Time for Translation
Woody Johnson was on WFAN’s Boomer & Carton show, and Bob Glauber has a good recap of the discussion, most interesting to me is the sales process for the PSLs for the new stadium.
Since I didn’t hear the interviw firsthand, I can’t tell from this text is what exactly is being conveyed by Woody (bolded), read it and read my thoughts below.
On the status of Personal Seat License (PSL) sales for the new Jets/Giants stadium set to come online in 2010: “PSLs are going great. We would like to sell faster but we also have non-PSL seats and are we are about 50/50 each way. The most expensive ticket is $25,000. Those are close to the 50 yard line and they’re hard to come by and those have sold really well. Season tickets are selling really well; we go by seniority so right now we are up to [the] 1985 [season]. We did that yesterday and we had a good day.
I can’t tell … so for those who heard it, lend a hand. Does he mean 50% and 50% of the seats are sold or that there is a 50% to 50% ratio of non-PSL seats to PSL seats? Does he mean something else altogether? Help!
30 Responses to Time for Translation
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wayne80 says:
what he means is that they are evenly selling psl’s and non psl’s – but that is misleading since there are only about 20,000 non psl and 50,000 psl – so if they sell one for one, the non psl’s are obviously selling out faster. that was the explanation that my ticket rep gave me – i don’t know why this thievery is not more of an issue on this site and in NY in general. it is absolute highway robbery
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Jets-Fan-4-Life says:
This was the same interview Boomer did with Woody the other night on the Boomer E. Show. Funny how the same show had Chad P. on it too.
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SackDance99 says:
Yeah, basically, if you got your seats in the 90s (like I did) and are in the upper level (like I am), by the time they get to your year, all of the non-PSL seats will be gone (I heard there are 25,000 non-PSL seats; does anyone have the correct number?).
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Lonnie G says:
I believe there are 27,000 seats in the upper section(non-PSL seats). I had seats in the upper section since 2002. A team rep called me and said there are 18,000 accounts ahead of me on the list, so me getting non-PSL seats is highly unlikely. With an average of 3 seats per account there is over 50,000 seats ahead of me on the seniority list. I can afford PSLs, but I choose not too. So I will be giving up my seats. I would have assumed the non-PSL seats were long gone already.
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Cabras says:
After watching the Giants go through 140,000 person wait list, plus their 78,000 season ticket holders (3 tickets per holder) 25,000 people which makes a 165,000 person list , I believe that the Jets had to offer 27,000 seats without PSL’s or they would not have a chance to sell out the PSL’s.
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T-Money says:
The current round of PSL selling covers the non-club PSL seats as well as the non-PSL seats. So yeah, I think he’s saying that right now, the 2 types of seats currently being offered are selling equally. Whether that means number of physical seats sold, % of seats sold, or generally what each account holder chooses, is unclear. He’s also probably generalizing and sugar coating it a bit.
When my family’s account (seniority from 1984) got to choose seats about a week and a half ago, really good PSL seats were available, as were good non-PSL seats. I believe you could get upper level seats not too many rows back (10?) without having to sit all the way in the corner. So as of now, plenty of non-PSL seats are out there. No way to know how fast they will go as every season ticket holder wants different things – some are very happy to be able to get great seats for the future, even if it costs them a few thousand up front, especially when some lower level ticket prices aren’t much more than upper level ticket prices. The ticket reps are happy to discuss with you in advance what to expect by the time they get to you, and it seems like they’re being overly cautious in their estimating, too, so all hope is not yet lost.
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tmoney – ive had seinoirty since 81 and the best offer i had was 10 yd line and 10th row …have you gotten better
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Dregtoh says:
My family was in section 109, with max seniority (30+ years),and got called on the third day. By that time, all of the best non-PSL seats (first few rows of the centermost sections of the upper deck) were unavailable, in large part because those seats are apparently being reserved for VIPs and the league.
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I agree with T-money. Woody has got to be sugar coating this. There is no way the sales are going as well as they planned.
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Dregtoh:
It sounds like they are screwing the fans once again by reserving the Non PSL seats for VIP & the League! Or they are trying to force the fans to buy the PSL’s.
Looks like I’m going to upgrade my TV this year because I do not think I will be sitting in the stadium any longer.
