Buzz: Giants Ripping Through Their Waitlist? This Isn’t Good News for Jets Fans
ProFootballTalk is reporting that they’ve received a forwarded email from a Giants fan. Apparently this email was sent with the purpose of
… inviting him to purchase season tickets at the team’s new stadium – and the personal seat licenses that go along with them.
The e-mail advises that PSLs remain available in three zones: the Coach’s Club (at $20,000 a pop, according to NYG2010.com), Mezzanine Club A ($12,500 per PSL), and Mezzanine Club B (only $7,500 each) … the reader also told us that he joined the supposed “30-year waiting list” for season tickets just last year.
Two years ago, the waitlist was supposedly 70,000 people for the Giants … Wikipedia says 135,000 … even if you split the difference that’s more than a full stadium’s worth of seats for the Giants. Meanwhile, Wikipedia claims the Jets list is only 17,500.
If this guy did just join the waitlist last year as he claims to Florio … can you say “blackouts” for Jets games?
Now I get why the team auctioned off those choice seats (which I think they never finished selling since the results were lackluster), they knew they’d be ripping right through their waitlist anyway … why not get top dollar on an artificially inflated product from the start?
Many of you are diehard enough that you don’t care the costs … and God bless you for that. I wish I thought that way.
That said, this is totally contrary to my nature as a fan, but if you are a season ticket holder and considering whether or not to hold onto your seats? Seriously weigh your options. I just can’t foresee enough demand to justify the bloated prices on some of these tickets … let alone PSLs.
The Jets are going to have to do something to sell those tickets (down from the $700 face value for some seats) for the first few years anyway, there’s no way that stadium gets filled with the economy the way it is right now.
The bad news? Even if you give up those seats, you might have to drive to Philly or Boston to watch the Jets on TV … even with DirecTV. For the first time in five years, I’m “lucky” enough to live out of the blackout area, so DirecTV should air all the games for me …
What triggers the blackout?
Atlease they still have a whole yr to get this right especially. If we have a big yr this season
unsold tickets. games must be sold out to show them on TV … often local advertisers buy extra seats to sell out the game. I don’t know the last time a Jets game has been blacked out locally, but when you factor in that tickets aren’t just going to be 50 bucks a pop with the current economy, local advertisers might be more wary of eating the price of the seats.
I don’t know if it’ll come to blackouts. I think that the Jets will ultimately sell the tickets without PSLs. Of course, the ticket holders won’t “own” the right to the seats, and the Jets will be left standing with their you-know-what in their hands, but at least the stadium will be full.
I love it.
I hear you, but there’s no way in hell Woody Johnson would allow the Jets to be blacked-out in NYC. It would be unbelievably humiliating.
Though if this is a top of mind concern, it could spark another one of their stellar panicky draft day trades, swapping six picks to move up and get Sanchez who they might see as a seat seller.
The thing that makes it even more disgusting is that stadium expenses are shared (co-ownership) while they pocket ALL their profits !! This is a very unique situation in the NFL, and eventhough, the costs to attend games are possibly the highest. Shame on you Billionaire Woody Johnson.
Wouldn’t any season tickets that remain unsold be put up for sale on a game-by-game basis for face value of the ticket (no PSL involved)? If that’s the case, I bet we would sell out all the games within 48 hours of the tickets going on sale to the general public.
Voice of reason Mole57, shouldn’t that be the case, the Jets offering the tickets up for sale to the general public, with no PSL’s attached. Ha ha Woody.
Sadly enough me and my family will be buying 4 – $5,000 psl seats. I know for a fact that the upper deck is completly sold out as there is no PSL for those seats and we were not given the oppurtunity to purchase them. We can finance the psl over 10 – 15 years so 5,000 financed over that time period really isnt that much money. The ticket prices on the seats themselves havent gone up much at least where i sit in the mezz. Its just the lower level seats which are astronomical and I would imagine there’s enough rich people in NY that can buy up all the lower level seats. I don’t see this as a problem.
The last time the Jets had blackouts were in the mid 70’s.
The PSL thing is a big sucker play that backfired on the local teams, the perfect financial storm hit just in time for the fans to realize that this was a joke.
The truth is there was no reason to build a new stadium except for Woody and Giants being greedy and wanting to make more $$$, nothing wrong with that except the fans should not be expected to finance it.
