PSL PR Not Going Well
Over the past few days, I’ve had the chance to talk to more than a few Jets fans. Most, when asked about PSLs, were pretty negative about the idea. Some even wondered if the stadium will be sold out come game day. Personally, I doubt it would come to that, but the Devils’ recent PSLs woes were used as a good counter to my doubts. When I checked out the Patriots, guess what shakedown fee they don’t charge fans at Gillette … you guessed it, PSLs.
Phil Mushnick, opiner of all things New York Sports for the Daily News Post spat some hot fire about the Jets and the Giants charging PSLs to their fanbases.
The Giants – and soon, the Jets – tell us that PSL money will be applied to the cost of their new ballpark. Funny, when you and I, already living in a reasonably nice home, can’t afford to buy one of those nice, big, new ones, what do we do?
We don’t buy it! We stay put! We don’t buy what we can’t afford. Imagine that!
Phil, you’ve just given me a great idea!
From now on, to defray costs of my mortgage, I am going to start charging friends to come over to my house. I will just explain that they are paying a Personal Visitation License (PVL) and that they can sell it to anyone they want to for a profit should we stop being friends, or they can even deed their PVL to their children (if they could BE so lucky) if they like.
I mean … it’s my house … why wouldn’t my best friends want to pay for such a privilege to laugh at my witty banter, listen to me drone on about blogging and to gaze at the opulent magnificence in which I reside and couldn’t afford to pay for without their generous financial support?? I mean, I’ve GOT to keep up appearances …
Mushnick isn’t the only one piling on a topic, I have already been railing against for a few weeks now. Here’s some other thoughts from around the web (Jets and Giants)
[FoxSports -- Ian O'Connor]
[NJ.com -- Bloggers React]
[Scout.com -- Ken Palmer]
Filed under: Main Page
Would staging a protest in front of the Jets corporate offices on 57th and at the training camp be such an outlandish Idea? I’m sure this blog and the Giants blog could drum up some healthy attendance.
Then it’s just a call to local media outlets.
-j
Well, should the Jets feel the need to charge the “PSL”, i’ll give up my season tickets…this mediocre franchise will not get an extra dollar from my pocket..
Let’s say the Jets mirror the Giants pricing scheme, from $1000.00 to $20,000.00. That means some long time Jets fans are going to get socked with a $80,000.00 surprise. That could buy a house in some parts of the country. I’m going to guess many can’t afford it. What happens next? Are they kicked out on the street or will they be allowed to downgrade? If they downgrade, then that’s coming at someone else’s expense.
I’ve been in the upper deck since 1989. My fear is they allow long time Jets fans the option of downgrading into my area. I can swing an upper deck seat tax but $40,000.00 for two seats is out of my budget. If others can move down, then I can’t afford to move up. In other words, I’ll be SOL.
It really pisses me off that the Jets and all the other teams going with PSL’s pass them off as some financial asset that is assured to appreciate in value. That is the same bull$hit that happened during the tech boom and recently the housing boom. There is no proof that your PSL will ever be worth more then you paid for it.
Is there any chance that (a) the Jets PSL’s will be cheaper than the Giants and (b) that there will only be PSL’s for the most expensive seats?
Jalbo13 — Protest the Jets? — Now that’s funny — For playing overwhelmingly crappy football since 1969? — For moving to New Jersey in 1983? — For effectively kicking out its season ticket holders in 2010? –
opulent magnificence – I could go for some of that too
Ninety percent of the seats in the upper bowl will have $1,000 PSLs. Fewer than 5,000 seats, in a building that will have a capacity of 82,500, will be at the highest price. – Giants Plan
$1,000 PSLs isn’t that crazy. Yes, it’s easy to charge up public sentiment when big-corporate-sports team prays on hard-working-blue-collar-fan-base, but the meadowlands is a dump, it’s always been a dump, and while it might “work” for football games, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Jets are a business, and they want to attract fans. Building a big fancy stadium is good for business, even if you sour some loyal long time fans.
