Hundreds of Yankees fans who bought tickets to yesterday's season opener on StubHub "were forced to walk seven-tenths of a mile south from Yankee Stadium to a StubHub outlet to pick up real tickets" as the team's ban on ticket print-outs went into effect, according to Nate Schweber of the N.Y. TIMES. Yankees fan George Magnello said, "This is ridiculous, insane -- how about just printing it out like you were able to do forever?" The Yankees have indicated that paper tickets "had led to issues of fraud." However, Schweber reports that claim "has been met with skepticism," as the team in the past "has had periodic battles with StubHub over the sale of Yankees tickets on the secondary market." Many people believe the paper-ticket ban "seemed like an effort to impede StubHub and benefit Ticketmaster, which runs the Yankees Ticket Exchange ... and has access to the mobile phone ticket codes" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/6).
TURTLE VISION: ESPN N.Y.'s Andrew Marchand noted two fans dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles yesterday "sat directly behind home plate" for Astros-Yankees in "clear view on the national broadcast on ESPN and the local one on YES." The two men "won a contest" from John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" in which "fans were asked to use the Twitter hashtag #IHaveNeverSatInAPremiumLocation." In the contest, fans tweeted "pictures of the 'riffraff' attire they would wear in the premium seats." Yankees President Randy Levine on Monday said, "Everyone is welcome at Yankee Stadium. And I thank John Oliver for buying Yankees tickets" (ESPNNY.com, 4/5). NBC's Matt Lauer noted the seats behind home plate "normally cost $1,500," but they "went for a bargain -- $0.25" -- due to Oliver's promotion (“Today,” NBC, 4/6). CBS’ Gayle King said Oliver “took issue with the new ticket policy.” CBS’ Norah O’Donnell said Oliver “got a lot of attention” for his rant on the Yankees (“CBS This Morning,” 4/6). ABC’s Amy Robach: “Apparently premium ticket holders don't like it when someone buys a seat nearby for less money. ... I'm guessing they really don't like it when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show up” (“GMA,” ABC, 4/6).
HEROES IN A HALF SHELL: John Welch, one of the Ninja Turtles, gave a first-person account of his experience to NEWSDAY's Jim Baumbach, saying that he found out he won the HBO contest around 11:30am ET yesterday. Welch: "Walking toward the Stadium we got the reactions I expected. People yelled our character’s names -- Donatello and Michaelangelo -- and then even more questions from people if we were from comedian John Oliver’s contest. I guess word got around. When we got to the doors, the employees definitely seemed caught off guard seeing us in costume. Mostly they laughed. One guy said, 'Good luck.' At that point I admit I became a little anxious about how people may react knowing we paid a quarter for seats worth, what, maybe a thousand dollars." He added, "The fans in those seats get a bad rap from the Lonn Trost comments in the HBO piece. They were in no way snobs. In many ways they were no different than the people I’m used to sitting next to" (NEWSDAY, 4/6).
