Since the day the Giants announced that they would be selling personal seat licenses for their new stadium, John Mara has received plenty of complaints from Giants fans. Some of the letters were blunt, telling him his late father would never have allowed this to happen.
"I have received a few of those, and believe me I feel that," the son of the late Wellington Mara said Thursday. "But my father wasn't faced with this kind of debt on a new building like this either." So, with costs continuing to rise on the $1.2 billion facility the Giants and Jets will be playing in starting in 2010, Mara announced the Giants' PSL pricing plan Thursday. The one-time cost for the right to purchase season tickets ranges from $1,000 to $20,000 per seat, with more than half of the seats at least $5,000. The PSL does not include the price of the tickets. Continue
Mara insisted that he "did not go into this process thinking that we were going to end up with PSLs," and he also said that they would not have been necessary if the stadium had cost the $800 million originally estimated. But as expenses went up, he said, the Giants were left with no choice.
- BY RALPH VACCHIANO
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, July 17th 2008, 9:25 PM
If they didn't have the money, then they shouldn't have built this new stadium. In my opinion, there was nothing wrong with the "old" stadium. The Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium, which opened a couple of years before Giants' Stadium, is being renovated at a cost that is affordable to the team's owner. This is just out and out GREED.
A few years ago all of the seats in Giants' stadium cost the same. Now, someone who sat in the lower endzone in section 102 will have to come up with $20,000 for seat licenses for his four seats or, if he was closer to mid-field in section 108 or 109, he'll have to pony up 40k for the same four seats. Forget about anyone with seats between the 30s - do you have the 80 grand to give John Mara to offset his debt?
I'm "lucky". I've had upper deck seats. But, will I still be able to pay $1,000 per seat, after the wave of fans has to vacate those now more costly seats to something they may be able to afford?
Last year it was the parking pass fiasco, which drove some "fans" I know away. I had a friend with 10 seats since the Yankee stadium days. He received two parking passes for ten people. It was a fiasco. This year he's only getting 6 seats. He will still get two parking passes. IMHO, this organization has had its head up its butt lately as far as the "loyal fans" are concerned!
Posted by: Mike H | July 21, 2008 at 01:46 PM
It's quite simple; management will charge whatever they think the fan will pay. If you don't like it don't buy it.
Posted by: Michael Cerrato | July 24, 2008 at 08:02 AM
Found another great op-ed in the Daily News on the Giant PSL debacle.
Posted by: Ramon S. | August 20, 2008 at 08:18 PM