The New Yankee Stadium Has A Hard Rock Café But No Middle Relief.

From the New York Times:

The Yankees cut by up to 50 percent the price of the $2,500-a-game Legends Suite seats for full season-ticket holders at their new stadium on Tuesday. They also announced that holders of the ticket plans behind home plate would be given an equal number of tickets free.

The price changes, announced in a statement by Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner of the Yankees, amounted to a major shift in strategy for a team that is charging the most of any team in baseball for seats in its $1.5 billion stadium. But the highest priced tickets have been among the toughest for the team to sell, and those unsold or unused Legends tickets have formed empty swaths of blue seats that have been painfully visible on television.

The moves by Steinbrenner amount to changing the prices on just a few hundred seats and follow up on his recent comments that some prices were too high.

“A few weeks ago I indicated that in light of the economy we would review the pricing of a small number of our premium locations at Yankee Stadium,” he said. He added that the team had sold 85 percent of its 4,000-plus premium seats.

Yeah, the Yankees planned this Disneyfied version of the real Yankee Stadium and set their pricing prior to the economy tanking. But gaudy greed is obnoxious in good times, too.

Hey, who wants to sit next to Rudy Giuliani, anyway?

It's a brand-new era, and the Yankees don't play at Yankee Stadium anymore. And I'm rooting for the Dodgers.

Is That The Matterhorn Next To Monument Park?

     Joel Sherman in--of all places--the New York Post, on the new Disneyfied Yankee Stadium:

     The Yanks also want to make you believe that the history and romance could be easily shipped from the old place to the new one simply by recreating dimensions, reconstructing the facade or replanting Monument Park. However, the new Stadium didn't make me think of the place just across the street. It made me think about Vegas or Disney World, since it made me think of a fake place designed to manipulate my emotions and get into my wallet.

     "We don't see it as ostentatious or flashy,"Hal Steinbrenner said. "We see it as classy."

     For me, class is out. In truth, sadly, the Yanks have conjured up a building that defines them: cold, corporate, over-privileged. At a financially distressed time in which Bud Selig has appealed to teams and players to be more fan friendly than ever, the Yanks have constructed even more of a moat between their players and those paying for all the goodies.

     For example, Yankee executives see it as a positive that the players now have underground parking rather than in the old place, where they had to walk 50 feet outdoors from the parking lot to the Stadium. In those 50 feet, fans held back by barricades could scream to their favorite players and -- if one of those players indulged -- get an autograph or two.

     Now the interaction between fans and players, and media and players, will be less than ever. I know no one sheds a tear for the media, but I think the new clubhouse, overstocked with off-limits areas and clandestine exits, only leads to a group that will feel less accountability. And an over-privileged nature and lack of accountability have hurt recent editions of the Yankees.

     "We are not a regular team," Brian Bruney said. "We are the New York Yankees, and it has to be nicer."

     Nice is in the eye of the beholder, and if you work for one of those few places left where the corporate card is still set on unlimited, then the new Yankee Stadium is for you. For many others, this place will have all the charm of Bernie Madoff.

     More pine tar, Jeeves.

Birds Of A Feather Tarred Together.

Maul Street & The Off-Shore Whores.

Grounded.

From ABC News: 

The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.

The decision came 24 hours after the banking giant, which was rescued by a $45 billion taxpayer lifeline, defended buying the state-of-the-art Dassault Falcon 7X -- one of nine to be flying in U.S. skies -- as a smart business deal.

The jet, the epitome of corporate prestige and privilege, can carry 12 passengers in elegant comfort.

ABC News has learned that on Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company's new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to "fix it."

Message received.