Is the sold-out/blackout clause part of the agreement for the new stadium or is it standard in the NFL? If part of the NFL, that rule should be contested under anti-trust laws. And how do small markets handle this? If its part of the stadium deal, Woody should be strung up!
Dan F,
It is standard in the NFL, part of their TV contract. Small market teams seem to sell out, or as mentioned above, the local affiliate will buy the extra tickets.
Electric Ham –
The Upper Deck is not sold out. In fact, nothing is sold out. The Jets are ONLY selling their outrageous Club Seats right now. That’s the $25K PSL with $400-$700 ticket prices (and free lap dances) seats.
PSLs in the rest of the stadium and upper deck seats will be sold starting the beginning of May. You’ll be contacted based on your seniority. So if they told you that the Upper Deck was sold out, someone is lying to you so that you buy PSL seats first.
And don’t put it past these sales people to lie. I told them I would likely only buy in the upper deck and they said “OK, but just so you know, the upper deck in the new stadium is twice as high as the old stadium. So you should really consider a PSL.” If that even happens to be true and the free seats are worthless, I’ll be watching from home.
Two more ways around the blackout rule: Often Club seats and tickets made available for opposing teams that are not purchased are not subject to the blackout rules. Jacksonville, which has trouble selling out such a large stadium, closes off several sections and does not make them available for purchase for the entire season. Those unsold seats (since they were never on sale in the first place) are not subject to the blackout policy. Woody can get creative with some of these policies.
The Jets are really screwing their fans over. I am a season ticket holder that will also likely buy 4 $4,000-$5,000 PSL seats. The upper deck seats cannot be transferred EVER, even to family. It is not like the old seats. They just go to the next waitlist member if you pass away.
The Jets will sell the tickets likely on a game by game basis, but if they stink you will see a blackout this season. If they do not, you may not. It depends, can a lot of people afford to pay $1,400 for two seats to a game? Probably not, especially in this economy, so you will probably end up seeing blacked out games from the very beginning.
I have been on the wait list for years…I have not heard from the Jets yet…
They cannot close the middle of the field. It will not work in that stadium. That is where the most expensive seats are.
The team contacted me and tried to tell me it would cost me more if a bought 4 games a year online, than if I purchased PSL’s, laughable.
The other issue is that the cost of tickets is not fixed and will increase, if you own a PSL you HAVE to buy the tickets otherwise you lose your PSL money. Woody could really gouge the fans that bought the PSL, will be interesting to see.
This is my last year buying season tickets, since the mid 60’s.
TruJetFan -
The only reason that they arent sold out is because they havnt gone on sale yet to everyone that can purchase them. There is no PSL on these seats dont kid yourself they will all be gone the second they can be sold. I have had seats for 15+ or so years and we cant get them based on the high demand and seniority. Your argument is pointless.
Bill W,
The only seats that are $700 are the club seats. These particular seats are likely exempt from the blackout rules and range in price from 400-700 per game. The rest of the tickets are $150 or less per game. Assuming that they only have to sell out the non-club seats, they shouldn’t have a problem with a blackout. Sponsors and Woody will absorb the cost of the unsold seats to avoid embarrassment.
http://www.newjetsstadium.com/seating-chart.html
The problem with selling tickets on an individual game basis is that it pisses off the PSL owners. Why should these guys pay full price for a PSL and Joe Schmoe gets to buy tickets on an individual basis?
My father and I have two seats. We filled out the form trying to get upper deck seats. A Jets rep called us and said there were too many poeple with seniority in front of us and that we probably would not be able to get upper seats. We really dont want to pay a PSL so we will probably give up our tickets. They told us there were 18,000 accounts in front of us (average of 3.5 seats per accout). If this is true, it seems the majority of current ticket holders will not buy a PSL. I am pissed about losing the seats but the bright side is that they could possibly have a lot of trouble selling the PSLs. This shows how unfair it is to average fans.
BigBlue,
I agree. But the difference is that the PSL owners are guaranteed their tickets and their seats. Individual seats would be first-come first-serve, and they would not be easy to obtain. It’s not like the entire stadium is going on sale, probably only 5,000 tickets per game at most. If it’s a lot fewer than that, Woody might try to make a public relations coup by giving them away to youth clubs and underprivileged kids. PSL-holders would look bad if they griped about that.
