Sports Biz

Published: Monday, 31 Aug 2009 | 9:27 AM ET

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Yankee Stadium

Those expecting to hear of a price gouge for Yankees postseason tickets might be surprised.

It's not coming.

CNBC has seen the final face value prices that the Yankees submitted to Major League Baseball and increases will be much smaller than the jump season ticket holders saw for home games played at the old Yankee Stadium in the 2007 postseason, the last time the Yankees were in the playoffs. In fact, some 2009 postseason seats will cost LESS than this year's regular season prices.

Ticket prices in the new Yankee Stadium are especially complex to decode since premium ticket holders -- those in three suite areas -- already paid for their suite licensing fees, which makes up the bulk of the per game ticket price.

That's one of the reasons why ticket holders in most premium areas see a face value on their tickets of less than 20 percent of the price they eventually pay. The rest of the price is then made up of these fees that are paid ahead of time.

For example, those who sit in the first rows behind home plate, pay $2,500 a seat, but the face value of the tickets -- and thus the price paid on a per game basis -- is $325.

For the ALDS, the Yankees are expected to announce that the top per game price will be $275, $50 less than what those sitting in the best seats pay for each regular season game.

Those season ticket holders sitting in non-premium seats will pay the same per-game price as they are paying for the regular season for their ALDS seats, with the exception of one section of seats.

Compare that to the increases on the 2007 postseason face value of tickets, which roughly ranged from 30 percent to 130 percent above the regular season price for the ALDS, the only series the Yankees played that year after being bested by the Cleveland Indians.

Fans will see bigger jumps in price from the ALDS to the ALCS, should the Yankees advance, but the increases -- which start at 27 percent over the ALDS prices -- is nothing out of the ordinary.

In fact, the only price on the final Yankees price list obtained by CNBC that might be subject to the New York press ridicule is the $50 price on bleacher seats for the World Series.

The face value for those seats, before the MLB "facility fee" is tacked on, is $5 for the ALDS and $10 for the ALCS.

Sources told CNBC that the Yankees were not for the 250 percent jump -- and didn't even want to go above $25 a seat -- but the team had to abide by MLB's rule which stipulates that the minimum face value on World Series tickets can be no less than $50.

Non-season ticket holders won't have much of a chance at getting playoff tickets, since the Yankees have sold the majority of the new stadium on a season ticket basis and Major League Baseball is expected to ask for another 10 to 15 percent of the seats for executives, sponsors and media partners.

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