The ideal place to get tickets, of course, is from the team’s box office or Ticketmaster as soon as they go on sale (this year, it was January 31 for the Yankees and March 11 for the Mets). But good seats at Yankee Stadium almost always sell out quickly, and the Mets’ resurgence has made Shea a tougher ticket than it used to be. In a crowded stadium, getting a nosebleed seat and sneaking into the lower deck is easy only during a blowout or bad weather, so the best alternative is StubHub.com, a ticket-resale site recently purchased by eBay. Sellers name the price, but buyers can determine if it’s fair by scanning the price tags for comparable seats nearby. Buying from a scalper after the game has started might be the cheapest ticket around—but what StubHub lacks in shady sidewalk negotiations it makes up for by guaranteeing the authenticity of everything it sells. The company will send you comparable tickets if the ones it sells you turn out to be fake, which is rare. And if you’re stranded at the stadium with counterfeits, a rep will try to meet you with real ones in hand.
StubHubbing is completely legal. Reselling tickets, at any price, is okay in New York State so long as it doesn’t physically take place within 1,500 feet of a venue. And if there isn’t time to FedEx the tickets, you can pick them up from its Last Minute Service Center on 40th Street. If you squint, it looks like the shabby apartment of a small-time hustler whom you artfully badgered into a great deal.
StubHub.com
104 E. 40th St., nr. Park Ave., Ste. 707; 866-788-2482