IMO, then only seats that either the Jets or Giants will have trouble selling are the Club seats. My understanding is that the Jets are now trying to sell the Club seats to existing season ticket holders. If the Jets don’t sell out the Club seats from existing holders, then the Club seats will be offered to fans on the waitlist and, after that, probably the general public (including corporations and ticket brokers). I do not think the Jets will have any problems selling the 46,000 lower level and mezzanine PSL seats to existing season ticket owners or the folks on the waitlist. As for the non-PSL upper level seats, season ticket holders from the PSL seats and with seniority will be able to move up and take those seats…I expect all 27,000 non-PSL seats to be snapped up. So, when you think about it, IMO, the ONLY seats that, potentially, might be offered to the public are the Club seats that will be left over from the 9,500 available.
On the bright side, if you want Jets season tickets, but figured you would never get them, join the waitlist. The lower level ($5,000) and mezzanine level ($4,000) endzone seat PSLs can be financed over 15 years. Sure, the PSLs stink, but I love seeing the Jets live.
someone who works for the jets lives in my building, and told me the waitlist is more than 20,000.
when the dist settles, the only seats available are going to be the coaches club or club prime seats. we are talking maybe 1,000 seats – its not like the entire lower bowl is going to be unsold.
the jets might have to sweat it out to sell some of these, but i think that by the end of the day, the building will be full. the concept of blackouts is a little ridiculous IMO. this is new york city, it aint jacksonville
Big W,
There is a way to transfer upper-deck seats, but the Jets people don’t tell you if you don’t ask. When you sign up for the PSL process, you have a one-time chance to transfer the title for your seats to someone. In my family’s case, my dad transferred the seats into my sister’s name; he still pays for the seats, but when he eventually passes, the seats will stay in the family because they’re officially in her name.
Also, while the upper-deck seats aren’t officially ‘filled’ yet, I can tell you that a lot of the most senior fans have been requesting those seats, and that people lower down on the seniority scale are going to have a very hard time getting upper-deck seats.
I went for a tour of the stadium (under premise of looking at the club seats) and can definitely tell you that the upper deck is already spoken for by the most senior ticket holders (you can’t buy them yet, but they are already spoken for due to the demand)……..Sorry, but there are not 47,000 people willing to pay the $4k-$15k PSLs…….There will be at least 15,000 prime seat licenses that will not be sold…….Just look at the Mets/Yankees and they can’t sell the high cost seats and they are both in NYC……Jets are less popular and are in NJ……
My tickets are on the absolute edge of what is becoming the Coach’s Club. The Jets rep called my dad and tried to get us to put in a bid for our seats by claiming that the bidding started at 5k/seat PSL, which we could probably afford given the financing and everything, but he had to decline because of the absurdity of the 700 dollars per game. Imagine having to pay $2,800 to go to a game in the last week of the preseason… The Jets rep told us they couldn’t do anything about the price of the tickets because it was an agreement made with the Giants. I’m not a lawyer, but that sounds an awful lot like collusion to me…
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Has anyone been inside the new stadium? Wondering what the views were like..esp from the 4000 mezz seats. The JETS say the upper level is twice as high as in the old stadium..anyone?
sec,
The new stadium is still being built, so I doubt it.
I waited 10 years to bet my season tickets last year, and there is no way I’m paying for a PSL. Not because I CANNOT afford it, but because it is a bad investment. As with the anecdote that began this post, I have a friend who is a Giants fan who joined the Giants waitlist 3-4 years ago and was extended the same offer for PSLs. Now the Giants waitlist is @130,000 deep. If the Giants, who won the Super Bowl a little over one year ago, have to dig this deep, the Jets don’t have a chance. I am unwilling to take the risk that if I want to give up my seats in 2 or 3 years I will find my PSLs worthless. I’ll just watch on TV if I have to.
Our office is being pressured constantly on the PSL seats, if we went for the same seats as our season tickets it would be $80,000 for the psl plus 28,000 a years….did you know if you do the 15 year plan it’s 8% interest…3 months ago I was told if we did not get them they would not be around, I think the sales are even worse than they are saying, because as of yesterday- lots of psl available.