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wayne80: I’m not the one who owns the account, so I don’t know exactly as I was not on the phone call. But I believe we were able to get tickets in the upper deck along the sideline, somewhere in a decent row. Maybe 12th? 15th? I really don’t know for sure, but they were seats that were in the front-to-middle, row wise – for sure not all the way back but obviously not in the first 10 rows either – and they may have been towards the corner but not past it. Also, we only wanted 2 seats together there, and I’m sure the number of seats you want together affects what you can choose from.
Whatever it is, it seems like the upper level is far from sold out, though obviously they’ve just barely started to get through the season ticket account list for this round, and obviously the first few rows and the center sections were going to go fast, reserved or not. (Though I’m surprised if they’re actually saving VIP seats in the upper level…what VIP is going to want to come to games if they are put all the way up there?) I think people are being overly pessimistic without having even been called yet, though to be fair, I have access to an account with excellent seniority so I’m in good shape. Not everyone will get the exact seats they want, but you’re competing with tens of thousands of other accounts. I would guess that any account holder who is willing to consider more than 1 kind of seat location should be able to purchase some seats.
I really wonder, if the Jets offered only PSL seats in the new stadium, would all those who are saying they are unwilling to purchase anything but non-PSL seats be saying the same thing? Or would they instead be saying, well, I’m only willing to purchase the $4000 or $5000 PSL seats? There are always going to be those who flat out refuse to pay the PSL, but I bet that for some people, it’s just the idea that they may not be able to get the absolute cheapest tickets that they are against.
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Harvlis says:
I have been a Jet fan since inception but, I hope they choke on their PSL’s. I used to attend games but, I cannot go along with the costs involved. People who pay all of their ridiculous fees are prolonging the stupidity. The same thing is going on with the Mets and the Yankees. Stop supporting these escallating prices. Sports is for the “everyman” not the rich. Let them sit with empty stadiums, if they want to rip us off.
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Harvlis,
As a former ticket holder (gave up my tkts this season) since 1966 I could not agree more. PSL’s are more one sided than an NFL contract!!
Wait until they raise the ticket prices and as a PSL owner you MUST buy the tickets, how does $1000 per game for 4 tickets sound? Get used to it. Oh, i forgot the must buy parking fees! -
The Ed(itor) says:
There are 82,500 seats in the new stadium of which 27,000 are non psl in upper deck. This means there are 55,500 PSL seats.
My take on Woody’s comments, which I heard live, is that they have sold 50% of PSL seats and 50% of non PSL seats. This equates into:
50% of 27,000 = 13,500
50% of 55,500 = 27,750
or 41,250 of seats in stadium.My overall outllok is that they probably will sell out of non psl seats but there will be at least 10,000 psl seats that won’t be sold.
It looks like blackout time for JETS home games in 2010. -
However you look at it, the JETS are in trouble. They predicted that the upper deck non psl seats would be sold out by season ticket year 1978. They are at 1985 and only 1/2 of tickets have been sold. THERE IS TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY!!!
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You will be able to go to any game you want without buying seasons or a psl, and probably pay less than face. Love the internet
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there going to have a very very hard time scalping tickets, whose face value is no lower than $125. what happens if a psl owner cant go to a game? hes going to try and scalp $500 face value tickets? try finding somebody in the parking lot walking around with $500 in cash! good luck!
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The funny thing is that they still do not have a sponsor for the stadium! Talk about a bad deal, between Xanadu, and the new stadium, It will always be a swamp!
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You guys bring up a good point of people selling their tickets for less than face value. I never thought of it like that. Do you really think this is likely to happen, where there will be tickets available on online ticket sites for less than face?
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The stadium still doesn’t open until 2010. The Jets have nearly 20,000 folks on the waiting list. I expect that by the time the Jets get to me (1992 seniority), all but endzone upper level seats in the nosebleed rows will be available. Those tickets will be snapped up by folks on the waiting list, if they aren’t taken by current ticket holders. As for the PSL seats, I suspect that the Club seats in the corners and the PSL endzone seats will not all sell out to current season ticket owners as well as some of the most expensive Club seats. But, after they’re offered to the folks on the waiting list, then put out to the public (and ticket brokers), I don’t expect there to be any available seats by August 2010, especially if the Jets do well and Sanchez excites the fan base.
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BubbyBrister/shovelpass says:
Don’t worry Sack, there’s always Bob Wischusen…;-)
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Jeff says:
Damn, I want to go to a game.
