all of you arguing with steve are missing the point. he’s not saying that all rich people can’t be diehard fans, he’s just stating that theres a percentage of them, a rather large percentage, that aren’t diehard fans. And when you compare that with the family that has to scrape up the cash to go to the game you realize that that percentage of lets say “casual” fans don’t exist in the family. If they were “casual” fans they would more likely watch it on tv rather then risk a possible financial burden

It seems as though you are making an assumption that people with money can’t be “real fans.”

I went to the Aaron Boone game when I was making no money, thanks to the fact that I got access to corporate tickets. It did not make me less of a true fan.

i remember sitting in very good seats at the 98 WS game 1. it was the first inning and Wells had two strikes on the hitter. i stood to clap. someone behind me (an older gent wearing nice clothes) told me to sit down. i told him it’s the World Series! (of course, most of the stadium was already standing too.) i think i stood anyway for that ab, but then sat for the rest.

it’s true that JUST BECAUSE a fan is rich doesn’t mean he’s not diehard, and vice versa, but it certainly does SEEM that way. how often do suits sitting in box seats stand up and cheer vs. the Yankee apparelled upper deck guys? is it just a coincidence that whenever i watch a game on TV, the fans in the seats closest to homeplate are always the last to stand and cheer (on 2 strikes)? and not just in the Bronx but every ballpark. does anyone really think the box seats crowd are as ‘diehard’ as the bleacher creatures?

I think most people will still be able to go, just not as often. I just commented in your last post about ticket price increases and I’m still hoping to get seats at the new stadium. Will I be able to afford a season plan? Will I only be able to go to a few games? It’s scary. I know the team needs to do what it can to make as much money as it can. That doesn’t mean I’m not scared that what I look forward to every year will change to me sitting at a bar or my couch instead of at the game.

I also agree with brockdc, since I have noticed the new types of people that attend games.

Steve’s last comment just shows it’s going to happen everywhere. Great…

~~~Has the atmosphere at Fenway park changed the last few years with fake red sox fans?~~~

From http://www.tarves.net/2007/10/17/dear-red-sox-managementyou-suck

“Well, looks like we have ourselves a juxtaposition. Either a disproportionate amount of Red Sox fans made up the increasing population in New England, or we have ourselves a bit of a bandwagon-jumping problem. In all seriousness though, this is what’s happening. There’s been an explosion of what the Sports Guy calls the pink hat crowd. Not to offend anyone with a pink Sox hat, but this term refers to the increasing number of “fans” who don’t know anything about A) baseball, B) the Red Sox, C) not acting like douchebags when they sit where the cameras can see them.

With the recent revitalization of Yawkey Way/Landsdowne Street thanks to the new ownership, Fenway Park has become the place to be in Boston. Every game is like Mardi Gras crossed with a trendy L.A. hotspot. It’s fun, and it’s where anyone who’s anyone should be. Case in point, Dane F’n Cook. Let’s ignore the fact that you’re the single biggest no-talent ass clown that’s ever walked the face of the earth. Stop shamelessly self-promoting yourself as a Red Sox. You’re like the new Ben Affleck. Growing up in Arlington, you’d think it’s reasonable for Dane to be a Sox fan. But he admittedly didn’t start following the Red Sox “until a few years ago.” Now, the media treats him like the go-to Sox guy. Ugh.”

I’m going to go for a dirty low shot.

The red sox have the highest ticket prices in all of baseball (to go with such low seating capacity), does this mean that only rich red sox fans or non diehard fans go to the game?

Has the atmosphere at Fenway park changed the last few years with fake red sox fans?

Is fenway park full of only wealthy phoney fans?

I think one would be very hardpressed to make that argument.

I have never understood how A-Rod is more artificial than virtually any other similarly high priced player on the Yankees, e.g., it’s not like Jeter ever shows his humanity in an interview, but if baseball teams are supposed to be a public trust, then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be concerned about the way rising prices are shutting out people with either lower incomes or lower net worths.

Perhaps a portion of the bleachers should be set aside as a price fixed area to target that group.

“There will be a change in the atmosphere at the new Stadium…going to a Yankees game, after 2008, will have an artificial feel to it.”

I think the transformation is already well underway, Steve. Over the past ten years, The Stadium has been subjugated by the pink hat and count the rings Blackberry crowd, many of whom attend Yankee games because it’s the hottest ticket in town – not because they live and die with the outcome of every game, like most of us here do. In other news, the ratio of designer suits to families has skyrocketed over the past ten years.

I’m not writing this as an indictment of the rich, but it’s a fact that if you ONLY follow the laws of unfettered free market supply and demand that a segment of the population is ultimately going to get crunched.

Fair point – I suppose someone can be rich and be a diehard fan.

But, I think the diehard fan is a subset of the rich set..so, it’s not like all the rich people there will be diehard fans.

Whereas, with the “poor” folks – they’re only going to go because they’re diehards..make sense?

Sonny beat me to it. I was going to write the same thing. Your level of wealth does not indicate how much of a fan you are — and many people do not maintain the same level of income their entire lives; people who were poor growing up are millionaires as adults.

And how do you define “rich” and “not rich”? Is an upper-middle-class family who goes out for one night to the Stadium and gets good seats “rich”?

I worry a bit — as I said in the previous post — that normal folks will be priced out, but I don’t think the worry is about the atmosphere of the Stadium.

Your level of wealth — be it high or low — never fully indicates anything about your personality or preferences. That’s the height of stereotyping. And I really never think we’ll reach a point where the entire Stadium goes company-season-tickets.