Take me out — to the bank!
Most families need a second mortgage to root, root, root for the home team these days, as the cost of tickets, parking and concessions soar at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, according to an analysis by The Post..
A family of four can easily spend $523 to see the Mets, and blow a whopping $860 for a day with the Bronx Bombers, The Post found.
“Want to buy my kidney?” said Jessica Walters, 47, whose family dropped $84 on ice cream, burgers and fries just for their children during a recent Mets game against the Pirates. “It feels like I need to sell it after buying everything here for us and the kids.”
College professor Amy Cianci, watching the Yankees clobber the Marlins last month with her twin 9-year-old sons and husband, lamented, “They’re pricing out families — it’s pretty much a privilege to go to a game these days,”
The Ciancis used to drive into the city for at least a half-dozen games a season, the mother said.
But with offsite parking nearly doubling to $50 and beer prices creeping up to about $16 a can, they hadn’t been to a game in two years.
“Between parking, tickets and food, it’s $400 a game easily, if not more,” she said. “In this economy, you can’t afford that.”
Yankee fans’ wallets have suffered a squeeze play amid soaring inflation, with the total cost of attending a game jumping nearly 11% between 2021 and 2023, according to an study by industry group Team Marketing Report.
The Amazins’ die-hards, meanwhile, have had to stomach a roughly 4% increase in game day costs over the same period.
“The one thing about baseball that was nice was it was affordable for a family, but for these prices, we wouldn’t go too often in a season,” said Bayside dad Keith Grande, 51, who dropped around $450 for his family of three, including his 9-year-old daughter, Iris, to see the Yankees play.
“My daughter likes baseball, softball, so I like to do this for her.”
In addition to $47 third-party parking, tickets for a terrace-level seat behind home plate — one level down from the nosebleeds — run a jaw-dropping $147 per ticket. Citi Field is a relative bargain, at $59 for an equivalent upper-level ticket.
And once inside, concessions are anything but peanuts.
At Citi Field, attendees blew $20.50 for a Shake Shack burger and fries, up 25% from six years ago, before shelling out another $16 for beer.
Up in the Bronx, fans are paying $18 for a similar combo, plus $15 for a tallboy Bud Light.
And for those with fancier tastes, Mets fans can shell out $40 for a lobster-and-filet mignon sandwich from Pat LaFrieda, washed with a $59 “souvenir carafe” of wine or $26.55 for a blueberry vodka “Metstropolitan” cocktail.
“They’re going to price out the casual fan and it’s going to destroy the future of baseball,” said Flushing lawyer Peter Carrozzo, 52, who noted Citi Field feels these days more like a scene-y club than a baseball diamond.
“There’s no way in hell my dad would be caught dead at a baseball game now,” he added.
The Mets have offered some reprieves to fans’ wallets, like $1 hot dog night. During the one-night promo, Citi Field ended up selling a record-breaking 44,269 dogs, according to Mets spokesman Ethan Wilson.
They’ve also introduced the “Keepin’ It 100” package, which is available for 50 of the team’s 80 home games and gives families four tickets, hot dogs, pretzels and drinks for $100.
Last year, Yankee Stadium had an average attendance of 40,862 fans, while Citi Field held an average 32,994 people per game, according to Baseball Almanac.
Rather than blow an entire paycheck on food and alcohol at the game, fans are covering their bases by scoring cheaper alternatives before entering the stadium.
Prior to the Yankees-Marlins face-off, Joe Bergamaschi, 31, and his friends traveled all the way from his home in Bensonhurst to Yonkers Brewery, a pub about 8 miles away from the stadium where $20 got them each a draft beer, wings and a train ticket to watch the Yankees play.
“We’re doing a lot better than everybody else here,” Bergamaschi bragged. “My soul doesn’t let me pay $60 for three beers.”
Wilson insisted the Mets also have offered packages to make games affordable for families and noted $13 tickets are often available for nosebleed seats at Citi Field. Jason Zillo, a Yankees spokesman, declined to comment.
