is the same argument every time a contract is discussed on here. Everyone shoots from the hip without knowing anything about it. Without seeing the contract, you have no idea if it is a good or bad deal.
All that I can hope is the Yankees being on the hook for ticket sales means that RU is guaranteed at least $1.6 million from ticket sale and the Yankees will make up the difference .
This sounds like a terrible deal right now, but hopefully once all the terms are known in the end RU won't be looking so bad for doing it
This sounds like a terrible deal right now, but hopefully once all the terms are known in the end RU won't be looking so bad for doing it
In general I agree with your view on this but we have no idea if there is some minimum guarantee to us or what it means that "yankees are on the hook for ticket sales," especially since we haven't signed a contract. Heck, we could be required to include these tix as part of season tix packages making the minimum guarantee a foregone conclusion. We have to wait for the details.
Rutgers makes about $1.6MM profit from each home game. With the size of Yankee Stadium, there is pretty much no way that Rutgers can earn more from a game at Yankee Stadium (with or without the additional $70K). So the only reason to play a game at Yankee Stadium is for reasons other than money. I don't buy the argument that the Big Ten forced this, because the Big Ten really doesn't care where Rutgers plays its home games. I can't see how the Big Ten gains anything from this game being played at Yankee Stadium vs Piscataway.
If there is some other reason to play the game at Yankee Stadium, the difference of $70K is somewhat meaningless. It is quite literally a rounding error when Rutgers is used to earning $1.6MM on a home game.
If there is some other reason to play the game at Yankee Stadium, the difference of $70K is somewhat meaningless. It is quite literally a rounding error when Rutgers is used to earning $1.6MM on a home game.
Not that I disagree about this being a fairly standard way of structuring deals, but I struggle to foot it with having to pay them $70k. What's the point of paying them money that is some small fraction of what they owe us, if what they owe us is guaranteed? Just guarantee us $1.43mm instead.
I would be surprised if we werent required to include in season ticket packages.
Maybe that is the deal. We keep full ticket revenue for our season ticketholders, they get the rest, that would probably have Rutgers break even. Since we do not have stadium overhead, 30,000 season ticketholders at $50 apiece is $1.5mm to Rutgers.
Then it is up to the Yankees to make money over their overhead to open the stadium.
It's not that bigger of a deal only because it's against Maryland.
If Rutgers were playing Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State there at Yankee Stadium then RU would lose more revenue opportunities. RU/Maryland wouldn't bring RU as much revenue at High Point so they moved the game into the Bronx for the sake of "spreading the RU brand".
I agree that deals can be canceled. But, we don't have the facts here. There is almost always a cost to cancelling if there was an agreement in place. Canceling might cost RU significantly more money than playing as scheduled, so I will not criticize Hobbs for Julie's boneheaded deal without more facts.
Backing out of a verbal agreement with the Yankees, quite possibly the biggest sports brand in the area, and a sponsor of a B1G bowl, wouldnt be the wisest choice, imo. Hobbs has his hands tied here..
This demonstrates to other entities how quickly we'll bend over if they flash their bankroll.
There is one huge difference between an agreement in principal and a signed agreeement. People in business change their mind, or have situations change all of the time. An agreement in principal can be changed or eliminated until the point that it is signed. It is simple. When new leadership comes in, they reject non binding agreements all of the time because they know if they sign the deal, they own the deal.
Hobbs' loyalty needs to be to Rutgers, and our fans, alums and students, not the freakin Yankees. If this game is played in YS, I will stop buying the 3 extra season tickets that I currently buy.
Hobbs' loyalty needs to be to Rutgers, and our fans, alums and students, not the freakin Yankees. If this game is played in YS, I will stop buying the 3 extra season tickets that I currently buy.
IF it's a non-binding agreement, then you have a good point. But, we have no idea what the agreement is. That was the only point I was trying to make above. I agree with you that if there is a viable out here, Hobbs should take it. If there is such an out and he doesn't take it, I will think a lot less of him as our AD. Until now, he's been terrific.
Until we know all the particulars, on face value this looks like a "Same ol' Rutgers" type deal.
I do find it odd/funny how many are worried about ticking off the Yankees or the B1G. That alone in its self is pretty sad.
I do find it odd/funny how many are worried about ticking off the Yankees or the B1G. That alone in its self is pretty sad.
Last edited:
I will be astounded if this game is not included in our season ticket package. How else will the Yankees get a crowd to show up for RU vs UMD to make it a good deal for them ?
As I said before, the real outrage for RU season ticket holders is when we find out that the game is in our season ticket package. Hobbs should call Nuts and fund a big time pre game party in NYC before the game to offer an olive branch to RU fans who will be pissed off about this hosing we are taking on this game.
Who needs real villains when you're doing such a good job of creating imaginary ones?
Maybe a non-refundable deposit to reserve the date? Don't want Fordham or Columbia coming in & deciding they want the honor of playing in Authentic Replica Yankee Stadium.