I’m sympathetic the PSL woes, whereas I will likely not be able to afford 4 ticks, but I’m not going to pretend like it’s a ridiculous decision and be outraged. Basset, your PVL example is clever, but you don’t run a business, and while we all would like to think of those guys over on the Jets as our pals, they’re not. They’re entertainers. And their tickets have always been extremely reasonable relative to other franchises.
The “your license will appreciate!” kick is not absurd either, and very different from houses, due to the limited supply of licenses. it’s not like there are people building seats along the perimeter of the building?
So, while I’m not happy, i’m not going to get my undies in a twist and jump the jets bandwagon.
Bent, I don’t think I’m any less qualified than any other media member at this point, having read everything under the sun about this, so here goes:
I think the Jets had planned to have much higher prices than the Giants unveiled last week, and have had the rug pulled out from under them a bit. There is NO way they can justify charging more, and if they heed the current media and fan backlash AND their survey results they might very well come up with an alternate plan which involves jacking up the license price on the high value seats and charging nothing or something less than a $1000 for the cheaper seats.
Add in that the Jets only have a waiting list of 10,500 and you have the very real possibility that the stadium might not sell out if they price the licenses too high, which would be a major embarrassment to the franchise. The Giants don’t have this problem, their waiting list is 100,000 plus.
The bottom line is no matter which way they do it, charging everyone, charging alot more only to premium seats, they will wind up with the same magic number of total revenue as the Giants did with their plan – in my opinion.
dave … fair enough. But you’re a reader of this blog for a while.
What if I carged you a one-time fee of $150 to read the same site that you’ve read for free and the reason that I told you I needed to pass the cost along to you was that I was going to get a superduper website that would look really slick?
would you pay that?
Two questions: 1) what constitutes a “premium” seat? and 2) what are these “club seats” I keep reading about?
My family has 4 in section 131. Does any one know if these are these premium seats? What about under the Giants?
Dave, everyone said the exact same things about tech stocks and real estate. “There’s only so much land available.” “It’s different this time.”
If you buy a PSL as an investment then let me know because I have an investment idea that will guarantee you a 100% return on your money. It involves a commodity and there is only a limited amount of it and that amount is running out.
sec108, I don’t think the Jets and Giants ever anticipated charging different PSLs and, if they did, I think Woody has to know that the Jets can’t charge more than the Giants. The Giants are coming off of a Super Bowl win, the Jets a dismal 4-12 season, only a completely clueless front office would do something stupid like charge more than the Giants and I just don’t think the guys running the Jets are that dumb.
I did not keep my survey, but I seem to remember that the lowest cost PSL was $800, so the Jets may have been floating the PSL idea more for the club seats than the general admission seats. Moreover, the Jets, who could charge different season tickets prices, actually have slightly lower prices for Jets games than the Giants have. Also, if the Jets were to not sell all the PSLs for all the seats, they could easily just put the game tickets for sale on Ticketmaster and completely sell out, while touting that season tickets are still available for the next season, like the Mets and Yankees do. Let’s face it, PSLs are just an unfortunate consequence of the NFL’s immense popularity.
I also think that a PSL for NFL season tickets, in this market, will be a good investment. Manhattan is where the average studio in a condo building costs more than $1 million. If Wall Street does well, there will be plenty of folks willing to spend money on a PSL. The Jets have an extremely loyal fan base, many fans will just pay the $1,000 per ticket and, because of that, season tickets will be scarce. I’m not saying that it will be as good an investment as a seat on the NYSE was, but I bet that it will be a decent return.
I’m resigned to ponying up the $$$ for the PSLs. I know times are tough and the money would be better spent on my kids’ 529 plans, but there’s nothing I look forward to more than those Sunday tailgates, the great camraderie of the fans, the deafening “J-E-T-S” chants and cheering the Jets’ players after a win as they jog off the field. One day, I’ll be in the stadium for the AFC Championship game and will savor being with my 60,000+ friends as we cheer for our first trip to the Super Bowl since 1969. I just can’t give that dream up, and I doubt that, despite the bellyaching, many of you can either.
I’m in 243 2nd Tier. PSL’s would screw me into the ether. The tickets have been in the family since the 70’s. It’s pretty heartbreaking.
