A Story the New York Giants Don’t Want You to Hear

by Scott Weiss

Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the Giants moving into their new stadium and New York/New Jersey securing the 2014 Super Bowl are stories like this that the Giants don’t want you to hear. Several months back, I had the opportunity to speak to a life long Giants season ticket holder who represented the many disgruntled diehards of Big Blue.

Jim shared with me that his family has had 6 season tickets (originally purchased by his father) since 1956. He remembers going to see the Giants play the Jaycee Classic at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey when he was 7 years old. In the old stadium, their 6 seats were on the 30 yard line, 16 rows up behind the Giants bench. In the year 2000, the seats cost $45 a piece, last year they cost $100 a piece, and hold on to your hat, in the new stadium the Giants are asking $700 a piece. Not only that, but they are also asking for $20,000 per seat for the seat license fee. Needless to say, Jim and his family have been forced to give up all 6 seats because of the exorbitant cost. Instead, the family has decided to go for 6 seats in the upper deck ($1000 seat license fee and $95 per ticket each). The family was required to put 20% down in August 2008, another 40% down in August 2009, and the remaining 40% balance in March 2010 toward the seat license fee. He said that the Giants were not even releasing the seat location until early in 2010. Jim said that he was unsure if the family would even accept the tickets at the end of the day. Meanwhile, the Giants got to hold onto to their money for a year and a half.

So, when Giants fans should be celebrating their team’s move to a new stadium, most are nursing their wounds from being fleeced by their greedy ownership. Maybe I missed something, but when did attending a professional sporting event become the privilege of a select few? It’s time for fans to gain some respect from the sports establishment, and SFC can take us there.

Scott Weiss is the Local Chapter Chair for SFC-New York/New Jersey. He has been involved in the sports fans advocacy movement since 2000. He is a life long fan of the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Rangers.

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