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Of course the operative word here is if the “JETS do well.” With 39 years of mediocity since their only Super Bowl victory, the odds are they will continue with their mediocity. So there should be plenty of tickets available in 2010 at a discount.
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Formerly Section 108 says:
My Dad’s had three seats since ’65. I first started going to games in ’79 when I was 8 years old. First it was me, Dad and Gramps. Then me, Dad and Uncle. Then me, Dad and younger Brother. Then me, Dad and random friends/family members/whoever. Being from Jersey, we were ecstatic when the Jets moved to the Meadowlands. We’d get to the games early, tailgate, toss the football around — and win or lose, it was a good time that definitely brought my Dad and I closer together… But that time has come to an end. Not for my Dad and I — we’ll still get together every Sunday to watch the Jets on TV, but it’ll feel like an away game. But what choice do I have? I flat out refuse to pay a PSL which is simply extortion (our current seats would be $15,000 per) and the thought of having to move from the lower tier to the upper deck while paying twice as much per seat just doesn’t sound too appealing. So when the nice man called to talk to me about seat selection in the new stadium, I politely told him I wasn’t interested. In fact, the whole idea left such a bad taste in my mouth I didn’t even renew my tickets for this year. So to whoever gets to sit in section 108, row 37, seats 19,20,21 enjoy… Thanks Woody for turning every game into a HOME game. J-E-T-$
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rudy says:
The travesty of the PSL’s is that the media is keeping mum.
Sports writers from all of the major tri-state newspapers receive free admission so for them it isn’t a big deal.
The fact that so many NY’s have had to put up with this BS for so many years is ridiculous.
Driving from LI and playing 2nd fiddle to the Giants since the Jets have been tenants of theirs is a truly sad commentary.
What is even worse is that the idiot Woody was willing and ready to sell out all Jet fans if he got his wish to build his stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. Sadly Woody is a terrible owner and should have built a stadium in Queens NY when he had the chance to share a stadium with the Mets several years ago.
I have been going to the games for years and sadly only had the tickets transferred to my name in 1993. I will more than likely give up the chance to attend the 2010 season and refuse to pay PSL fees to help the Tisch, Mara and Johnson billionaire families build there new stadium with little of their own money.
It’s too bad that NY doesn’t apply for a NFL football franchise for I assuer you that as much as I have loved the NY Jets I would be the first one on line to buy season tickets for a NY football team that played on NY ferma tera.
Oh how I would love to see the look of the idiot Johnson when and if NY should be granted another football franchise.
It is sad that the NY football teams play in NJ and are the only football teams to share the same stadium and the fans get wacked twice by the greedy bastard owners who don’t give a rats ass about fan loyalty.
I hope that Woody’s investment goes downhill and that J & J starts losing some real money. The best thing that could happen to NY’ers who love football is to have a new team to root for.
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James in TN says:
I agree Woody is a money hungry @#$%, but I just can’t pull for another team. When we got the Titans here in TN, everyone was leaving the teams they rooted for to cheer them on. I am a Jets fan and will always be one. I am not however a fan of Woody, so I don’t buy Johnson and Johnson products.
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kane says:
Here is a link to the Boomer Esiason Show
http://video.msg.com/Videos/MSG-Networks/OCdgxpF6ffOchT72p6vbAKPnBX3VtL8u
Concerning tickets my friend had tickets on the 40 yard line 8 rows up, the Jets called him and offered him tickets on the 10 yard line all the way up on top. Well this will be his last year going to games.
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miketaliaferro says:
It means those 50-yard line tkts are going like hotcakes.
Those on the 49-yard lines (and beyond), uhhhh, not so well.
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BigFan says:
If the Yankees can’t sell out their tickets, there is no way that the Jets will – sorry. Mr. Johnson is fabricating, as any business man would in his situation. My guess is that they will not sell, and prices will come down.
One factor that I think they totally overlooked is that there will be A LOT of turnover with season tickets from this point forward. In the past, with tickets priced reasonably, an average fan could afford the tickets, and loyally supported their team for decades. Now, you are going to get mostly fair-weather fans that, after a few years, will realize that the novelty is wearing off and will soon elect to dump the tix for because of the large fee. When this happens, the secondary market for these PSL will be much lower than what the Jets want right now.
In summary, be patient.
PSL= Personal Sucker License. Woody has you by the balls!