Johnny Styne – A large group of fans protesting this at training camp when the press will be there, for Chris Baker, could get a slight buzz going. Granted it would most likely be ignored. So yes to all those point…save about five seasons since ‘69. It’s the equivalent of the Colts stealing away under cover of night. Now it’s worse however….fans are being bled out and their seats handed over to douchey mcneil and the polo posse. The lifeblood of a JETS games will be gone forever.
um…points. I hate Typos.
Woody thinks that he can do the same to the fans that Big Pharma is doing to America.
I insist sports in America should be managed by non-for-profit organizations. Enough with the Feudal lords of the NFL. The quality of their for profit product is tainted and Bellicheat stinky!
As I posted prior- I believe that this PSL issue along with last years record and that the Giants won the SB, will put added pressure on this team- fair or not fair- I truely hope the team does well this year if not it could be ugly this season at the stadium given that alot of the “true Jets Fans” may know that they have only a couple years to attend live games as a season ticket holder!
Sack- I have that same dream being a life long Jets fan and having my tickets 20 years and would love to be in attendance for that AFC Championship game but there are many of us who will not beable to spend the extrea money- that is just life! Unfortunately, when they win that AFC Championship you may be celebrating with the “New Jets Fans”. Don’t get me wrong I will try to scalp tickets from time to time but the days of attending every game and traveling to at least one away game a year will be over!
You have to look at PSL’s another way. Instead of PSL’s, the Jets would have used public financing to build the stadium and everyone’s taxes would have gone up. Now, only the people who will go to the games will pay for the stadium while the guy who couldn’t give a crap about football won’t have to see his taxes increase. The public would have paid for the stadium one way or the other. At least now only the people who use the stadium will pay for it.
I’ve been on the season ticket waiting list for about 8 years, and my waitlist number has just been activated.. Last year I think i was about 1800 deep on the list, so I’m assuming that the thought of PSL’s has already kept some people from renewing their tickets.. Or maybe it’s the economy, or a 4-12 season, or a little of each. I have a question for anyone who might have gotten tickets recently. The tickets available to me are upper level, endzone, rows 21 to 30. From there, i’d need to harness the power of the Hubble Space Telescope to see anything. Anyone know if it’s possible to stay on the waiting list until better seats become available, or if i’d have to buy the tickets to stay in the loop? What happens after you get tickets? Do you have the option to move up every year? If I dont get these tickets, am i off the waiting list for good? I have until July 16th to decide…
Scapp- my first year I took the tickets assigned which where in like row 20 corner endzone- then I wrote a letter asking to move down to Sect 303 row 12 near other friends of mine and- which to my suprise, the next year they were moved to 303. So you can requets a change. But again that was almost 20 years ago.
Scapp, I started out in the endzone in the last couple of rows and now I’m at the 10 yard line behind the Jets bench (the sunny side), but still in the last few rows. It took me about 5 years to move and I send a letter to upgrade every year. I got my tickets in, I think, 1993. So, your chances of moving up in this stadium are not good. However, nobody knows how the new stadium will work out, especially with so many fans saying that they won’t buy the PSLs. If I were you, I’d take the tickets and see how everything shakes out. You never know, you might get 50 yard line seats in the new stadium.
Back to the PSLs, I hope the Jets accomodate long-time season ticket owners. Maybe by giving us a discount or letting us pay off the PSLs over a few years. It would be bogus if the stadium gets filled with a bunch of newbies who aren’t real Jet fans.
Jay,
What about the people that attend events other then football? They’re using the stadium. Are they paying for it? No, just the Giant and Jet fans. I’ll probably pay for the stupid PSL if they are around a grand, but I’ll be tempted to unbolt my seats and take them with me before I leave each game.
This has got to be the most ridiculous display of financial planning I have ever seen from a company.
I have 6 seats in section 131. My father had them when they were the titans. I would like to believe that there is no bigger jet fan than myself. I am 42 years old and i dont think i have missed 20 games in the last 25 years. I went to every home game of the 1-15 rich kotite season. I have suffered with this team forever. I swallowed it when they moved to shea & it now takes me 2 hours to get home from games (I live in long island). A $20,000 psl charge would be the last straw for me. Although it would kill me, I absolutely refuse to pay $120,000 to the jets for the right to pay them $10,000 per year in order to drive to new jersey and root for a team that has for the most part given me nothing but pain. In a way this would be good because now I do not have to pass this horrible legacy to my 3 boys age 7-12. The organization ought to be ashamed of itself. Not only are they screwing the fans, they are really screwing th people who have supported the team the longest, because the people with the best seats are getting charged the most money. Anyone who thinks this will eventually be a good investment is nuts. Besides, if you are a real fan, you would never give up the psl anyway. It is nothing more than an extortion fee, and I personally will have no part of it. Besides, lets face it, there really was no need for a new stadium to begin with. Other than the fact that the concession and bathroom areas can get a little congested, the stadium was fine. The only reason a new stadium was built was so the teams can make more money, and now they want the fans to help defray the cost. Further infuriating is the fact that 2 teams are going to be playing in this stadium, so the psl fees, if any, should be minimal, instead of the outlandish numbers that are being thrown around. SEE YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like I will be chanting… J E T S – Jets – Jets – Jets from my home with NEW 60? HD TV that I will buy.
NO WAY am I paying $5,000 for a seat licensing fee and then $1,650+ per year per seat and god knows how much for parking, gas and a beer! Family financial priorities must come first!
How will the actual owners of these seats pay this per seat fee? Many seats are split among friends under one name. If you’re in this sharing situation don’t pay a fee unless your name becomes the official owner with the Jets for that seat.
I have been a season ticket holder in section 121 (5 seat group) since 1978.
TOO BAD the Jets will lose all the all their Loud… Hard Core Fans at the games. Maybe our homes could be wired for sound during games and pumped into the stadium via internet. Without us that stadium will be dead quite!
I am going to miss being at the games it was a magical experience at times and I will remember all the great moments. Also, all the “here we go again moments”.
Two seasons remain for me and maybe they could bring home a Superbowl for their long-time fans before the “Wealthy” and Corporations get our seats.
Go Jets in 2008 and 2009!
If one team owned this stadium it would have 8 home games plaus 2 preseason home games. 2 teams… 16 games and 3 preseason home games so… Why are the PSL’s so much? The NFL revenue has been going up and up and so have the cost to the consumers… is the NFL a bubble like the stock/housing market?
The bottom line is that anyone who has a seat in the upper deck could care less about psl’s because they are cheap. Big deal if you have to pay $4000 for 4 seats in the upper deck that you have had for 20 years. I am sure most people, whether you are a lawyer or a deli clerk, can figure out a way to get $4000 together. How would you feel if you had 4 seats on the field level for the last 40 years, and you have to figure out a way to pony up $80,000 ? That is the big difference. The people that have supported the team the longest are getting screwed the most. That is a huge some of money, life changing for most people. To save $4000, all you have to do is cancel 1 family vacation, or cut out a couple of perks in your life for a year or so. When you start talking $80,000, you are talking about money for your kids college education, or your retirement. Geez, you can buy a porsche 911 for $80,000. It really is a shame, but I am resigned to giving up my seats and watching it on tv. (section 131 6 seats, $120,000)
NOW I SEE HOW I GOT MY SEASON TIX FOR THE 1ST TIME THIS YEAR. NOBODY WANTS TO PAY THE PSLS
I AGREE WITH THE THOUGHT THAT THE NYJ COULD NOT POSSIBLY CHARGE MORE FOR THE PSLS THAN THE NYG DID AFTER WINNING THE SB. MAYBE THEM WINNING IT WAS A BLESSING IN DISGUISE. IT JUST MIGHT SAVE US ALL A BUNCH OF MONEY. IF THE FRONT OFFICE HAD THE AUDACITY TO CHARGE MORE THAN THE NYG AFTER WINNING A SB, THEN I MIGHT ONLY HAVE SEASON TIX FOR 2 YEARS. THAT REALLY SUCKS!!!! AND I WILL GET A 60IN HDTV
Did this happen recently? I thought I heard about this a while ago.